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Philosophical Foundations of Social Science Research versus technical convenience: Examining methodological weaknesses in students’ research
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University of Cape Coast
Journal of Arts and Social Sciences
Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
University of Cape Coast Journal of Arts and Social Sciences
Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
ISSN: 2343 – 6522
All rights reserved. No part of the article in this Journal may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the publisher or Editor-in-Chief.
1 University of Cape Coast Journal of Arts and Social Sciences Page
Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
EDITORIAL BOARD
Professor A.M. Abane, Department of Geography & Regional Planning, University of Cape Coast, Editor-in-Chief
Professor P.E. Bondzie-Simpson, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Coast, Associate Editor
Professor Agnes A. Apusigah, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Associate Editor
Professor (Mrs.) Rosemond A. Boohene, School of Business, University of Cape Coast (also serving as Financial/ Business Advisor)
Professor A.A. Alema, Department of Library and Archival Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra
Professor P.W.K. Yankson, Department of Geography & Resource Development, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra.
Professor J.S. Okafor, Department of Geography, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
Professor S.B. Kendie, Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast
Mr. Clement Entsua Mensah, Librarian, University of Cape Coast
Professor L. Owusu-Ansah, Department of English, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast
Professor E. Mansah Prah, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Cape Coast
Professor J.A. Kwarteng, School of Agriculture, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast
Professor J.A. Amedehe, Department of Educational Foundations, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast
Professor R.N. Osei, Department of Classics & Philosophy, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast
2 University of Cape Coast Journal of Arts and Social Sciences Page
Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
CONTENT Page
Philosophical foundations of social science research versus technical convenience: 4-31
Examining methodological weaknesses in students‟ researches
Angela Dziedzom Akorsu, Francis Enu-Kwesi
Community Perception of Decentralization and Poverty Reduction: The Case of Elmina in 32-54 the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) District of Ghana Henrietta Abane, Michael Sakyi-Darko
Change and continuity: Use of indigenous knowledge in selected farming and fishing 55-84 communities in Central Region, Ghana
Kobina Esia-Donkoh, Kofi Awusabo Asare
Rethinking individual agency and accountability in local governance: Evidence from 85-109
Ntonoaboma in the Eastern Region of Ghana
Patrick Osei-Kufour
Accountable governance in Ghana: Rhetoric or a reality? 110-140
Stephen B. Kendie, David W. Essaw
Peace Education as a Recipe for Terrorism in West Africa 141-160
Rasheed Adenrele Adetoro
3 University of Cape Coast Journal of Arts and Social Sciences Page
Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Philosophical foundations of social science research versus technical convenience: Examining
methodological weaknesses in students’ researches
Angela Dziedzom Akorsu Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Francis Enu-Kwesi Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
Social science research is replete with studies that use or combine quantitative and qualitative research strategies. Yet, quantitative and qualitative research strategies are driven by different epistemological and ontological rhetoric and also give rise to differences in the kind of intellectual knowledge that can be produced. Using a qualitative approach we focused on 48 available theses and dissertations, and undertook a content analysis of the justifications that are often presented by graduate students for using particular methods. In the process, we provided several examples which illustrate methodological weaknesses in students‟ researches. The conclusion is that these weaknesses are systemic and are due to a combination of different factors, from the students to the lecturers, supervisors and assessors. The implications are that all those involved in the processes must live up to their responsibilities in order to ensure that there is validity and acceptability of the end product.
Key words: Epistemology, ontology, quantitative, qualitative, mixed, methodology, social, sciences
4 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Introduction
The quantitative-qualitative debates have moved from one of contradiction to one of compatibility. Some writers (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Noblitt & Hare, 1988; Rosenberg, 1988) have questioned the wisdom of integrating both approaches due to their different purposes. According to these authors, the quantitative paradigm in social science research is underlain by the study of social variables that lead to the prediction of social phenomena. The researcher‟s responsibility is thus to quantify these social variables and phenomena in order to be able to predict future events or outcomes. Qualitative paradigm, on the other hand, beckons greater understanding rather than prediction of social phenomena. Hence, the doubters of integration argue that the two paradigms differ so much that any integration or reconciliation is likely to undermine the epistemological foundations of each (Rosenberg, 1988).
Others, however, while appreciating the philosophical debates, take pragmatic positions
(Cook & Reichardt, 1979; Steckler, 1989; Steckler, McLeroy, Goodman, Bird & McCormick,
1992) and suggest that nothing should stop any social scientists from subscribing to the philosophy of one paradigm while employing the methods of the other paradigm. The integrationist proponents argue that the complexity of social interventions such as those that occur in water, sanitation, health, poverty and education programmes require the usage of multiple or mixed methodologies in order to produce effective evaluation of these interventions.
Beneath the arguments and counter arguments for the adoption of single methodology approaches, it is worth taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and the fact that single methodology approaches often fail to explore all the components of social phenomena. This failure can and sometimes renders well-intentioned social interventions less effective than desired. Jones (1997) admits that the crucial justification for a mixed methodology design is that both qualitative and quantitative methodologies have strengths and weaknesses. It is thus incumbent upon the researcher to blend both methods so that the final research outcome can
5 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 highlight the important contributions of each one, where qualitative data can support and give meaning to quantitative findings.
The objective of mixed methods is not necessarily to reconcile qualitative and quantitative approaches, but rather to note that they are not antithetical and that the practical exigencies of the problem or issue being addressed may require the application of both methodologies (Pinto, 2010).
What can be gleaned from Pinto‟s view is that as social scientists we aim to understand the complexity of human behaviour and as researchers, our task is to describe and explain this complexity. However, when there are limitations in our individual methodological repertoires, it is beneficial to acknowledge that and adopt other methods or mix methods through triangulation
(Neuman, 2011). In doing so, the dimensions and scope of the problem at hand can be broadened and elucidated to generate a holistic perspective of human behaviour and experience, which in turn can lead to effective solutions for social problems.
Similar views have been expressed by other researchers. Bowen (2005) explains how her dissertation committee encouraged her to adopt the best of both approaches in order to be able to reflect the interactions and experiences of individuals and communities in respect of her chosen research problem. According to Bowen, both approaches have distinct and complementary strengths. In her contribution to the debate, Hastings (2010) refers to methodological triangulation or the use of multiple methods to study a single problem. In this respect, qualitative and quantitative methods may be employed simultaneously or sequentially. According to Hastings, this can occur either as within-methods triangulation where multiple quantitative or qualitative approaches are employed, or as between-methods triangulation where both qualitative and quantitative approaches are used. Post positivists argue that triangulation enables researchers to minimize biases that are associated with single methodological approaches, and constructivists assert that triangulation is beneficial since it allows the discussion of multiple perspectives of the problem and necessitates the researcher to consider multiple realities. These arguments play a role in research methods courses
6 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 that are taught at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, including the Institute for Development
Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences.
The Institute for Development Studies (previously called Centre for Development Studies) began its postgraduate programmes in development studies in 1993. The programmes comprised taught courses and the submission of a thesis. The taught core courses, using the lecture method, include concepts and theories of development, research methods, advanced social statistics, philosophical foundations of development studies, and contemporary issues in development studies.
Other taught courses focus on specialized areas in environment, technology, development economics, development finance, health, gender, rural development, and human resource development. The courses are taught by teams of two or three research fellows with various academic qualifications and ranks. Each student is guided by a principal and co-supervisor to submit a thesis. As part of the thesis writing process students are required to present proposals and work-in-progress at seminars that are organized by the Institute. At the end, two copies of each thesis are forwarded for internal and external assessment, followed by oral defence, further corrections and vetting.
In the year 2003 more post graduate programmes (Master of Arts) were introduced, and these required the submission of a dissertation by each student in addition to taught courses. The core courses include research methods and advanced social statistics, and programme specific courses. Essentially, the contents of the core taught courses did not differ from their counterparts in the Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy programmes. All the programmes used the lecture method and there were no practices or demonstrations to expose students to the realities of undertaking research (Aguado, undated). However, in the case of the Master of Arts programmes, the courses were taught by single lecturers from various departments in the University, and each student had only one supervisor. Two copies of each dissertation are assessed by internal examiners, followed by corrections and vetting. With Students had the freedom to explore their interests by selecting their own research topics but had to proceed by abiding by rules and
7 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 regulations. The processes for both the theses and dissertations are essential for validity and quality control. Notwithstanding the processes, in dealing with human issues there is room for margins of error, and consequently there is also room for improvement.
In this paper we argue that the underlying philosophies of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research strategies cannot be ignored if the knowledge produced is to be of value.
Consequently, the usage of specific methods must be justified with acceptable assumptions and with appropriate and adequate analytical procedures to ensure validity and acceptability of the conclusions. The rest of the paper is organized into five sections. Section two dwells copiously on the differences between intensive (qualitative) and extensive (quantitative) research in relation to epistemological assumptions, ontological assumptions and intellectual goals while section three presents an argument for and against hybrid approach. Section four describes in brief, the methodology adopted, while section five comprises evidence from graduate students‟ researches regarding the appropriateness of the selected methods. The last section contains the conclusions.
