GCSF 2025: STAR-Ghana Foundation urges rethinking development paradigms, inclusive financing

The Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, Dr. Ibrahim-Tanko Amadu, has called for urgent conversations on the future of development financing in Ghana.

He urged civil society actors to reflect on the structural, financial, and governance barriers limiting inclusive and sustainable development.

Dr. Amadu emphasised the dire economic conditions facing the country, including heavy debt burden and shrinking aid inflows, which were threatening not only national development but also the sustainability and independence of the civil society sector.

“... the shrinking of this aid has very serious implications not just for financing, but even for the sustainability of the sector and the role that civil society can play in fostering good governance and inclusive development”, he explained.

Dr. Amadu made the call at the opening of a two-day 2025 Ghana Civil Society Forum (GSCF) organized by the STAR-Ghana Foundation in Accra. It was organised in partnership with Transparency International, WACSI, and Oxfam on the theme: “Reimagining Development Financing – Challenges, Opportunities and the Way Forward”.

Dr. Amadu expressed concern that the limited capacities of the civil society sector to complement government and other stakeholders coupled with their weak financing capacity had shaped the sector by donor priorities.

He also mentioned the rise of new, unconventional forms of youth-led organizing that challenge traditional civil society structures, which he said must be acknowledged and actively integrated into broader development conversations.

The STAR-Ghana Foundation’s Executive Director explained that the theme of this year’s Forum was framed to transcend CSO funding needs to interrogate deeper governance and equity questions.

On his part, the Chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, has urged CSOs in Ghana to demonstrate credibility, modesty in leadership, and measurable impact to attract local support.

He said members of the public would only support CSOs’ operations if they believed their money would be channelled for the intended purposes.

“The biggest challenge in this regard is not only how efficient and effective CSOs will be in mobilizing additional resources, primarily locally, but how efficiently they will deploy those resources once they have mobilized them” " he explained.

Dr. Thompson cited data indicating that only two per cent of global development aid reached organizations directly in the Global South, describing that as a “structural inequity in resource allocation” that limited the potential of locally-led efforts to drive sustainable development.

He, therefore, proposed a "productivity revolution" in CSOs, advocating for the optimal use of financial, human, and material resources to maximize impact and outcomes.

Dr. Thompson also called for greater collaboration and synergy among CSOs to avoid duplication of efforts, minimize waste, and enhance the collective impact of their interventions.

The Civil Society Forum, an annual platform hosted by STAR-Ghana Foundation and its partners, brought together actors from civil society, development partners, and government to reflect on the future of development financing in Ghana.