# *Ghana Priorities* (2021) Back to [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Books Overview|Books Overview]] · [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/BjornLomborg-x-profile|@BjornLomborg]] · Topic: [[Topics/Climate Change Science and Policy Debate/Climate Change Science and Policy Debate|Climate Change Science and Policy Debate]] > **Reference outline for a reader who has read the book.** Full title: ***Ghana Priorities: analysing costs and benefits***. This is the popular book of the **Ghana Priorities** project, a partnership between the Copenhagen Consensus Center and Ghana's **National Development Planning Commission (NDPC)**. I did not have the typeset book this run ⚠️. Facts below come from the CCC book, project and overview pages, Amazon product details, the official **Eminent Panel Findings** PDF (*Ghana Priorities Eminent Panel Findings*, Accra, **10 August 2020**, 9 pages, created 11 August 2020, last modified 20 January 2021), and a pre-panel two-page overview PDF (`ghana_outcome_doc.pdf`, created **21 July 2020**, modified 24 November 2020). I have not checked the typeset introduction, Daily Graphic chapters, panel commentaries or signatures against those PDFs ⚠️. This title was not on the original Oct 24, 2026 lomborg.com / Wikipedia overview list; it is on the CCC books page. ## Publication facts - **Authors:** Amazon lists **Bjorn Lomborg**, **Samuel Kobina Annim** (then Ghana's Government Statistician, and moderator of the panel conference) and **Ralph Essem Nordjo** (CCC project coordinator). The CCC book page does not print co-authors on the heading. I did not open a title page ⚠️. - **Publisher:** CCC book page: **CCC & NDPC**, **2021**. Amazon: **Copenhagen Consensus Center**. Report both ⚠️. - **English hardcover:** ISBN-13 **978-1-940003-25-2** (ISBN-10 **1940003253**), **184** pages, 6 × 0.61 × 9 in, publication date **28 April 2021** (Amazon). - **English paperback:** ISBN-13 **978-1-940003-27-6** (ISBN-10 **194000327X**), **184** pages, 5.5 × 0.42 × 8.5 in, publication date **27 May 2021** (Amazon). - **What it is:** The CCC/Amazon blurb says each short chapter "was written in the first instance as a newspaper article and published in Ghana's leading newspaper, *The Daily Graphic*," then "edited and re-fined" for the book, together with the panelists' "personal thoughts and rankings." It is not the "more than 1,000+" pages of research papers (project page). I did not open a table of contents or those Graphic articles ⚠️. - **Place in his work:** A national volume after the India Consensus state books [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Rajasthan Priorities|*Rajasthan Priorities*]] and [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Andhra Pradesh Priorities|*Andhra Pradesh Priorities*]]. Later: [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Best Things First|*Best Things First*]] (2023). ## Thesis The CCC project page opens on growth: "The Ghanaian economy has been growing swiftly, with remarkable GDP growth higher than five percent for two years running." I did not independently check which years or the exact rates ⚠️. The question is the usual one: Ghana "lacks the money to do everything that citizens would like," so additional cedis should go where they do the most social, economic and environmental good. Lomborg, quoted on the project page after the panel, said CCC was "very interested in continuing to work with Ghana to help make sure that this research translates into action on value-for-money policies." I did not track later implementation ⚠️. ## How the project was run Head-counts and process figures shift by document ⚠️. Combined from the 10 August 2020 findings PDF, the July 2020 overview PDF, and the CCC project / overview pages: 1. Kick-off **December 2018** with the Institute of Economic Affairs (project overview). 2. Ideas: a Reference Group drawn from government, opposition, media, business, clergy and chieftaincy reviewed "**400+** interventions" (overview PDF / findings PDF) and selected "**80** of the most promising solutions" (overview PDF) / "**80+**" (findings PDF and project overview) / **79** ranked items in the signed table. 