The quantitative-qualitative debates
A research strategy is a model or framework that guides an entire research agenda.
According to Inkoom (1999), it refers to the logical sequence that connects the empirical data to the study‟s initial questions and ultimately to its conclusions. Blaikie (2000) adds that a research strategy, which can also be referred to as logic of enquiry, provides a starting point and steps by which questions can be answered. According to Harwell (2011), research strategy is important because it communicates information about the key features of the study and these can differ for qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. What this means is that, the kind of research strategy used will have implications for the kinds of epistemological and ontological assumptions, as well as the methods that can be used and more importantly, the intellectual knowledge that can be produced.
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Clarke (2005) cites Creswell‟s (2003) reference to the two main categories of research paradigms that are often employed in social science research, as qualitative and quantitative research strategies, which are also sometimes referred to as intensive and extensive research strategies respectively. Some researchers view quantitative strategies as superior. In the words of
Lord Kelvin, “when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind” (Sayer, 1992, p. 175). This perception has received a lot of reactions, including Jacob Viner‟s that “when you can measure it, when you can express it in numbers, your knowledge is still meagre and unsatisfactory” (Sayer, 1992, p.175).
Although intensive research design emerged later, with time, it has come to be an established alternative to extensive research strategy (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005).
According to Harwell (2010), while the distinction between intensive and extensive research strategies superficially can be just a question of scale or „depth versus breadth‟, in actual fact, they ask different sorts of questions, use different techniques and methods and define their objectives and boundaries differently. This superficiality is reflected in Sayer‟s (1992) description of the choice between intensive and extensive research strategies as a “dilemma” and it is indeed a dilemma when the underlying philosophies are not put into proper perspective. This confirms
Bryman‟s (1988, p. 3) statement that “increasingly, the terms „quantitative research‟ and
„qualitative research‟ came to signify much more than ways of data collection; they came to denote divergent assumptions about the nature and purpose of research in the social sciences”.
Extensive research strategy is an earlier strategy and often shown as scientific since it has characteristics of the natural sciences. The tendency has been to perceive it as more scientific and therefore more accurate than intensive research. According to Clarke (2005), the extensive or quantitative approach, is often called traditional, positivist, experimental or empiricist and was advanced by authorities such as Comte, Mill, Durkheim, Newton and Locke. It is rooted in positivist assumptions, having a logical structure in which problems are derived from theories. A common example is the survey design which seeks to measure and evaluate perceptions of sampled
9 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 individuals that are thought to be representative of the larger population to which the results can be generalized (Kraska, 2010). This strategy lends itself to the use of statistical packages for easy manipulation of data into aggregation, categorization, correlation, regression and hypothesis testing.
Intensive or qualitative research strategy on the other hand, has come to be perceived as a more socially oriented approach. This strategy, according to Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003), has introduced a lot more innovative methods like critical incident technique, diary studies, discourse analysis interviews, life histories, grounded theory, document analysis, case studies, cognitive mapping, ethnography, narratives, metaphors, participant observation and repertory grids for answering social questions. It takes a constructivist, naturalistic, interpretive, postpositivist, and postmodernist perspective as advanced by eminent writers like Dithey, Kant, Foucalt, Miles and
Huberman (Clarke, 2005). It involves exploration of social relations and describes reality as experienced or constructed by the respondents (Sarantakos, 1993, 2005). Due to its constructionist and interpretivist theoretical foundations, the use of intensive strategy requires considerable painstaking effort (Sarantakos, 2005), because prior categories are not adopted and statistical tools that manipulate data are uncommon.
The underlying assumptions of extensive and intensive researches in turn lead to differences that are outside the realm of philosophy. According to Sale, Lohfeld and Brazil (2002, p. 45), “the two paradigms have given rise to different journals, different sources of funding, different expertise and different methods. They state that there are even differences in scientific language used”. For example, “validity” to the extensive researcher means that a research finding is exactly the same as the existing reality out there, whereas to the intensive researcher, “validity” is used for a research account that is agreeable.
Epistemological differences
To a very large extent, extensive research strategy is rooted in a positivist orientation which assumes that social facts are objective and exist outside the influence of the individual while
10 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 intensive research strategy is driven by a number of epistemological claims - phenomenological, hermeneutical, interpretive and naturalist claims - with the overall belief that reality is socially constructed by individuals as well as by groups (society). One tenet of positive analysis which is retained in all of the various forms of positive philosophy of science is the emphasis on empirical evidence or some statements, which must at least in principle, be testable (Caldwell, 1992;
Creswell, 2009; Sarantakos, 2005). This feature of positivism is called empiricism and it implies that, certain characteristics of social objects such as feelings and language which are different from the objects of natural sciences and cannot be observed are not considered as objects for study since scientific methods cannot be applied to them.
Yet throughout the history of science, empirical evidence has not always been able to conclusively prove or falsify scientific statements because the demands for verification are too extreme and scientific observation is unavoidably “theory-laden”. Empirical evidence has at best, led to only an approximation of truth. The intensive paradigm on the other hand acknowledges the fact that certain attributes of social objects are unobservable but can still be studied if the researcher is interpretive and reflexive (Creswell, 2003, 2009).
Another positivist characteristic of extensive research strategy is that methods of the natural sciences are applied to the social sciences so that any discipline which does not lend itself to the methods of natural science is not considered as science. This principle is referred to as the principle of methodological monism or methodological naturalism (Giedymin, 1975; Von Wright, 1971). For example, the extensive research strategy is deductive and almost always starts with a theory, from which hypothesis is stated. Data are then collected and analyzed to either support or reject the stated hypothesis. This way of conducting research, according to Kuhn (1984), is the way of conducting research in natural and physical sciences and seems to suggest that experiments and/or empirical studies are about confirmation rather than about discovery.
However, in arguing for the intensive approach, Sayer (1992, p. 123) is of the opinion that
“sciences and their methods vary according to the nature of their objects”. Thus, applying the
11 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 methods of natural sciences to the study of social objects misses the point because social objects are unique and have certain characteristics that cannot be studied by the methods of natural sciences. A good method should therefore reflect a good understanding of the nature of the objects under study, and this can be accomplished through intensive approaches.
The treatment of values in positivism is also evident in extensive research approaches.
Harwell (2011) discusses that integral to the extensive approach is the expectation that researchers will set aside their experiences, perceptions and biases to ensure objectivity. This view on one hand treats values as potentially harmful to objectivity in research. To emphasize objectivity and ensure the validity of the knowledge produced, there must be ways of restricting the inference of the researcher‟s values in the research process. A good extensive research “ aims to achieve a form of scientific objectivity in which data remain uncoloured by the theoretical baggage, especially the values and interests, that researchers bring to collecting and interpreting data” (Howe, 1992, p.
239). A good intensive research, on the other hand, must be value-laden, and the values and experiences of the researcher are actually necessary for the study of social objects. This implies the acceptance of multiple truths that are socially constructed (Harwell, 2011).
The role of inductivism and deductivism as regards theory in extensive research strategies is also a reflection of the positivist orientation. On one hand, theories are developed by a constellation of verified facts and on the other hand, theories are the drivers for the search for empirical evidence.
This seems to imply that the research process is circular rather than linear. Bryman (1988, p. 21) however, posits that in reality, there is a “lack of a clearly ordered sequence of steps in quantitative research ... quantitative research is invariably much more messy”.
The alternative to induction and deduction strategies in extensive research is the
„Abduction‟ strategy in intensive research (Blaikie, 2000). According to Blaikie, abduction is a process of generating social scientific accounts from the accounts of social actors and is associated with interpretive approaches. Blaikie‟s description of abduction here appears to have the characteristics of grounded theory which was described as “the most influential paradigm for
12 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 qualitative research in the social sciences” (Denzin, 1997, p. 18). It was originally presented as systematic, inductive and informed by positivism with its associated emphasis on objectivity.
Charmaz (2003) however, states that its positivist premises have come under serious attack, and argues that it has more constructivist tendencies than positivist tendencies. It is within the constructivist stance of grounded theories that similarities with abduction can be placed.
Ontological differences
The differences in epistemological assumptions between extensive and intensive research strategies have implications for a number of ontological assumptions. The role of the researcher is one area of ontological difference between intensive and extensive research strategies. In quantitative research the researcher must be detached from the research process so as to avoid biases (Creswell, 2009; Harwell, 2011; Sarantakos, 2005). For instance, in the administration of questionnaires in a survey, researchers often employ field assistants and are often not directly involved in the data collection. Intensive research by contrast requires much more contact since the contact enables the researcher to have reliable basis for interpretation and understanding of the objects. The researcher must actually be immersed in the object of study. This means that the researchers‟ values, experiences and perception of the object are useful in explaining the objects of study (Harwell, 2011; Wahyuni, 2012). Subjectivity is a feature of intensive research as opposed to the emphasis on objectivity in extensive research strategy.
