Ghana: World Bank's privatisation approach fails to deliver

While the World Bank is developing a new social protection and labour strategy, its general approach to health and continuing push for privatisation of public services have come under fire again. Ghana’s national health insurance scheme, presented by the Bank as a success model for developing countries is 'unfair, inefficient and un-transparent', according to a report published in March by Ghanaian NGOs ISODEC, Alliances for Reproductive Health, and Essential Services Platform, with support from Oxfam International. It revealed that Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) - which has received technical assistance from the Bank - could be benefitting only 18 per cent of the country’s total population, despite the fact that every Ghanaian citizen pays for it through value-added tax (VAT).