3. A policy-validation seminar with the NDPC and Ghana Statistical Service on **27 June 2019** (project page); the overview PDF also records a validation seminar "for 35 policy directors from all ministries." 4. Research: "**28** teams of Ghanaian, regional and international economists" (overview PDF and findings PDF) and "**1,000+** pages" of papers. The overview PDF's timeline has research plans in **October 2019**, ministry roundtables in **January 2020**, and Daily Graphic articles before the panel. 5. An **Eminent Panel** of seven at a **three-day** conference in Accra. The signed findings are dated **10 August 2020**. Prof. Finn Kydland "participated virtually"; the other six attended in person. Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, then Government Statistician, moderated. (The July 2020 overview PDF, written before the meeting, still says the panelists "**will questioning** the academics" and describes research papers "on **80** solutions.") The panel's question, in the signed PDF: "On which initiatives should additional resources be spent first?" Each member ranked the proposals. The published order "was calculated by taking the **median** of individual rankings," and the panel "jointly endorses the median ordering." The signed PDF repeats that median wording in both the approach section and the ranking section. It also says the panel "gave weight both to the institutional preconditions for success and to the demands of ethical or humanitarian importance." Benefit-cost ratios in the official table are "from the Ghana Priorities research papers at **8%** discount rate," coloured into CCC categories: Phenomenal (BCR >15), Good (5 to 15), Fair (1 to 5), and Poor (<1). ## The Eminent Panel Seven members, from the signed findings PDF (roles as of August 2020): 1. **Ken Ofori-Atta** — then Minister for Finance (appointed 10 January 2017; assumed office 27 January 2017); co-founder of Databank. The book blurb styles him **Kenneth** Ofori-Atta ⚠️. 2. **George Gyan-Baffour** — then Minister of Planning; MP for Wenchi since 2005; formerly a professor at Howard University (1993–2001). 3. **Kwesi Botchwey** — then Executive Chairman of the African Development Policy Ownership Initiative and Professor of Practice in Development Economics at the Fletcher School, Tufts; Ghana's Minister for Finance, 1982–1995. 4. **Sister Euginia Amporfu** — Associate Professor, Department of Economics, KNUST; then an External Director on the Bank of Ghana board and a member of the Fiscal Council. The CCC project and overview pages spell her first name **Eugenia** ⚠️; the signed PDF and the book blurb use **Euginia**. 5. **Augustin Fosu** — Professor, ISSER, University of Ghana; member of the Fiscal Council; previously deputy director of UNU-WIDER and chief economist at UNECA. 6. **Ernest Aryeetey** — Secretary-General of the African Research Universities Alliance; former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana. 7. **Finn E. Kydland** — 2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (with Edward C. Prescott); Henley Professor of Economics, UCSB; also listed with a Carnegie Mellon distinguished professorship and a part-time post at the Norwegian School of Economics. Unlike the India Consensus state panels, this one included the sitting finance and planning ministers. I did not open the typeset commentaries ⚠️. The PDF also names an **Advisory and Implementation Council** (Annim; Peter Quartey of ISSER; Kodjo Mensah Abrampah, then NDPC Director General; Felix Addo-Yobo of the NDPC; Emmanuel Kofi Ennin of the Finance Ministry; Ralph E. Nordjo) and a longer **Reference Group**. The July 2020 overview PDF spells Annim's title "Government **Statistican**." ## Official ranking (10 August 2020 signed findings PDF) The panel ranked **79** proposals. Several share a rank: the signed table repeats a number when the median tied, then skips the following numbers so the last item is still #79. The CCC "Eminent Panel Findings" webpage reprints a table that **breaks those ties into a unique 1–79 sequence** and also rewords a few labels (notably #10, which the PDF calls "**Complementary feeding promotion**" and the webpage calls "**Complimentary