In the area of research design, it can be seen that extensive research is highly structured, with processes that are systematic. As a strategy, extensive research concentrates on seeking empirical evidence by emphasizing the validity and reliability of methods of data collection and analysis and rejecting subjectivity of the researcher. In view of its interest in generalization, larger samples are preferred to smaller samples, and detailed and careful sampling is required as a way of ensuring representativeness. By contrast, intensive research is associated with flexibility and lack of structure. This is also evident in the kinds of methods adopted such as critical incident technique,
13 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 diary studies, discourse analysis interviews, hermeneutics, life histories, grounded theory, document analysis, case studies, cognitive mapping, ethnography, narratives, metaphors, participant observation and repertory grids. Since generalization is not the ultimate goal, small samples or even single cases or incidents or stories are adopted because they are technically realistic.
The nature of data is also different between extensive and intensive research. The data from extensive research is regarded as hard, rigorous and accurate, and comes in the form of numbers, tables, graphs and statistical symbols and jargons, similar to data from the natural sciences. The rigour and accuracy are often used to suggest superiority even though such data are often meaningless to many people – literate and illiterate. On the other hand, by virtue of what intensive research seeks to achieve, its data are usually rich with detail and insightful in meaning.
In extensive research, there is considerable focus on individuals as the unit of inquiry as occurs in survey designs where questionnaires and interview schedules are administered to individual respondents and the results aggregated. This is what Bryman (1988) calls individualism as opposed to holism in intensive research, where the unit of inquiry is often the whole – school, organization, slum, marriages etc. While the issue of the individualism in extensive research appears the case, in the long run, the individual cases and characteristics become submerged in a pool of aggregated analysis. In a similar vein, while intensive research seeks to study a phenomenon as a whole, in reality, abstractions are made. It is almost impossible to explain a social object as a whole without carefully abstracting from its constituents first.
Though both quantitative and qualitative research discuss issues of causality, some differences are worth noting. Quantitative researches are preoccupied with establishing the causal relationship between variables – cause and effect analysis. The use of “dependent” and
“independent” variables in extensive researches is indicative of this fact and is also an importation of positivist mentality of treating social objects as natural science objects in closed systems.
Causality in intensive research is not as simple as that since objects exist in open systems and do not produce automatic regularities. According to Sayer (1992), “causality concerns not only a
14 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 relationship between discrete events (cause and effect), but the causal powers and liabilities of objects or relations ... if the nature of an object changes then its causal powers will change too”. The implication of this is that, the flexibility inherent in intensive research is required in studying causality in social objects.
Differences in intellectual goals
Taylor and Bogdan (1984) summarize the differences in intellectual goals between extensive and intensive research as follows: quantitative research seeks to explain the causes of changes in social facts, primarily through representative sampling, objective measurement and quantitative analysis, with generalization and prediction as possible goals. According to Bryman
(1988), this preoccupation with establishing generality and predictability can probably be attributed to the tendency of the extensive researcher to mimic the methods and style of the natural sciences.
In reality, generalization is hardly accurate in the social sciences and Sayer (1992) calls the goals of generalization and predictability a mistaken one.
Sayer (1992) distinguishes between predictive explanations and explanatory predictions and posits that due to the stable nature of objects in closed systems, explanatory predictions can be derived. For instance once there is night, there is bound to be day-break. The opposite is the case in open systems which lend themselves for non-predictive explanations (causation accounts) such as the theory of evolution and there is no apparent justification for assuming that such non-predictive explanations are incomplete explanations. Ultimately, the aim of intensive research is to explain social objects in a way that provide an in-depth understanding of the reality as is constantly constructed by social objects.
Qualitative research is more concerned with understanding the social phenomenon from the actors‟ perspectives through participation in the lives of those actors. As opposed to generalization, intensive research has contextualism and understanding (Verstehen) as goals. Objects are studied and understood within specific contexts. Thus characteristically, an intensive research is often based
15 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 on single case analysis or small sample sizes with no particular emphasis on representativeness but the uniqueness and the essential features of each case is upheld as significant for understanding the social phenomenon.
Closely related to the issues of generalization and contextualization is the issue of replication, which is given much more prominence in extensive research with the focus on cross- checking an earlier study for any excesses in the researcher‟s biases and other interruptions.
Intensive research on the other hand is difficult to replicate given its emphasis on the unique context as well as the influence of the „idiosyncrasies‟ of the researcher. A plausible intellectual goal therefore may be corroboration rather than replication. Thus, in view of the emphasis on representation, generalization and replication, the ultimate intellectual goal of extensive research is to produce what Bryman (1988) and Babbie (2007) call „nomothetic‟ reasoning where general laws are established and regarded as applicable even to different times and places. The emphasis on context in intensive research is also said to result in „idiographic‟ reasoning or locating the findings within specific time and place (Babbie, 2007).
Another intellectual goal worth discussing in extensive research is quantification. This works to eliminate the study of a host of important variables such as socialization processes through which we acquire our gender identities just because they cannot be quantified. Thus, quantification and the use of mathematical language in extensive research leads only to calculating, deducing and deriving conclusions based on assumptions rather than seeking structural and causal explanations of a phenomenon (Sayer, 1992). Alternatively, description in intensive research, coupled with examination of theory (Sayer, 1992) is important in highlighting the richness and depth of the phenomenon under study, since social objects tend to be concept-dependent and have multiple intrinsic meanings. While description can be criticised for its lack of intellectual rigour, Rist (1984, p. 161) asserts that “it‟s at once disarmingly simple and incredibly complex”. In reality however, qualitative research often goes beyond mere description to provide analyses of the objects and environment of study.
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Regarding the intellectual goal of making theoretical claims, extensive and intensive researches differ as well. While in extensive research, the position of theory is strongly entrenched very early in the study, so that any empirical evidence obtained is either to accept or reject the theoretical claims (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009), in intensive research, theory is not given such prominence at an early stage. In intensive research, theory and empirical evidence are intertwined (Neuman, 2011). This accords with Bryman‟s (1988, p. 81) description that “the delineation of theoretical ideas is usually viewed as a phrase that occurs during, or at the end of the field work, rather than being a precursor to it”. The manifestation of this is in the use of grounded theory where theories are derived from the fieldwork process and also, what has been called analytic induction in intensive researches.
Combining extensive and intensive research strategies
Despite the conflicting epistemological and technical differences between the extensive and intensive research strategies (Neuman, 2011; Saunders et al., 2009; Wahyuni, 2012), there have been several arguments for combining the two approaches. First, it has been argued that a preoccupation with the extensive-intensive debate is futile as it has no promise of a solution in the near future and also because „epistemological purity‟ does not get research done (Miles &
Huberman, 1984). This view is supported by Howe (1988) who posited that truth is what works and so what works out well is what researchers should do. Secondly, it has been said that in view of the fact that the two approaches are both legitimate ways of understanding the world, they can be combined (Haase & Myers, 1988). Thirdly, combining the two approaches is useful in addressing issues of complexity in the phenomenon under study (Sale et al., 2002).
Migiro and Magangi (2011) argued that when used in combination in one study, quantitative and qualitative methods complement each other and allow for a more complete analysis of the research problem. According to them, the approaches are complementary rather than competitive and the use of a particular method or the decision to use both methods in a single study must be
17 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 based on the nature of the actual research problem. This position is in symphony with the views of
Lincoln and Guba (2005) as expressed by Christ (2007) that studies should be flexible, contrary to
Yin‟s (2006) argument that researchers must use preconceived procedures including overarching research questions that cover both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the study.
Regarding the reasons for using mixed methods, the most frequently cited reason is that of triangulation and cross-validation. Triangulation has been described by Denzin (1970) as an approach in which multiple observers, theoretical perspectives, sources of data and methodologies are combined. The logic of triangulation is to ensure validity and the emphasis on validity in this way is a positivist claim. Thus, it is important to note what worldview is guiding the overall study so as to ensure epistemic consistency (Creswell, 2003; Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Validity as used here is not a major aim in intensive research. Another reason for using a mixed method is for facilitation - using one as a precursor for the other. In this regard Hussein (2009) argues that triangulation is more precise as it aims to reveal complementarity, convergence and dissonance among the findings.
According to Morgan (1998), the most frequently used style is one that starts with a qualitative pilot study, followed by quantitative research as the main study. Rather than argue over which approach is best Condelli and Wrigley (2004) suggest a movement away from what they call
“false dichotomy” and gravitation toward mixed methods. According to them, by using a rigorous design the quantitative or extensive approach can tell us what works, while the qualitative or intensive approach can tell us how it works. Our position is that in applying extensive, intensive or mixed methods the researcher needs to provide justifications and apply analytical procedures that will make the end product acceptable. The methods used in collecting the data must fit the selected approach, and it is appropriate for the researcher to explain any tilts where the mixed method is applied. This makes it easier for other researchers to evaluate or utilize the information produced in an appropriate context.
