1. On behalf of IMANI’s board, fellows, management and staff, I sincerely thank you for your support and prayers. Through your dedicated interest in our work over the years, IMANI has consistently been ranked among the top five most influential policy think tanks in Sub -Saharan Africa ( twice as the second most influential) for the past five years.(Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania). IMANI has won two Atlas’ John Templeton Foundation awards for advancing the institutional foundations of the free society in and the inaugural Atlas’s Antony & Dorian Fisher $100,000 award for the most innovative and dynamic African think tank. IMANI was the only African think tank finalist in the 2017 Templeton Freedom Award.
2. 2018 has been the busiest since our formation in 2004. We helped narrow the citizen-governance and accountability gap by taking our annual assessment of government performance on all critical sectors to the middle and northern parts of Ghana. IMANI principals spoke at different fora in the UK, Morocco, South Africa and North America.
3. Please see some of our top reports, alerts and articles published by our four centres from January to November 2018 @ https://imaniafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Imani-Profile.pdf.
4. Two important updates are available from November to December 2018.
1. IMANI: Requesting Parliamentary Enquiry Into UNI-PASS Contract to Prevent Disruption to Ghana’s Progress on Trade Facilitation
https://imaniafrica.org/2018/12/15/to-rt-hon-mike-aaron-ocquaye-requesting-parliamentary-enquiry-into-uni-pass-contract-to-prevent-disruption-to-ghanas-progress-on-trade-facilitation/
2. Updates on IMANI’s Request for Parliamentary Enquiry into Trade Facilitation Contract
Four things have happened in the last seven days since IMANI’s request.
a. Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Trade and Industry visited existing vendors, GCNet and WestBlue to ascertain claims new contract is duplicatory of their tasks.
b. All existing players in the industry including GhanaLink (the new partner vendor to South Koreas’ UNI-PASSS) were invited to a meeting with the Economic Management Team at the Flagstaff house.
c. Ghana’s Vice-President was shown a copy of the current unexpired vendor contracts that stand terminated at huge costs and that certainly raised issues highlighted in IMANI’s enquiry.
d. Even before Parliament decides on IMANI’s enquiry into the controversial UNI-PASS trade deal, the Economic Management Team,(EMT) which we had earlier copied in our letters, in a letter dated yesterday, December 20, calls for a suspension of the deal to take off on January 1, 2019 until August 2019, not before a proper economic and legal review has been conducted.
See the EMT’s letter contained in the update @ https://imaniafrica.org/2018/12/21/economic-management-team-calls-for-a-suspension-of-controversial-uni-pass-trade-deal/
5. IMANI Alert: Novelty is NOT Innovation – the Story of Fly Zipline Ghana Drone Health Supplies Delivery Programme
IMANI has spent the last few days reviewing a large amount of published research about medical supply chain logistics, national blood management, national cold chain systems for biomed distribution, and emergency care in Ghana. It has also reviewed Zipline’s track record in other countries and the contractual and due diligence information related to its specific, upcoming, initiative in Ghana. The Ghana Health Service – Fly Zipline Ghana drone health supplies delivery programme is novel, but the current strategy will end up improving nothing about our health system if care is not taken.
Plans for 2019- Donate to our Causes.
This year taught us an important lesson with one of our most visible campaigns to protect the public purse. It became clear that the resources to mount an effective legal battle, complete with star experts to counter how the Ministry of Communications contract for mobile phone monitoring costing the tax payer $178m was beyond IMANI’s reach. Citizens apparently like to support good governance on the side-lines, but not with their money.
The coming year will be busier for IMANI as we refocus our energy to prevent bleak prospects for protecting the public purse. We shall be interested in public procurement practices in West Africa, education, trade facilitation, conversations on Ghana’s cocoa sector, revenue mobilization and expenditure management efforts across multiple districts in Ghana, Gas price formation, complementarity between gas and renewable energy, the role of digitalization in expanding and improving energy access in Ghana, business reforms, economic audits, manifesto analyses for Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, student/ citizen outreach and a renewal of our IMANI Francophone project (www.imanifrancophone.org )
However, we need your support to help us advance the frontiers of freedom through evidence-based research and advocacy. Please send us an email on how you would like to support IMANI info@imanighana.org
Thank you for your attention. Merry Christmas and wishing you the best in the new year.
Respectfully yours,
Franklin Cudjoe
Founding President & CEO, IMANI
www.imaniafrica.org
