SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 8. Several policies are currently in place to ensure access to social services, including education, health and other basic services. Social expenditure on roads, basic education Box 5.1: Ghana and the Millennium Development Goals As one of the principal architects of the Millennium Declaration, the precursor of the MDGs, Ghana has remained at the forefront of efforts to situate national development targets within the context of these globally acclaimed priorities. It is now widely acknowledged that the MDGs provide the veritable long-term outcomes to be pursued through successive poverty reduction strategies and a series of annual budget plans. Thirteen of the MDG indicators are included in the GPRS core list, while fourteen others are covered within the existing information systems. 10 The GPRS was preceded by a series of plans that placed emphasis on poverty reduction and human development. The first was the report entitled Making People Matter: A Human Development Strategy for Ghana (1991), followed by the National Development Policy Framework (1994) later renamed Vision 2020 a 25-year development perspective. An Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper was produced in 2000. and health care has increased in recent years, for instance by as much as 40% in education. There has, however, not been a commensurate increase in the quality and impact of such expenditure in providing enhanced, sustainable and affordable access to public goods for many households in urban and rural areas, and in reducing regional and urban/rural disparities. 9. A preliminary finding from the forthcoming Ghana Human Development Report is that, although many schools have been built in the last few years, this development has not been matched by the recruitment of sufficient numbers of teachers. As a result, there has been a marked drop in the teacher/pupil ratio. While the male/female disparity in school enrolment at primary and secondary school levels has narrowed substantially in recent years, the situation is different in universities and polytechnics. Here male students far outnumber female students, despite affirmative action to encourage enrolment of the latter. The government's health policies appear to be making some headway, although the health system continues to suffer from an exodus of health personnel. Available statistics indicate that in the decade up to 2003, Ghana lost over 30% of its trained health personnel. 11 Aryeetey, Ernest, et al. The State of the Ghanaian Economy in 2003. Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana, July 2004. 117