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Methodology
This is essentially a qualitative study that relied on content analysis of available theses and dissertations that were displayed at the Institute for Development Studies‟ library. Research works undertaken by students at the Institute for Development Studies of the University of Cape Coast provided material for examining the usage of the various research approaches and study designs and how such selected approaches/designs were justified. The total number was not available, so all theses and dissertations that had been written since the inception of graduate programmes in 1993 and which had been displayed on the library shelves were used. The displayed theses were examined with respect to the justification of research approaches/study designs, and whether the methods used in collecting and analysing data were appropriate for the chosen approaches.
The theses spanned the period 1996 to 2009. According to the attending librarians, at the time of this study, the School of Graduate Studies and Research had not released theses submitted after 2009. For convenience, the selected theses were grouped into three tables based on five-year intervals, starting from 1996 when the first batch of theses were submitted, using the conventional statistical width of multiples of five and ten for grouping data. As research fellows from the
Institute we had to be reflexive (Lambert, Jomeen & McSherry, 2010) and apply our knowledge of the processes that lead to the production of theses and dissertations to guide the grouping. The combination of the dissertations and theses was therefore also based on our knowledge that the contents of the core courses like research methods and statistics and their delivery were similar across programmes.
Our expectation was that with respect to justifying the chosen research and study designs and their accompanying analytical procedures, all the students had the same or similar exposures. If there were going to be differences, these were likely to be in respect of depth of coverage and analytical rigour. The grouping led to three tables. Table 1 contained information on theses from
1996 to 2000, while Tables 2 and 3 contained information on theses and dissertations that were submitted in 2001-2005 and 2006 to 2009 respectively.
19 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Empirical evidence from students’ researches
For purposes of anonymity and confidentiality, the names of the student researchers have been omitted from the tables, and key words have been used to represent the titles. The dates have been maintained to provide a chronology of the theses and to help readers appraise whether the quality of the methodologies and the analytical rigour have improved, stayed the same or deteriorated over time. A total number of 48 theses/dissertations were examined. The contents of the theses were examined with respect to the topic, research design and the specific study design, and how the choice was justified and at what stage in the process the justification occurred, especially where students indicated that they used mixed methods. Based upon the contents and delivery of the research methods course, and the requirements of the University, a thesis or dissertation should have a methodology chapter and it is in this chapter that the justifications are expected to be made. The examination also focused on analytical tools and their appropriateness.
This was to determine whether the students were following procedures or were just acting conveniently.
The first set of documents from 1996-2000 are presented in Table 1. These were all theses, because the Master of Arts programmes had not been introduced. The evidence from the table show that frequencies and percentages, interspersed with chi- square analysis from cross-tabulations were the predominant analytical tools that were used by students in the beginning years of the programme. These analytical tools were chosen, even when the topic and the design suggested different methods or procedures. For instance an impact study listed as document one in Table 1 used chi-square instead of more comparative analytical procedures like paired samples t-test or its non-parametric equivalent. Documents five and nine indicated case study and qualitative designs respectively, yet both researchers used frequencies and chi-square analysis. These were not appropriate because both designs should not yield frequency related data. In essence, while some of the student researchers specified mixed methods yet chose frequencies and percentages to present
20 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
the data, others clearly stated that they used qualitative, participatory or case study approaches but
went ahead and used frequencies and percentages. These analytical and presentation choices are
very inconsistent and undermine the essence of the chosen study designs.
Table 1: Students’ theses submitted to the Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast for the period 1996-2000 No Date Topic, keywords Research design / Justification Where Analysis Study design mix mentioned 1 1996 Rural banks, None stated Not stated, not Frequencies, impact mentioned cross-tabs, chi-square 2 1996 Application of new Not stated Not stated, not Frequencies technologies to mentioned and farmers percentages 3 1996 Rural water Evaluative, Not stated, not Percentages management, Descriptive mentioned training 4 1996 Early childhood Participatory Not stated, not Frequencies, care and Approach mentioned cross-tabs development- programmes 5 1997 SSI, environmental Case study Not stated, not Frequencies, concerns mentioned cross-tabs, chi-square 6 1999 Development of Interpretive paradigm, Indirectly Interpretative, technological case study, grounded within frequencies, capabilities theory methodology means, chapter variance 7 1999 Safety training Experimental design Not stated, not Descriptive programme mentioned and evaluation inferential 8 2000 Population, Mixed Not stated, not Frequencies, poverty, mentioned percentages environment degradation 9 2000 Patent system, Qualitative Not stated, not Frequencies, industrial property mentioned percentages and economic dev. Source: Institute for Development Studies‟ Library, 2012
As can be seen or inferred from Table 2, similar methodological errors and inconsistencies
were prevalent in researches that were undertaken by students more than five years after the
implementation of the programme. The thesis/dissertation listed as four, for instance had a
descriptive cross-sectional design, yet instead of testing hypothesis as expected the author rather
21 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
used problem and objective tree analysis and “SWOT” analysis. Another descriptive cross-sectional
study (listed as 10) used frequencies and content analysis, and these are not appropriate. Apart from
a few students who ventured into different types of analysis, most of the researchers concentrated
on using frequencies and percentages with associated chi-square analysis.
Table 2: Students’ theses submitted to the Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast for the period 2001-2005 No Date Topic, keywords Research design / Justification Where Analysis Study design mix mentioned 1 2001 Women‟s Not stated Not stated, Frequencies, production and the not mentioned percentages, environment cross-tabs 2 2001 SAP and crop Model specification Not stated, Multiple production not mentioned regression 3 2001 Community exploratory Not stated, Frequencies, perception, not mentioned Percentages, education chi-square 4 2001 Rural water Descriptive, cross Not stated, Problem tree systems, sectional not mentioned analysis, management objective tree analysis, SWOT 5 2001 SSE‟s, linkage Sample survey Not stated, Frequencies, patterns not mentioned percentages, means 6 2002 Community Mixed Justified In Frequencies, participation data percentages processing and analysis 7 2002 Technological Mixed Not stated Data Descriptive, capacity building, analysis interpretative, Biotechnology frequencies, percentages 8 2002 Sanitation, hygiene Triangulation, Not stated, Descriptive, laboratory analysis not mentioned laboratory analysis 9 2002 Innovation Mixed Not stated, Frequencies, dissemination not mentioned percentages 10 2002 Women‟s Descriptive, cross- Not stated, Frequencies, circumstances sectional, evaluative not mentioned content analysis 11 2002 NGOs, street Not stated Not stated, Descriptive, children not mentioned comparative statistics 12 2002 Communication, Exploratory Not stated, Frequencies, project planning and not mentioned means implementation
22 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
13 2002 Attitudes to girl- Exploratory, Mixed Not Stated, Frequencies, child education not mentioned chi-square 14 2003 Local Development Mixed (case Not stated Data Regression, t- Financing, DA‟s, study) analysis distribution UE,UW 15 2003 Sustainable Rural Mixed Not stated Method of Sustainable Livelihoods, local (PRA/case study) study livelihood partnership analytical framework, descriptive, frequencies 16 2003 Credit programme Case study Not stated, Frequencies, for women not mentioned percentages, chi-square 17 2003 Community No design stated Not stated, Frequencies, Participation, not mentioned chi-square, Poverty reduction correlation programme 18 2003 SSEs, promotion Comparative design Not stated, Frequencies, not mentioned chi-square, Anova 19 2003 Labour needs Qualitative Not stated, Interpretative not mentioned 20 2004 Recruitment and Exploratory/descripti Not stated, Frequencies, Retention, health ve not mentioned percentages, workers chi-square 21 2005 Price fluctuations, Mixed Not stated Data Problem tree maize analysis analysis 22 2005 NGOs and women‟s Descriptive survey Frequencies, groups percentages 23 2005 HR and capacity Cross-sectional Not stated, Frequencies, building needs Descriptive not mentioned percentages, means Source: Institute for Development Studies‟ Library, 2012
Based upon the evidence in Table 3, it is quite obvious that the passage of time did nothing
to raise the knowledge of the student researchers regarding the choice of approach. More research
fellows had joined the system and some of the lecturers with superior ranks also came from
different departments within the faculty yet the analysis remained weak and inconsistent with the
chosen approaches. Case studies should not yield frequencies yet students continued to use
frequencies to present data. Where mixed methods were specified, very little was seen of any real
qualitative analytical procedures. For reliability and acceptability of the knowledge created some of
the topics should have been researched qualitatively, using constant comparative, phenomenology
23 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
or ethnography as the basis of analysis, yet the students resorted to the usual frequencies and
percentages. For instance, a cross-sectional survey should yield data that are interval or ratio scaled,
but as can be seen in the table, document one rather analysed frequencies. Similarly, document five
indicated a case study but ended up analysing frequencies.
