A leading Ghanaian policy think tank has called on the government to provide direct public funding for civil society organisations (CSOs), warning that a decade-long decline in foreign donor support is threatening the survival of independent advocacy groups and weakening the country’s governance architecture.
Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) International Accra, through a statement issued by its West Africa Regional Centre Director Appiah Kusi Adomako, said many organisations that have shaped major legislative reforms in Ghana were now struggling to operate as traditional donors redirected their attention to countries facing acute instability, leaving advocacy work in middle-income democracies like Ghana severely underfunded.
“For more than six decades, civil society organisations in Ghana have been largely sustained by foreign donors,” Adomako said. “The result is a funding squeeze that now threatens the very survival of independent CSOs and, by extension, the quality of our public discourse and policy-making process.”
He argued that the consequences of inaction extended well beyond institutional survival. Without reliable domestic funding, CSOs risked either closing down or reorienting their work around the priorities of whoever was willing to pay, whether foreign interests or narrow political actors, creating a vacuum in independent public oversight.
CUTS Accra proposed that the government allocate at least GH¢10 million annually through an independent, transparent funding mechanism to support high-quality research and advocacy in priority sectors including education, healthcare, road safety, governance, climate resilience and consumer protection. The organisation pointed to the STAR Ghana Foundation as an existing, proven model through which such funds could be channelled competitively and with full accountability under public financial management laws.
Adomako also called on the private sector to increase its engagement with civil society, recommending that Ghana revise its tax laws to allow companies and individuals to deduct donations to accredited CSOs from taxable income, a model he said had strengthened civic engagement in other countries.
CUTS Accra is a nationally recognised think tank with both a regional West African and global presence, working across health, tax policy, consumer protection, education and governance through research, analysis, advocacy and capacity building in partnership with state and non-state actors. The statement was issued ahead of a planned engagement between President John Dramani Mahama and civil society leaders at Jubilee House, which Adomako said represented an opportunity for a clear and decisive commitment to domestic funding of Ghana’s research and advocacy sector.
