Tackling Poverty in Northern Ghana

Twenty years of rapid economic
development in Ghana has done little, if anything, to reduce
the historical North, South divide in standards of living.
While rural development and urbanization have led to
significant poverty reduction in the South, similar dynamics
have been largely absent from Northern Ghana (or
equivalently the North, defined as the sum of the
administrative regions Upper West, Upper East, and the
Northern region), which cover 40 percent of Ghana's
land area. Between 1992 and 2006, the number of the poor
declined by 2.5 million in the South and increased by 0.9
million in the North. In sharp contrast with the South,
there was no significant decline in the proportion of poor
in the population of the North. Ghana's success story
in poverty reduction is the success story of its South.
Finally, North-South migration should not be seen as
detracting from the potential development of Northern Ghana.
North-South migration is potentially a strong instrument for
poverty alleviation. With the right human capital, many
individuals could escape from poverty through migration to
the dynamic South. This phenomenon however, remains marginal
today. By the same token, greater North-South migration will
most likely be a consequence of any development in Northern
Ghana, at least for some decades. Indeed, with greater
economic integration and better public service provision,
the probability that residents of Northern Ghana will
benefit from migration will tremendously increase, thus
their incentive to migrate. Hence, one should not expect
lower migration pressures from the development of Northern
Ghana in the short run. On the contrary, attention should be
paid to the quality of migration, which will entail
strengthening social protection mechanisms to reduce
negative migration, and raising human capital while
increasing the absorptive capacities of cities to encourage
positive migration. This migration to the South will further
benefit the North, since migrants will add to the pool of
remittances sent to Northern Ghana.