Table 3: Students’ theses submitted to the Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast for the period 2006-2009 No Date Topic, Research design / Justification Where Analysis keywords Study design mix mentioned 1 2006 Child nutrition Descriptive, cross- Not stated, not Frequencies, and school sectional. mentioned percentages, performance chi-square 2 2006 Traditional Not stated Not stated, not Frequencies, Authorities in mentioned percentages local governance 3 2006 Community Not stated Not stated, not Interpretative, participation, mentioned frequencies sustainable Development 4 2007 Hygiene Not stated Not mentioned Frequencies, Behaviour percentages change 5 2007 Entrepreneurial Case study Not stated, not Frequencies, skill mentioned percentages, development chi-square 6 2007 Women, SSI, Quantitative Not stated, no Frequencies, AEED mentioned percentages 7 2007 Adolescent Mixed Stated in Frequencies, sexual and Research design percentages, Reproductive p59. chi-square health Justification awareness based on Sarantakos, 1998 8 2007 Fertility Cross sectional Not stated, not Frequencies, behaviour mentioned cross-tabs, Pearson correlation 9 2007 Indigenous Mixed Justified in Discourse, institutions and study design content development analysis, frequencies, percentages 10 2008 World Vision in Quantitative Not stated Data Frequencies, Rural (Descriptive survey) analysis percentages Development
24 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
11 2008 Traditional „more qualitative‟ „so analysis Comparative authorities, Role began on the analysis, in rural field‟ frequencies, development percentages 12 2008 Asset Mixed (case Not stated, not Chi-square categories, study) mentioned poverty, land 13 2008 Surface mining Mixed (cross-sectional Not stated, not Chi-square and the descriptive) mentioned environment 14 2009 Training Not stated Not stated, not Frequencies, Programmes, mentioned means Headteachers 15 2009 Training needs Case study Not stated, Data Frequencies, assessment analysis percentages 16 2009 Migration and Descriptive/explanatory Not stated, not Frequencies, status mentioned percentages, averages Source: Institute for Development Studies‟ Library, 2012
What we noticed from the review of the various theses and dissertations available showed
an overall weakness in the linkages of the various sections that make up the methodologies adopted
for the studies. Furthermore in the cases where both qualitative and quantitative approaches were
used the researchers simply reduced each one to its elementary form and as Steckler et al. (1992)
recommended, the researchers should have increased the level of sophistication for each method in
order to make the knowledge created more reliable. For those students who wrote that they used
qualitative studies, notwithstanding what they had written, none actually used any of the typical
data collection procedures, which according to Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003), should include a lot
more innovative methods like critical incident technique, diary studies, life histories, grounded
theory, document analysis, narratives, metaphors, ethnographic field notes and participant
observation.
The researchers who used the quantitative approach relied mostly on data presentation
techniques like frequency tables and charts, percentages and proportions and occasionally ventured
into measures of central tendency. Even those who reported measures of central tendency could not
attach any sophistication as to which measure could appropriately be referred to as the average. The
accompanying measures of dispersion were also left un-discussed. This implies inadequate
25 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 reporting and defeats the rigour principle in research. Usually, a quantitative approach, using survey instruments like questionnaires and interview schedules, should include inferential analysis like estimation and hypothesis testing (Steckler et al., 1992; Sarantakos, 2005; Babbie, 2007). These analyses should be done at both the composite level and a disaggregate level, but all were absent.
Four Ph.D. researchers used mixed methods but the justifications for their use were not provided and mention of quantitative or qualitative was usually in the section on data analysis, instead of research design. Eight M.Phil. researchers stated that they used mixed methods but only four offered justifications and these could be found, either in the research design section or in the data analysis section. Mostly, no justifications were offered and neither was the mix method even mentioned. The analytical techniques were just as simple as those used by the researchers who adopted single methodology approaches, quite contrary to what Steckler et al. (1992) advised that mix methods warrant more advanced analysis.
Conclusions
There are methodological weaknesses in researches that have been undertaken by students at the Institute for Development Studies. The gaps illustrated in the empirical section convey problems with respect to reasonableness of the facts produced by the students and the underlying logic. These in turn, affect validity and acceptability of the findings and conclusions. However, the problems or weaknesses cannot be attributed to the students alone. There is a whole system from lectures, to proposal presentation and work-in-progress seminars, followed by assessment, oral defence, and vetting that seems to have been inadequate in terms of enforcement. In the words of Aguado
(undated), while students should be encouraged to explore their interests, there is also a need to maintain control in order for goals to be met. It is obvious that the goal is quality research that leads to quality findings and conclusions, but the controls have not been sufficient. In fairness to the researchers, many adduced reasons of inadequate time and funds for their inability to undertake more advanced analysis. Despite those reasons, it is plausible that their inability to apply more
26 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 advanced analytical techniques is due more to unfamiliarity and or personal methodological weaknesses.
It is worth repeating that the differences between intensive and extensive research strategies are not trivial. They range from objectivity versus subjectivity, fixed categories versus emergent categories, outsider versus insider‟s perspectives and a static reality versus fluid reality. Clearly, these differences go beyond technical issues to include epistemological and ontological assumptions as well as differences in intellectual goals. The choice of one over the other as well as any combination of them should therefore be informed, not only by technical considerations, but by philosophical considerations as well. They ask different types of research questions – each serves a certain unique purpose. For this simple reason, extensive and intensive research strategies should not just be mixed in a single study for triangulation or cross-validation purposes only. Any attempt to use a hybrid of the two approaches should be appropriately justified and appropriately applied, taking into account the analytical expectations for each. It is important for the role that each method plays to be made clear in the research process and this should be backed by proper implementation.
It is apparent that many students are not aware of the appropriate analytical tools for either quantitative studies or qualitative studies, let alone the mixed methods approaches. Since the fault does not lie with only the students, there are implications for the way that research methods courses should be taught and how courses that deal with data analysis ought to be handled. The implications also extend to theses‟ supervision and assessment since these are integral part of students‟ knowledge creation processes. The lecturers, supervisors and assessors all have roles to play and must play these roles objectively. Instead of assigning lecturers for research methods and statistics simply because they are available, it behoves upon the Institute to assign lecturers to such core courses based on their expertise, experience, commitment and willingness to innovate. Practical components can be introduced, and attendance at the seminars have to be made mandatory for students, with active participation of lecturers, research fellows and supervisors. Examiners or assessors must also be collegial and play their objective roles instead of allowing personal
27 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 knowledge of supervisors and halo effects to influence their assessments. Theses and dissertations that have not been supervised well should not be passed, and students that do not co-operate with supervisors need to be sanctioned. It is incumbent upon all those who are involved in the processes to insist upon clarity of the approach and consistency in expectations.
References
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30 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Community Perception of Decentralization and Poverty Reduction: The Case of Elmina in the
Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) District of Ghana
Henrietta Abane Department of Sociology and Anthropology University of Cape Coast [email protected]
Michael Sakyi-Darko Department of Sociology and Anthropology University of Cape Coast
ABSTRACT Most developing nations such as Ghana have adopted a decentralized administrative procedure to speed up development and to reduce poverty. In Ghana, the decentralization efforts have made Metropolitan/Municipal/District Assemblies the focal points of local development. This research set out to examine whether the District Assembly in Elmina has played a key role in reducing poverty among its people from the community members own perspective. The study adopted an exploratory research survey design which used accidental sampling to collect data from 120 respondents from five cluster areas within the Elmina community. Data collected was analysed qualitatively with the help of descriptive statistics. The study revealed that respondents perceived poverty in various ways and identified lack of education, poor infrastructural development and lack of access to loans as the main causes of poverty in the town. Again, it revealed that respondents had little idea what a decentralized governance system entailed though they were aware of some of the responsibilities and roles of the District Assembly. Respondents claimed that in their subjective view, decentralization has helped in reducing poverty and improved individual well-being. It is recommended that the Assembly educates the people of Elmina on the system of local governance in the country and encourage them to fully participate in the development process. Additionally, the Assembly should be fair in its efforts at improving the quality of life of individuals to reduce the possibility of “fault lines” within the social fibre.
Keywords – Poverty, poverty reduction, decentralization, development
31 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Introduction
Developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America such as Benin, Ghana, Vietnam and
Brazil have embarked upon decentralization processes in an attempt to reduce poverty among their peoples and improve their quality of life. Poverty has multidimensional facets and has therefore been linked to a number of issues. The United Nations (2000) links poverty to the total absence of opportunities and chronic shortage of economic, social and political participation in terms of access to the benefits of economic and social development. Nolan & Whelan (2010) identify two basic reinforcing elements of poverty to be the inability to participate in society and having inadequate resources which includes income to meet one‟s basic needs. Poverty has also been linked to risk and vulnerability of livelihoods (Devereaux & Cipryk, 2009; Ellis, 2000; Carney, 1998). The World
Bank (2001) links poverty to income and consumption levels and defines a poverty line necessary to meet people‟s basic needs. Sen (1999) links poverty to the deprivation of one‟s basic capabilities or substantive freedoms. Sen argues that income is not the only instrument for generating capabilities. Yet income poverty and capability poverty are related because enhanced capabilities tend to expand a person‟s ability to be more productive and earn a higher income. Another important strand in discussions on poverty is access to capital assets and the ways in which these assets combine and transform to build livelihoods (DfID, 2000; DfID, 1999; Chambers & Conway
1992). Generally, the literature on poverty is replete with views that suggest that the concept of poverty is multi-dimensional as well as dynamic and involves both economic pointers and social indicators such as deprivation, exclusion, powerlessness and lack of access to resources such as education and health (Commins, 2004). The UNDPs Human Development Reports generated since the 1990s has moved away from the sole use of per capita GDP as the determinant of poverty through the introduction of the Human Development Index (HDI) to the use of the Multi- dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) (Government of Ghana, 2013). Whereas the HDI as a measure of development goes beyond income to incorporate, life expectancy, literacy and school enrolment
32 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 rates, the MPI captures education, health and living standards and thus relies on non-monetary information to measure and understand poverty.
