The purpose of this study is to contribute to the improvement of Ghana’s Country Partnership Strategy(CPS) and to the establishment of policies for development cooperation in the oceans and fisheries sector. Ghana owns an affluent fishing area in western Africa, and along with Senegal has served as one of the base camps for Korean deep-sea fishing industry during the last 50 years. Despite Ghana's national importance to Korea, very few systematic studies have been conducted on ODA projects in the fisheries sector based on the demand for development cooperation in Ghana. No research has been made to identify new projects and efficiently pursue developed projects. Therefore, there is a strong need to pursue research on development cooperation projects in the fisheries and aquaculture sector which can actively reflect the interests of Ghana.
   To this end, this study analyzed the current situation of the fisheries industry in Ghana through relevant databases and on-site visit survey, also analyzing current directions in the international community development cooperation support areas. In addition, the study identified the current status of trade, investment and human exchanges between Korea and Ghana, and conducted an analysis together with Ghana’s local experts on cases of support provided in other areas for the country. Further case studies were conducted on future support for the fisheries business by reflecting the assessment results of previous projects. Building on the results of these analyses, the basic direction of development cooperation and specific development cooperation plans with detailed projects were proposed.
   According to the results of our study, the fisheries sector is a very important industry in Ghana. The extent to which the fisheries industry contributes to Ghana's GDP is estimated to be at least 4.5 percent. The fisheries industry is directly and indirectly linked to the livelihoods of 2.5 million people, which is about 10 percent of all Ghana's population. It is also very important in terms of food security, accounting for 60 percent of the population's animal protein supply. In response, the Ghanaian government is working to promote the fisheries industry strategically by establishing the "2017-2024 Economic and Social Development Policy Program.” The biggest problems in Ghana's fisheries industry now are the depletion of fisheries resources, lack of processing capacity, education, support systems for small-scale fishers, and efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
   It has been confirmed that the international community has conducted various support programs for Ghana. The programs include the convergent and comprehensive programs in the oceans and fisheries sector. From 2002 to 2017, Ghana's fisheries aid accounted for 0.3 percent of the total aid and 3.5 percent of total aid in the agricultural and fisheries sector. Ghana's largest bilateral aid partner in the fisheries sector is Japan, followed by Spain, the United States and Norway. South Korea ranked sixth, providing about $71,000 in aid. However, only a very limited range of projects were carried out, such as the KOICA’s master degree course in fisheries and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries’s Fisheries Infrastructure Support Project. Ghana's major multilateral cooperation agencies in the fisheries sector were led by the FAO and World Bank. The results of our analysis suggest that the FAO's projects have been particularly effective. Overall, the fisheries sector still accounts for only a small portion of Korea's ODA. However, when analyzing the overall trend, it becomes evident that ODA in the fisheries sector of Africa is of considerable importance. Up to now, Korea has conducted no loan programs in the fisheries sector. Instead most of the projects in the fisheries sector were training programs for government employees, capacity building and simple material support projects. Recently, it was confirmed that the government is diversifying the target of training from government officials to local fishers and is making efforts to enhance the effectiveness of these projects by transferring management technologies while pushing forward with the project.
   In the future, it will be necessary to combine the existing areas of cooperation with those of the oceans and fisheries sectors in Ghana. Potential new grant or loan projects could include the construction of a fishing port in Lake Volta, projects to reduce poverty in fishing villages, or various capacity-building projects through the establishment of fisheries education institutes such as maritime school education programs with ships donated for training purposes. Korea's grant aid projects in the fisheries sector concentrate on capacity development projects for the sustainable development of Ghana's fisheries industry. This is why Korea has a comparative advantage in capacity-building sectors, which can include fisheries technology transfer. In addition, government-private partnership projects can push ahead with projects to protect marine resources in the coastal region of the Gulf of Guinea.
   In view of the importance of the fishing industry in Ghana, and the need to support local small-scale fishers and women fishers, the Korean government should select the fisheries industry as one of the CPS-focused major cooperation areas, as in the case of Senegal, and should dramatically increase support for Ghana’s fisheries sector. The ODA projects which Korea has provided to Ghana so far cannot be seen as actually contributing to sustainable development in terms of their quantity or quality, nor the economic development in Ghana, and thus need to be improved. Efficiency is expected to double if implemented in cooperation with other countries and international organizations with successful implementation experience. In addition, it is difficult to expand the scale of ODA projects in the fisheries sector as legal provisions on the formation of the International Development Cooperation Committee (Article 7 of International Development Cooperation Framework Act) have not been revised to include the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries explicitly(Article 2 of the Enforcement Decree of the International Development Cooperation Framework Act). The Decree should be revised as soon as possible.
   While there has been some general study on the Korean fishing industry and cooperation in global waters, in-depth analysis of the fisheries industry in specific countries and the excavation of related development cooperation projects based on it have been very rare. Starting with this study, there is a need to continue research on development cooperation projects in major African countries, Asian countries, Latin America, as well as Small Islands Developing Countries in the South Pacific.