ActionAid Ghana Tax Justice & Education Financing Training Held in Accra
ActionAid Ghana (AAG) has held a training programme dubbed Alliance Building Workshop on Tax Justice and Education Financing for about 40 Ghanaian youths drawn from the education sector, media, and CSOs among others to empower them with the requisite skills and knowledge on how to ask relevant questions and hold leaders and managers of state resources accountable for tax-related infractions, educate others on tax as well as seek for tax advocacy, which will help them advocate better austerity measures which help ensure government reduces or avoid overspending spending and public debt and its impact on social service.
The one-day intensive training which took place at the Milkin Hotel in East Legon empowered participants with in-depth knowledge on education financing and related challenges to help participants appreciate the reasons for the low level of basic school financing in Ghana which has left many basic schools in deplorable states across the country.
Key among the issues was the desire of the government to fulfil election promises made to the voting public regarding Free SHS which has led to the overburdening of the state’s scarce resources which have to be channeled into sponsoring Free SHS.
ActionAid Ghana (AAG) a global movement of people working together to further human rights for all has been working to influence education financing and tax policy that transform children’s lives, ensuring that all children have improved access to quality public education.
The problems in financing public education in Ghana have largely been created by competitive demands from various sectors of the economy on limited public resources. Another challenge is the poor financing of public education and the State’s abdication of the responsibility of education financing to private providers.
This has adversely affected access and quality of public basic education over the years. In many aspects of social and economic life in Ghana, there are increasing levels of exclusion, discrimination, and inequalities, which could lead to the destruction of the national fabric, especially at this crucial moment when the nation is facing serious economic turbulence.
Additionally, it is envisaged that the approach by the state to stabilize the economy through an IMF program is likely to affect social sector spending.
AAG has over the years intensified advocacy to increase public resource mobilization and redistribution, progressive taxation and tax expenditure and allocation.
With support from the Hills and Cookes family, AAG brought together tax and education actors to build a common understanding of the links between tax and education. The project also conducted research on tax incentives and education financing and convened new spaces for discussions on the links between tax and the provision of Gender Responsive Public Services (GRPS). Despite these milestones, social sectors including education continue to face numerous challenges.
The problems in financing public education in Ghana have largely been created by competitive demands from various sectors of the economy on limited public resources. Another challenge is the poor financing of public education and the State’s abdication of the responsibility of education financing to private providers. This has adversely affected access and quality of public basic education over the years. In many aspects of social and economic life in Ghana, there are increasing levels of exclusion, discrimination, and inequalities, which could lead to the destruction of the national fabric, especially at this crucial moment when the nation is facing serious economic turbulence. Additionally, we envisage that the approach by the state to stabilize the economy through an IMF program is likely to affect social sector spending.
On this premise, AAG seeks to form an alliance with youth networks in Ghana to galvanize support for an intensified campaign on progressive taxation, increase financial allocation for the social sector, implementation of progressive tax reforms (tax exemption bill), and a call to action to take decisive steps to mitigate the impact of an IMF programme and austerity measures on social sector financing.
The objective of the workshop was to share experiences of work done in education financing and build a network of youth movements for Tax Justice, to create a space for youth advocacy on tax justice, austerity measures, and its impact on social service.
Utilizing participatory learning approaches such as presentations, question-and-answer sessions, and open forums Action Aid trained
- Train participants to understand the tax systems in Ghana and how it operates.
- Helped participants to appreciate the link between tax and public service
- Built the capacity of youth networks on educational sector reforms, and basic education financing.
- Enlightened them on the role of social movements in promoting basic education financing
All the above were carried out with the hope that outputs at the end of the workshop will lead to the following.
- Creation of a platform for youth network advocacy on tax justice and education financing.
- Deepening knowledge of youth movements on education financing
- Deepening knowledge of youth movements on taxation and tax justice
- Developing an action plan on how to advocate for actions to reduce the impact of austerity measures on social spending
- Building consensus on tax reforms policy.
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The ActionAid Ghana Tax Justice & Education Financing Training held in Accra is expected to set the needed foundation for the success of the overall Alliance Building purpose of the programme.
Source: Wisdom HAMMOND, Ghanaeducation.org
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