The dynamics of poverty has changed since the 1980s in Ghana. Although there has been a reduction in the population defined as poor, and broad improvements in the social indicators such as primary school enrolment, life expectancy and infant mortality rates, the country still faces problems of low income, malnutrition, inadequate access to safe water, illiteracy and endemic diseases (Government of Ghana, 2013; ISODEC, 2003). The Ghana Statistical Service for example has indicated that poverty rates in the country have reduced drastically with absolute poverty reducing from a 2005/6 figure of 31.9% to 24.2% while extreme poverty has dropped from 16.5% to 8.4% correspondingly (Government of Ghana, 2013). In addition to the improved social indicators, there has been an increase in aggregate employment although much of this is in the informal sector. In spite of these gains, income inequality across regions and between men and women remains high. Poverty in Ghana is therefore unevenly distributed across the country. For instance the ILOs country brief on decent work pilot programme cites that whereas 2% of the population in Greater Accra region lives in extreme poverty, the figure shoots up to 59% in the rural savannah region which covers much of the three northern regions. The document also cites that in the 1990s, the Upper East, Northern and Central regions experienced increased levels of poverty and extreme poverty. (ILO, nd) Poverty levels in the rural areas of Ghana are also higher than in the urban areas (Ghana Statistical Service, 2007). For example, whereas 27.7 %, 19.4 % and 10.8% of the Ghanaian population in urban areas were poor in 1991/92, 1998/99 and 2005/6 respectively, the figures were 63.6%, 49.5% and 39.2% respectively in the corresponding years for rural areas.
The incidence and distribution of poverty in the country has called for successive governments to put in place strategies geared towards its alleviation and reduction. Since the turn of the 21st
Century, the United Nations has focused on poverty reduction as the main goal of development interventions using the millennium Development Goals as benchmarks whilst the World Bank has
33 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 provided the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers as a framework within which developing countries can address poverty.
One dimension of the poverty debate is how well-being is perceived. Noll (2002) and
Erikson (1993) believe that a people‟s well-being could be measured based on local understanding of either resources and objective living conditions or the outcome of conditions and processes.
Within the first approach, well-being is understood as an individual‟s command or lack of it over resources such as money, property, knowledge, social relations and security. The second approach perceives well-being subjectively to the extent that individuals themselves become the best experts to evaluate them. If development aims at reducing poverty for the broad masses of the poor, then following the subjective approach, a number of questions may be posed. Whose yardstick is used to measure development, the people experiencing the good change and improvement or the outsider evaluating the change? This study is aimed at investigating a community‟s understanding of poverty, knowledge of concept of local governance, awareness of the responsibilities of local governance structures, as well as their evaluation of whether decentralization has promoted development in their lives and community.
The Study Area
Elmina is a town located in the central region of the country. It is the administrative capital of the Komenda-Edina-EguafoAbirem (KEEA) Municipality. The Municipality is bounded on the south by the Gulf of Guinea, the east by the Cape Coast Metropolis, the north by the Twifo-
Hemang-Lower Denkyira District and the west by the Mpohor-Wassa East District. The KEEA
District is predominantly rural (70.3%) with about 158 settlements. Out of these, Elmina and
Komenda are the only towns and their population constitute a third of the total population of the
District (KEEA, 2007). The District has a number of infrastructural projects in place. In terms of education, there are both private and state schools provided at the basic education level. There are twelve private schools at the pre-school, primary and Junior High School level compared with
34 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 nineteen state schools for the primary level only. The only Senior High School and Polytechnic have been provided by the government. The District has been categorized alongside thirty-nine others countrywide as deprived and therefore basic school pupils are given state support with their education. In the area of health provisioning, the study district has one district hospital, 4 health centres, 4 functioning CHPS compounds and 2 functioning private maternity homes.
The KEEA District experiences environmental problems that are a result of poor management of both liquid and solid waste. There are very few disposal facilities that are not frequently emptied. Refuse is disposed of in open drains and any available places and this tends to block drains and causes flooding anytime it rains. Within the District, informal sector employment is high with people employed in construction, retailing, small-scale manufacturing and agro- processing (food and fish) and service activities. There are few industrial concerns in Elmina. These include batik, tie and dye making, production of sachet drinking water, canoe and boat building and repair, fishing and salt mining and the illegal mining of sand, stones and clay.
The district however, is a potential tourist destination. There are two UNESCO Heritage protected sites – the castle of St. George d‟Elmina and fort Coenraadsburg on St. Jag Hill. There are also relics of old and traditional buildings as well as shrines and festivals worth showcasing (KEEA,
2007).
In the Elmina community, there exists NGOs like the Community Development Committee
(Groups) and the Save Elmina Association (SEA) which was founded by a small group of Elmina citizens and Dutch nationals. The objective of the CDC and SEA is primarily to promote the socio- economic development of the Elmina Traditional Area, and in particular the conservation and restoration of historical buildings and other features of particular interest in Elmina. Another NGO is the National Society for the Advancement of our Legacy (NASOL). It was found in 1997 in response to the widespread poverty situation in the country in general and Elmina in particular. The organization provides self-help facilities, pre-school facilities, and basic health facilities, formal and informal education to rural communities. It also develops entrepreneurial skills, provides financial
35 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 assistance and manages pension schemes for the people of Elmina. The Central and Western
Fishmongers Association (CEWEFIA) is a NGOs work to reduce poverty and enhance the standard of living of people in Elmina (KEEA, 2007).
The Study Area
Source: Cartographic Unit, Department of Geography and Regional Planning, University of Cape Coast; 2015.
Methodology
The study adopted the exploratory survey design. The target population of the study covered the adult population in Elmina and accidental sampling was used to select 120 respondents. This was done by stratifying Elmina into 5 cluster areas and then accidentally sampling 24 adults from each cluster. They were made up of 68 men and 52 women. Respondents to the study were interviewed with the help of an interview guide which was designed to elicit responses on views on
36 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 poverty-nature and causes, the decentralization concept, perceived roles of District Assemblies, perceived poverty alleviation projects that have been embarked upon by the District Assembly in the community and their impact on the people of Elmina. Data collected have been analyzed qualitatively based on the themes.
Frameworks for poverty reduction in Ghana
The country has had a checkered history of attempts at poverty reduction and improvements in the quality of life of its people. This has gone through Nkrumah‟s 7-year development plan
(1964-1970) that emphasized industrialization through import substitution, Busia‟s rural development programme that provided basic amenities and improved agriculture and
Acheampong‟s attempt at food sufficiency to efforts towards economic recovery. In the early 1980s through to the mid-1990s, the World Bank and IMF guided the country to implement three economic recovery programmes (ERP I and II and a Structural Adjustment Programme). The goal of these recovery programmes was to create an economic climate conducive to the generation of capital and promote production particularly in the export sector. This was followed by the institution of poverty reduction strategies between 2003 and 2009. The Ghana Poverty Reduction
Strategy I (GPRSI) 2003-2005 was prepared as a precondition for the country to benefit from a significant measure of debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC)
(Government of Ghana, 2004; World Bank, 2000). It was aimed at improving the country‟s macro- economic environment as well as focus on the component of human development which targeted measures designed to improve access to basic needs and essential services; education, safe water, and improved health, environmental sanitation, modernized agriculture, private sector development, and good governance (Government of Ghana, 2004; World Bank, 2000).
The GPRSI resulted in stable macro-economic conditions. Its success led to the Growth and
Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRSII) in 2006-2009. The latter‟s strategy direction was shifted to accelerate economic growth towards sustained poverty reduction by supporting the private sector to
37 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 create wealth (World Bank, 2006). Currently the government‟s national development policy framework is hinged around shared growth and development, an agenda designed to achieve and sustain macroeconomic stability while placing the economy on a higher path of shared growth, and poverty reduction from 2010 to 2013. This involves laying the foundation for transformation in the manufacturing (agriculture and exploitation of natural resources) sector through infrastructural and human development as well as the application of science, technology and innovation (Government of Ghana, 2010a).
In addition to all these has been the institution of social intervention programmes with a view to protect vulnerable social groups in the country from falling into absolute poverty. Current intervention programmes include National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Ghana School Feeding
Programme (GSFP) the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and Livelihood
Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme.
