IMANI Africa founder Franklin Cudjoe has been appointed to Ghana’s Joint National-UN Steering Committee, which will oversee the country’s next development cooperation framework with the United Nations.
The committee, co-chaired by Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson and UN Resident Coordinator Zia Choudhury, brings together government ministries and agencies, UN entities, development partners, the private sector, civil society and minority groups. The UN describes it as the highest joint oversight platform guiding the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), the strategic document through which the UN system aligns its support with Ghana’s national development priorities.
The committee was relaunched this week as Ghana and the UN begin work on the next Cooperation Framework, covering 2027 to 2030, which will involve national consultations, inter-agency coordination and results planning before implementation begins in 2027. Background assessments prepared for the process point to continued gains in macroeconomic stability alongside persistent structural challenges, including limited economic diversification, youth unemployment, governance gaps and climate vulnerability.
Cudjoe founded IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, which describes itself as among the five most influential think tanks in Sub-Saharan Africa and among the world’s top 100. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010 and has previously served on the Finance Ministry’s Foreign Exchange Development Committee.
The appointment comes as Cudjoe has been an increasingly prominent commentator on Ghanaian politics in recent months, including frequent praise for the Mahama government’s fiscal management and public criticism of opposition figures.
