Periodic reports produced by trustworthy bodies, whether in the areas of the economy, human rights, governance, or corruption, are important to governments all over the world.
When such a report is favorable, governments generally take credit and pledge to do everything possible to improve their position; but, when things go wrong, governments frequently 'fight' such reports with everything they have.
In the last five months, the Ghanaian government has dealt with five similar reports. The studies cover a wide range of topics, including economics, human rights, corruption, and press freedom.
GhanaWeb examines what these studies revealed about Ghana, as well as the government's response in some cases. The 2022 Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders
In a survey published by Reporters Without Borders, Ghana slipped thirty places on the World Press Freedom Index.
Ghana was ranked 60th in the 2022 report, up from 30th in 2021. The country's rating has dropped to its lowest point in over two decades.
Ghana's indicative points fell from 78.67 percent to 67.43 percent this year, down from 78.67 percent the year before.
As a case study for its assessment of press freedom in Ghana, the report used the arrest of certain journalists and the unsolved murder of Ahmed Suale.
In response, the administration questioned the methodology utilized and attributed the poor rating to autonomous state initiatives. Human Rights Report from the US Department of State
The US Department of State publishes an annual report called Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
In this year's report on Ghana, concerns such as denial of a fair public trial, government corruption and lack of transparency, arbitrary deprivation of life, and other unlawful or politically motivated deaths were addressed
Other issues discussed were freedom of expression for members of the press and other media, as well as elections and political involvement.
Ghana falls on the Corruption Perception Index.
According to the Corruption Perception Index, CPI, report issued on April 4, Ghana rated 73rd out of 180 nations in the 2021 edition of Transparency International's annual corruption rating chart. "Ghana's present performance is still below 50 percent of the predicted average, leaving much to be desired," according to the study.
Ghana came in ninth position out of 49 African countries, tied with Senegal on a score of 43.
Rating agencies have lowered their ratings. Ghana
Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") lowered Ghana's long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings to Caa1 from B3 on Saturday, February 5, and revised the outlook to stable from negative.
The reduction to Caa1 indicated the government's increasingly challenging task of dealing with its interwoven liquidity and debt problems.
The government's budget flexibility is limited by low income collection, and tight funding conditions on foreign markets have compelled the government to rely on pricey debt with shorter maturities. Fitch, another major rating agency, lowered Ghana's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'B-' from 'B' earlier this year. It stated that the outlook was negative.