infant feeding promotion**"). I follow the PDF, including the tied ranks, and flag the webpage ⚠️. Benefit-cost ratios below are from the signed PDF itself, at an 8% discount rate. The July 2020 overview PDF is a pre-panel, unranked BCR sheet; most figures match, with at least one small clash: "Replacement of illegal gears" is **5** in the signed table and **5.1** on the overview sheet ⚠️. | # | Proposal | BCR (signed PDF, 8%) | |---|---|---| | 1 | Digitized property and business fees | 9 | | 2 | Universal malaria testing and health facility treatment | 133 | | 3 | Strengthen community health system (GEHIP) | 38 | | 4 | Land titling program | 91 | | 5 | TB patient education for adherence | 190 | | 6 | Logistics for faster and more accurate TB testing | 166 | | 7 | Active TB case finding in high risk groups | 38 | | 8 | Ambulance maintenance in rural areas | 21 | | 9 | Preventive malaria medicine for children in Guinea Savannah | 14 | | 10 | Complementary feeding promotion | 36 | | 11 | Breastfeeding promotion | 24 | | 12 | Micronutrients and calcium in pregnancy | 18 | | 12 | Management training for medium sized firms | 10 | | 14 | Incentive schemes for health workers in remote areas | 21 | | 15 | Health worker home visits for pregnant and newborn | 28 | | 15 | Doubled R&D spending | 1.5 | | 17 | Build warehouses to reduce post-harvest losses | 1.8 | | 17 | Vocational education | 1.3 | | 19 | Revamp irrigation schemes | 1.5 | | 20 | Increase mechanization through tractor services | 2.8 | | 21 | Extend fertilizer subsidies | 4.4 | | 22 | Hybrid maize seed subsidies | 3.6 | | 23 | Enforcement by-laws and latrine subsidies in urban areas | 4.2 | | 23 | OPV maize seed subsidies | 2.3 | | 25 | Organize all 1-3 graders according to learning level | 8 | | 25 | Depression screening and treatment | 7 | | 27 | Apprenticeships | 2.4 | | 28 | Community dialogues on schooling & early marriage | 3.8 | | 29 | Support weaker 1-3 graders with teaching assistants | 6 | | 30 | Raise and sustain coverage of malaria bed nets | 44 | | 31 | Monitoring devices on trawl ships | 21 | | 32 | Expand school feeding | 4.8 | | 33 | Management consultants for large manufacturers | 6 | | 34 | Emergency obstetric and neonatal care (EmONC) | 6 | | 34 | Electricity grid for less remote communities | 4.5 | | 36 | Family planning for married women | 34 | | 36 | Capital grants for micro enterprises | 7 | | 36 | Biogas to energy plants | 4.7 | | 39 | Anxiety disorders screening and treatment | 4.6 | | 40 | Replacement of illegal gears | 5 | | 41 | Improved cookstoves promotion to reduce urban air pollution | 8 | | 42 | Credit reference bureau | 12 | | 42 | Subsidize urban toilet constructions | 5 | | 42 | Expanded rural LPG distribution for cooking | 2.1 | | 45 | Conditional asset transfer for girls enrolled in school | 2.7 | | 46 | Revamp rail network for rural transport | 1.5 | | 46 | Solar microgrids for more remote communities | 1.7 | | 48 | Feeder roads for rural transport | 1.2 | | 49 | Family planning for unmarried women | 29 | | 50 | Electricity grid for more remote communities | 1.1 | | 51 | Poverty graduation | 1.8 | | 52 | Sludge to energy plants | 5 | | 52 | Mass screening and treatment of hypertension | 3.3 | | 52 | Comprehensive faecal sludge treatment plants | 2.9 | | 55 | Improved cookstoves promotion to reduce rural air pollution | 9 | | 55 | Stabilization ponds for remote areas | 4.4 | | 55 | Compulsory SRH education for high school boys and girls | 2.2 | | 55 | Fishing Licenses and Aquaculture | 1.2 | | 59 | Subsidize private senior high schools to increase seats | 1.5 | | 60 | Eliminate NHIS premiums for the poor | 2.1 | | 60 | Increased cash transfers (LEAP) | 1.6 | | 62 | Diesel microgrids for more remote communities | 1.8 | | 63 | Reduced LPG tax for cooking | 1.9 | | 64 | Reduced industrial electricity tariff | 1.9 | | 65 | Storm drain widening | 1.8 | | 66 | Rural community led total sanitation with latrine subsidies | 1.7 | | 67 | Rural community led total sanitation | 1.3 | | 68 | Formalize mining co-operatives | 1.2 | | 69 | Increased microfinance | 1.6 | | 70 | Free school uniforms for girls | 2.9 | | 71 | Urban bus rapid transport system | 1.5 | | 