Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, Director of the African Centre for Statistics at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), has said research in Ghana rarely shapes policy because decisions start in party manifestos and revolve around the presidency.
He made the observation at the inaugural edition of the Academic Policy Dialogue Series organised by the Department of Data Science and Economic Policy at the University of Cape Coast (UCC).
Delivering the lecture on the theme “Building Pan-African Statistical System: The Stakes for the Academic and Policy Community,” the former Government Statistician described a tendency for executive hijack of public policy design. He argued that academics who ignore this political reality will keep producing studies that never reach the decision-makers.
Ghana Policymaking Begins With Party Manifestos
Prof. Annim told participants that the window for influencing policy in Ghana opens well before a government takes office and closes quickly after.
“Policies in Ghana, in most of the countries on the continent, start with manifestos. Once you miss the manifesto stage, you are next to zero influencing any policy during the implementation of these policies when the government is in power. Because everything is around the president in terms of decision-making.
Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, Director of the African Centre for Statistics at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
He added that the concentration of decision-making in the executive leaves Parliament, civil society and academia with only a limited role in shaping the direction and consequences of national policy.
Executive Hijack Leaves Research on the Shelf
For Prof. Annim, the quality of a policy idea matters less than whether the political system allows it to work. He said researchers should not be surprised that their findings gather dust when power sits so firmly with the executive.
“So it is not just about what your policy is; it’s about the extent to which your policy will be effective that matters. Because we can do all the research if we have this frame where there’s the tendency for executive hijack of public policy design, then it’s not surprising we see all our research on our shelves”.
Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, Director of the African Centre for Statistics at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
He also pointed to the electoral calendar as a constraint. Governments, he noted, hold power for four years and design their policies around that short horizon, which leaves little room for research that takes years to produce.
He urged academics to recognise that they compete with many other demands on a government’s attention. “They have 1001 policy needs. So why would you think that your research should be on the top?” he asked.
Free SHS and the Sequencing of Policy in Ghana
Prof. Annim revisited his 2017 critique of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy to show how evidence on the order of reforms can be sidelined.
He recalled that when he discussed a submission by the former Vice President that year, he questioned why the government was prioritising free secondary education when the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (fCUBE) programme had not worked well, and pupils faced literacy challenges at the Junior High School (JHS) level.
“My reflection at that time was it would be better to do something at the [JHS] level to strengthen the [fCUBE] that we have as a country and then build on that. That gets us into the realm of sequencing and hierarchies of policy”.
Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, Director of the African Centre for Statistics at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
Universities Urged to Engage Manifesto Committees Collectively
During the open forum, Joseph Jatwat, a participant who previously worked at the Ghana Statistical Service, asked what universities should do about party manifesto committees that draft policies without input from research institutions.
Prof. Annim said manifesto committees remain part of the political landscape and that engaging them forms part of the outreach mandate of universities. He noted that some academics have already moved into government, but said the relationship needs structure.
“We have colleagues who have gone into the government space and we are hoping that that could be a formalized arrangement within a university that has a very long-term thinking to see how we can leverage these connections in a more independent, professional way so that the university collectively can support this process rather than individuals supporting manifestos, supporting government when they are in power and so on and so forth”.
Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, Director of the African Centre for Statistics at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
His proposal would shift universities from informal, partisan involvement by individual lecturers to an institutional role that protects their independence while giving evidence a seat at the table before policies are set. The Department of Data Science and Economic Policy says it will distil the dialogue into a policy brief for policymakers in Ghana and across Africa.
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