The policy approaches to reducing poverty in the country have been based mainly on modernization theory that underlies the neoliberalist ideals. Modernization theory explains the process of modernization or development of developing societies. The theory argues that societies develop in fairly predictable stages through which they become increasingly complex (Rostow,
1960). Positing that modern societies possessed a set of characteristics that had allowed them to advance economically, modernization theory focused on strategies to facilitate a transition from traditional (generally third-world countries) to modern (Western) economies (Rostow, 1960).
Modernization theory itself was a diverse set of ideas about how to facilitate this transition. One such idea involved the transformation of values in traditional societies to those similar in Western societies. Another adopted a dual economy approach which uses different strategies to develop rural and urban sectors of a traditional society.
In contrast to the modernization theory are the dependency and world systems theories.
Dependency theorists looked beyond domestic economies to suggest that the persistence of underdevelopment could be explained through long histories of unequal exchange between Europe
38 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 and the United States and the rest of the world. These relationships, emerging from imperialism and colonialism, were at once fundamental to the rise of the West and central to the structural underdevelopment of the rest of the world (Peet with Hartwick, 1999; Hoogvelt, 1982; Rodney,
1973). The dependency theory employs a core-periphery model to identify strategies that lead to dependent relations between developed and underdeveloped societies. Such strategies include an import substitution industrialization and international division of labour. The theory thus queries processes of transformation and sees underdevelopment to be produced in a global, historical and relational framework. World-systems perspectives on development tend to be structuralist and deeply historical. World-systems sociologists see the global South and the global North as interdependent components of a single global socioeconomic system (Peet with Hartwick, 1999).
It is expected that the planned policies will be implemented by decentralized structures of local government to ensure their success. This is because a decentralized governance is favoured as the most suitable mode of governance through which poverty reduction interventions can be conceived, planned, implemented, monitored and evaluated (Kauzya, 2005).
Decentralization, poverty reduction and local development
A strong link has been identified between decentralized structures and the provision of development projects across societies. This is in spite of the fact that decentralization takes place in different policy environments, are grounded in divergent political traditions, and imply the reform of very different administrative systems (Bossuy & Gould, 2000). Decentralization is the devolution of resources, tasks, and decision-making power to democratically elected lower-level authorities that are largely or wholly independent of central government. It could be political, administrative, fiscal or market based decentralization (Massuanganhe, 2005). Effective local governance is crucial to the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals. It is thus important that there be transfer of political powers, resources and assets to local government structures to enable them address community needs. Bossuyt and Gould (2000) believe that decentralization cannot only
39 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 ensure a more efficient allocation of resources but also enhance local resource mobilization, processes that may pave the way for more effective poverty reduction strategies. According to the authors, political devolution can empower actors to effectively participate in decision-making processes and when actors are given greater control over local authority structures, they may be motivated to commit more assets to the common good. The main functions of local governments have been identified by Massuanganhe (2005) to include the provision of public infrastructure and related services such as water supply and sewerage, road network, waste management and public lighting, public transport, planning and land management and housing. Others are social development such as education, public health, culture and tradition, minorities, civil society development and human rights and the collection and spending of revenues under its own authority and at its own discretion. Thus two aspects of decentralization have been identified in the literature, political or democratic and economic (Jutting, Kauffmann, Mc Donnell, Osterrieder, Pinaud, &
Wegner, 2004). The first is expected to offer citizens the possibility of increased participation in local decision-making processes, offer a voice to the poor and give them better access to local public services by reducing vulnerability and insecurity. The second is expected to impact positively on poverty through increased efficiency and better targeting of services (Jutting et al.,
2004). Yet, according to the Jutting et al. (2004), decentralization relies on two sets of conditions to impact positively on poverty. These are the background conditions inherited by a country and the process conditions of decentralization. The background conditions include first, the country setting in terms of population density, state of infrastructure, level of income and level of inequalities across regions, Second is the capacity of local actors, the culture of accountability and legal enforcement. Third, the role of social institutions in encouraging or discouraging participation of excluded groups and fourth, the nature of the political power structure. The process conditions of decentralization have been identified to include the following: the ability and willingness to carry out reforms, transparency and participation, elite capture and corruption and policy coherence
(Jutting et al., 2004). In addition to background conditions of a country and the process conditions
40 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 of decentralization, the authors indicate that the outcome of any decentralization process depends on its overarching objectives.
Decentralization reforms have had a long history in Ghana. From independence to the late
1980‟s, successive governments attempted to decentralize authority through regional devolution and district focused public administration (Stevenson & Trollegaard, nd). It was not until the 1970‟s that a four tier structure consisting of Regional, District, Local Councils and Town and Village
Development Committees was put in place with the District Councils made the focal point of local government and given administrative and executive power for local level development and governance. A local government law was promulgated in 1988 and the major features of the policy included the shift from command approaches to consultative processes, the devolution of power, competence and resources, as well as the delegation of functions from central government to the district level. Asante and Ayee (2004) identify the objectives of decentralization in Ghana to include participation, empowerment, accountability, decongestion of the national capital, effectiveness and checking the rural-urban drift (p. 7). They indicate that through decentralization, poverty reduction programmes would reflect what people want as well as local and regional variations in preferences.
Organisational structure and functions of local government in Ghana
Ghana is a unitary state that is divided into ten administrative regions. The structure of the country‟s local governance has three tiers. The first tier is the Regional Coordinating Councils
(RCCs). This is tasked with coordinating policy implementation amongst the district assemblies. At this level, Ahwoi (2010) indicates that the nature of decentralization is deconcentration.
Deconcentration aims at transferring responsibilities to field and subordinate units of government.
Here, field units basically remain under the hierarchical authority of central state authorities and have no distinct legal existence from the central state (Ahwoi, 2010; Jutting et al., 2004). The second tier is the District, Municipalities and Metropolises each of them having an assembly as the
41 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 highest political authority. Districts, Municipalities and Metropolitan Assemblies are differentiated by population size (over 250,000 inhabitants for a Metropolitan, over 90,000 inhabitants for
Municipal and over 70,000 inhabitants for a District). Ahwoi (2010) identifies that at the district level, the nature of decentralization is one of devolution of legislative, taxation and borrowing powers, a transfer of competencies from the central state to distinct legal entities. The third tier comprises sub district structures in the form of sub-metropolitan, zonal, urban, town and area councils. These sub-structures do not have any legislative powers but function on the basis of powers delegated to them by the District Assemblies. Thus at this lower level, decentralization is one of delegation of duties and assignments by the District Assembly (Ahwoi, 2010).
Ghana‟s decentralization efforts have made Metropolitan/Municipal/District Assemblies
(MMDAs) the focal points of local development. The system is one in which these assemblies
• are empowered as legislative, administrative, development planning, budgeting, rating and
service delivery authorities;
• have clearly defined functions and responsibilities as well as the power to own, control and
manage important expenditure decisions in the local public sector;
• have adequate financial resources and substantial autonomy in the allocation and utilization
of resources;
• have ownership of their budgets;
• have structures and mechanisms to promote and enhance probity, accountability and
transparency in their administration;
• achieve efficiency, effectiveness and economy in the management of resources;
• have the capacity to deliver on their mandate
(Government of Ghana, 2010b)
It is evident from the above that the MMDAs are given administrative and executive powers for local level development and governance. They are to provide economic and social infrastructure and other facilities that inure to the public good. It is expected that the development that is delivered
42 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 should be functional. For instance, the government of Ghana draft decentralization policy framework of 2010 believes that the provision of a school building or health centre is not development unless the school building has teachers, pupils, books and other facilities that make the school building functional. In addition, the District Assembly must deliver services such as primary health care, environmental hygiene, municipal transport, waste management, market management, lorry parks administration, and settlement planning. These services must be timely, efficient and effective as far as possible. Furthermore, the District Assemblies are to provide the facilitating environment for private sector-led development through policies that promote job creation, the establishment of local industries as well facilitate intra and inter district trade.
To help with their functions, District Planning and Coordinating Units (DPCUs) have been established to coordinate the planning activities of sector development related departments/agencies in the district; synthesize strategies related to the development of the district into a comprehensive and cohesive framework and formulate and update district development plans. The coordinating units are also to create access to the communal resources for the country for all communities and promote transparency and accountability (Government of Ghana, 2010b). These, when properly implemented, would facilitate economic growth and income generation, and generally reduce poverty and promote household welfare.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Perception of Poverty, Nature and Causes
Respondents had a good perception of what poverty entails. Table 1 depicts respondents‟ perception of what poverty is about.
