Ghana’s flood response and the cost of budgeting by crisis

Having been involved in aspects of the fiscal policy and public financial management discussions during that period, one lesson remains clear: emergency financing mechanisms work best when governance arrangements, reporting frameworks and institutional responsibilities have already been established before the crisis occurs.

This could include accelerating the operationalisation of the Parametric Flood Insurance Scheme for Greater Accra, strengthening NADMO's operational financing in line with the scale of its actual disaster caseload, finalising the outstanding Legislative Instrument to reinforce institutional effectiveness, and improving transparency around contingency releases through clear and consistent public reporting.

This was not unforeseenSection 36(1) of Ghana's Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) allows advances from the Contingency Fund only where Parliament's finance committee is satisfied that an urgent or unforeseen need for expenditure has arisen, one for which no other budget provision exists to meet it.