72 | Schizophrenia screening and treatment | 1.6 | | 73 | Home garden and poultry training | 1.4 | | 73 | Retention ponds in Accra | 1.3 | | 75 | Localized solid waste management by community members | 1.1 | | 75 | Social housing construction | 1.0 | | 77 | Ferries and ports on Volta | 1.2 | | 78 | State sponsored alumina industry | 1.1 | | 79 | Special Economic Zones | <1 | The panel did **not** simply follow the BCRs. Digitised property and business fees, with a modest ratio of **9**, was ranked **#1**. The three highest ratios — TB patient education (**190**), faster TB testing (**166**) and universal malaria testing (**133**) — were ranked **#5, #6 and #2**. Land titling (**91**) is #4. Malaria bed nets (**44**) sit at #30. Family planning for married women (**34**) is tied at #36; the same intervention for unmarried women (**29**) is #49. Doubled R&D spending, with a ratio of only **1.5**, is tied at #15. Special Economic Zones, the only item marked **<1**, are last. The signed PDF does **not** include the short cost-and-benefit blurbs that the India Consensus three-pagers printed for their top ten. I did not open the underlying papers for programme costs ⚠️. The last page of the signed PDF has signature lines for all seven panelists. Under George Gyan-Baffour's line it also prints "**To be signed by Mr Philip Acheampong**." I did not inspect the handwritten signatures ⚠️. ## How the claims have held up - **Conference and advocacy.** The signed findings are dated Accra, 10 August 2020. A CCC project-page teaser points to a *Daily Graphic* editorial and to a *The Economist* write-up (the page itself misspells it "Econmoist"). I did not open those articles ⚠️. I did not check whether later Ghanaian budgets followed the ranks ⚠️. - **TB and malaria as "best buys."** Three of the top seven items are TB interventions; malaria testing is #2. That matches later global CCC work. See [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - BjornLomborg on Tuberculosis as a Best Buy (2026-09-25)|TB as a best buy (Sep 25)]] and [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Best Things First|*Best Things First*]]. I did not check Ghana-specific TB or malaria outcomes after 2020 ⚠️. - **Digitisation at #1 despite a mid-range BCR** is the starkest panel-versus-ratio departure. I did not check later property- and business-fee digitisation in Ghana ⚠️. - **Special Economic Zones (<1)** and a state-sponsored alumina industry (1.1) sit at the bottom. I did not track later industrial-policy decisions against those ranks ⚠️. - **The "higher than five percent for two years running" growth claim** was not independently checked ⚠️. - **No DCSD connection.** The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty episode concerns *The Skeptical Environmentalist* (2001) and does not apply to this book. ## Reception - **10 August 2020 Accra panel findings**, signed as above. CCC says the conference was reported by the Ghana News Agency, Starr FM, Daily Mail and GhanaWeb; I did not open those reports ⚠️. - **28 April 2021** hardcover and **27 May 2021** paperback, well after the panel. - I did not open later news coverage beyond the CCC pages ⚠️. ## Links to his X posts and later books - Immediate predecessors: [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Rajasthan Priorities|*Rajasthan Priorities*]], [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Andhra Pradesh Priorities|*Andhra Pradesh Priorities*]]. Later: [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Best Things First|*Best Things First*]]. - TB, nutrition and chronic disease: [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - BjornLomborg on Tuberculosis as a Best Buy (2026-09-25)|TB (Sep 25)]], [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - BjornLomborg on Chronic Disease Policies Saving 1.5 Million Lives (2026-02-12)|chronic disease (Feb 12)]], [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - BjornLomborg on Agricultural R&D $5.5bn Saving 133 Million from Hunger (2026-05-17)|ag R&D and hunger (May 17)]]. Ralph Nordjo already has a People note under this author: [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/People/Ralph Nordjo|Ralph Nordjo]].