Countries all over the world has progressed with quality human development. The implications of good governance for quality human development cannot be overemphasis and thus, there is a strong nexus between human development and governance. Thus, any policy that impedes good governance would invariably go against human development. Ghana just like any other country cannot be said to doing well if its human development is deteriorating or stagnant.
Comparing Ghana to most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, it can be argued that the indicators of human development is quite good even though there is much room for improvement.
Good governance presupposes that the welfare and choices of people needs to be enlarge for them to realize their goals that uplift their dignity as humans. Good governance in itself can be considered as a key variable that promotes human development.
In Ghana for example, the implementation of Capitation grants, Free SHS education, School Feeding Program and many others are good governance implications on human development in Ghana. The type and quality of education in Ghana is a key indicator of our human development and this is used in the annual ranking of Human Development Index issued by the UNDP.
Education is seen as a primary leveler that bridges the gap between the haves and haves not and also equip people with the requisite capacity to solve problems that confront them.
In essence, good governance is felt in Ghana through human development indicators such as literacy rate and incentives or policies in the educational system that makes sure that all citizens have access to education.
Another implications of good governance in Ghana for human development is the availability of health care system. Ghana has a health care system in place as a results of good governance. The availability of healthcare system in Ghana is an indicators of human development. The National Health Insurance policy in Ghana, free maternal healthcare are all implications of good governance on human development in Ghana.
In the area of Social Protection as an aspect human development, Ghana has done marginally well with more to be done looking at our potentials. Extreme poverty is gradually being eliminated yet the gap between the rich and poor keeps on widening.
Access to social protection and poverty is still not the best even though some policies like the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) has been implemented, they are still not enough considering what can be done.
To conclude, the nexus between governance and human development is strong to the extent that, it will be difficult to talk about the one without the other. Human development heights attain in Ghana is as a results of good governance policies while the festering menace of widespread corruption, nepotism, inequality and other deprivations can also be attributed to bad governance in Ghana.
Some facets of governance in Ghana, are stagnant without any improvement while other are either improving or deteriorating at a faster pace. This means that efforts should be made to increase the quality of governance in the country since it will invariably increase the quality of human development in Ghana.
