People's participation as a tool for enhanced rural development in Ghana

Abstract

This thesis examined the value of the people’s participation as a strategy for rural-focused development programmes. The term participation is used in this thesis to refer to the involvement of locals in the processes of decision making, implementation, and sharing in the benefits of development programmes. The participation of people entails a structured procedure whereby certain groups of people or communities meant to benefit from certain development initiatives are mobilised to take the initiative and contribute towards the planning and execution process. Empirical investigations on the potential value of involving the local people in development programmes in Ghana in general have neglected in both political and scholarly endeavours. This thesis, focusing on the Northern Region of Ghana, followed an exploratory research design which is underpinned by mixed methods research to examine the value of the people’s participation in development programmes. The thesis also used secondary data sources, household surveys, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions, as well as personal observations to gather data. It systematically explored how local communities are engaged and involved in programmes in which they are targeted as beneficiaries. This thesis is informed by three approaches, namely; the political economy, the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, and the transformative social policy. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data was analysed thematically. The thesis found that projects that had high participation levels had higher chances of success than those that had lower participation levels. The thesis therefore, concluded that the participation of beneficiaries in development projects wields much potential in making the projects a success. Both the participants in the research as well as the reviewed secondary literature confirmed that where local beneficiaries are placed at the centre of projects, both in terms of design and implementation, such projects stand a high chance to succeed and to positively impact the lives of people. The thesis also concluded, however, that while the presence of development projects in the Northern Region of Ghana has created some opportunities which can be harnessed to leverage community level development, these opportunities have not reached the level expected due to numerous challenges. These challenges include insufficient buy-in/ ownership of projects by beneficiaries, inadequate consultation of the local people by development implementers, lack of basic income sources, unemployment, landlessness, lack of education and training, lack of infrastructure, factors related to patriarchy which block women from accessing assets, poverty, and out-migration, among others. The thesis recommends, that given the central role of agriculture, and the largely subsistence nature of projects in the study areas, government efforts may need to focus on identifying how to proactively promote agricultural development through the deployment of inclusive participation. Critical to this is ensuring voice and inclusivity of the local communities who are the targeted beneficiaries of development initiatives