Oxfam in Ghana: Improved fiscal governance through active citizenship

Overview

In Ghana, citizen engagement is central to improving the government’s transparency and accountability. To get young citizens to engage in influencing policy change, the key to success has been music and culture. Through conversations online and offline, including with Ghanaian musicians and celebrities, youth are informed and encouraged to vote in a government that would work to reduce inequality in the country. Oxfam and partners also work to increase transparency and accountability of both local and national level governance, through the now famous ‘Shama model’ and international influencing using the IMF to voice broad coalition-based recommendations to the governments’ public finance management system. This case study is part of Oxfam’s F.A.I.R.-EIU program Fiscal Justice Track Record, which provides an in-depth update on Oxfam and partners’ fiscal justice and inequality work in selected countries.