Table 1: Perception of the Poor
Perception of the poor Frequency Percentage Lack access to social amenities 44 36.7 Lack access to credit 35 29.2 Unemployed 22 18.3
43 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Lack sustained incomes 17 14.1 No response 2 1.7 TOTAL 120 100 Source: Fieldwork, 2015
Respondents generally perceived poverty in different ways. Whereas 36.7% of respondents perceived poverty to depict a lack of access to social amenities such as education, health, potable water and good roads, 29.2% perceived it to be the result of lack of credit to start or expand their trading, fishing and other commercial activities. 32.4% related it to a situation of unemployment and lack of incomes and hence one in which people are unable to own property, feed, clothe and put shelter over their heads or fend for themselves. In addition, an overwhelming majority (90%) of respondents were of the view that women were more vulnerable to being poor by virtue of the fact that they had difficulty in accessing jobs and loans. Table 2 presents respondents‟ perception of the causes of poverty in their community.
Table 2 Perception of Causes of Poverty
Causes of poverty Frequency Percentage
Lack of education 59 49.1
Poor infrastructure development 32 26.7
Poor access to loans/credit/income 26 21.7
Others 3 2.5
TOTAL 120 100
Source: Fieldwork, 2015
Respondents also identified lack of education (49.1%), poor infrastructural development
(26.7%) and lack of access to loans/credit (21.7%) as the three most important causes of poverty in their town. These are in addition to responses such as laziness, long term sickness, unemployment and large family sizes. They explained that lack of access to education limited opportunities available to good careers and incomes whilst poor infrastructural development such as few public
44 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 toilets, un-motorable roads, poor electricity and water supply and dilapidated school buildings in the town did not improve the quality of life and well-being of the people. Respondents however singled out lack of education as the main cause of poverty (72%) and this supports Day &
Newburger‟s (2002) assertion that education enables people to overcome poverty. Where there are no schools, another essential element of basic infrastructure, it becomes difficult to educate children, leading to a cycle that deprives later generations of learning. Infrastructure development is the basis for poverty reduction as well as social and economic growth. It is not surprising that respondents in Elmina were unanimous in their claim that lack of education was responsible for the prevalence of poverty in the community. Seventy four (74) per cent of respondents either had no education or had basic education up to Junior High School level. Respondents‟ educational background highly reflected the low status-low income type of jobs they were engaged in as fishermen and fish traders, petty traders, farmers and artisans (83%). Limited livelihood opportunities come about when one does not have access to education or a skill that will open up opportunities to move away from the state of being poor.
The literature reveals that poverty is multi-dimensional so it was not surprising that respondents could not give a complete catalogue of what poverty entails but rather identified aspects of it. Respondents‟ perception of poverty could also be in line with their subjective experience of it, what Chambers (1995) refers to as the realities of the poor. For Chambers, the realities of the poor are local, complex, diverse, dynamic, personal and multidimensional. In identifying the nature of the poor, it is noteworthy that respondents did not include other forms of deprivation such as vulnerability, powerlessness, voiceless, isolation and social inferiority also identified in the literature (Chambers, 1995). It appears respondents were not aware of the fact that the poor could also be conceptualized in terms of intangible things such as Chambers had identified.
Reasons given for who are considered poor also supports that of Otite and Okali (1990), who among other things said the poor lack finance and support for education and Sen (1999) that the poor lack capabilities to make them functional. According to the Government of Ghana‟s Poverty
45 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Reduction Strategy Paper, accessing loans is difficult since the peoples‟ source of livelihood fluctuates. Without capital, one will have limited opportunities since he or she will not be able to provide the basic things one needs in life. By singling out lack of education as the most important cause of poverty, respondents are in agreement with the position taken by modernization theorists that education is the single most important variant in the development process (see Carmody, 2004).
Awareness about activities/responsibilities of District Assemblies
It appeared that the majority of respondents (80%) had no idea what a decentralized governance system entailed and had limited knowledge of the responsibilities and roles of District
Assemblies. For the minority of respondents, decentralization involved making governance accessible to all, government giving power to local authorities and giving people attention.
Respondents expected the District Assemblies to deal with issues of sanitation, provide infrastructure in schools, health, toilets and markets, ensure peace and security and enforce the by- laws of the District. The limited awareness of the concept of decentralization and expected roles and responsibilities of decentralized administrative units among respondents of Elmina is not surprising as majority of respondents had only up to basic education. In spite of respondents‟ limited knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of District Assemblies, they were aware of on – going projects being undertaken by their District Assembly and the effects of such projects on their well-being.
Respondents could also impugn blame on individuals or the District Assemblies for the poverty experienced in the town. For some respondents (28.3%), individuals could not be blamed for their being poor rather it is the District Assemblies that should be blamed. According to this group of respondents, there was a general hardship in the economy that made it difficult for people to be employed and earn incomes. Furthermore, it was the DA‟s responsibility to provide the physical infrastructure, health and educational needs of the people. For this category of respondents therefore, the poor in society cannot be blamed for their situation. They rather needed external
46 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 support – the benevolence of others and support of the state or District Assembly. Unfortunately, these respondents claimed that the District Assembly had not been alive to its responsibilities. Other respondents (71.7%) also believed that individuals were to be blamed for their poor state. Such respondents claimed that people were poor because they were not hardworking and industrious; they did not take advantage of job opportunities and had large family sizes. The attribution of majority of respondents to the inherent nature of the poor is in line with the position of modernization theorists that tend to blame the poor for their own poverty and exclude the system and social relations for creating conditions for the poor to be in poverty. For such theorists, the traditional way of doing things must change to embrace more scientific ways if societies are to develop. But they ignore the structures within which individuals and societies operate that tend to present barriers to their advancement.
This group of respondents also claimed that the District Assembly had engaged in a number of projects and programmes that had the potential to reduce poverty in Elmina. Such Projects and programmes include a free school-feeding programme that had a potential to improve enrolment in basic schools, the establishment of a fish processing plant, repair of a dilapidated bridge and financial support for small businesses. Other projects cited are the building and rehabilitation of schools, provision of furniture to basic schools, provision of computers to the public Senior High
School and funding and resourcing the salt industry in the town. It appears that respondents are highly aware of the projects being undertaken by the District Assembly particularly in Elmina.
Pictures of most development projects in the District have been pasted on the Assembly‟s website and include the above as well as rehabilitation of school blocks and Elmina court building, provision of infrastructure to the Senior High school, re-tarring of roads and the construction of public toilets. The provision of infrastructure and other amenities according to Kessides (1993) provides one with the possibilities to acquire wealth and thus climb out of poverty.
47 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Perceived effects of poverty reduction projects on poverty in Elmina
Majority of respondents, 88 (73%) claimed that the projects embarked upon by the District
Assembly were designed to reduce poverty and actually had made an impact on the well-being and quality of lives of residents of Elmina; whereas 27% claimed the projects had had no significant improvements on their well-being. For respondents who claimed an improvement on their well- being, 46 (52.3%) claimed that the rehabilitation of school buildings and the provision of furniture and computers for instance had encouraged school enrolment and basic school feeding of pupils.
Thirty (34.1%) of these claimed that the District Assembly had offered financial assistance to the needy and disabled whereas 12 (13.6%) claimed that they now had access to social amenities and loans for trading. The second category of respondents who claimed that the District Assembly had not affected their lives gave a number of reasons for their position. These included the fact that the
Assembly was not responsive to their needs (50%), had not given them sufficient financial assistance (35.7%), and could not control child delinquency in the community (14.3%).
Respondents who raised the issue of loans to traders from the two sets of responses (45 representing
37%) however observed the lack of equity in the distribution of loans given to operators of small businesses. A handful of respondents also complained about the few basic schools that were selected to benefit from the school feeding programme and suggested that this could be done in a fairer way. Asante and Ayee (2004) made a similar observation on micro credit facilities given by selected District Assemblies in Ghana to support small-scale businesses. The authors observed that the modalities for selection were not clear, and that there was a perception that most of the beneficiaries were selected based on political party affiliation. In addition, the authors also found that the loans were too small to make any meaningful impact on lives and were not distributed on time.
In addition, 45% of respondents claimed that they were aware of some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also working to give interventions that were aimed at reducing poverty in their town. Mention was made of two active NGOs, namely Central and Western Fishmongers
48 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Association (CEWEFIA) and the National Society for Advancement of our Legacy (NASOL) that had provided microcredit financing to traders, outboard motors to fishermen, chorkor wire nets for fishmongers and had extended electricity to some parts of the community, interventions that had helped beneficiaries to be empowered with sustainable livelihoods. Respondents, although appreciating the efforts of these two civil society organizations, claimed that they needed more support from both the District Assembly and the CSOs.
It appears respondents do not see the District Assembly engage in some service delivery as mandated by the 2010 Draft policy- waste management, market management, lorry park administration, environmental hygiene, etc.- and thus could not identify these as services offered to the community. It is also plausible that respondents could not see how the delivery of such services is related to improvement in their wellbeing. Although the Assembly had embarked upon a number of projects in Elmina, rehabilitating old ones and erecting new ones, the extent to which these were functional as the draft policy expected could not be determined in this study.
There is also no doubt that building people‟s capacities to earn sustainable livelihoods is important and desirable as the multiplier effects in the long run tends to improve their quality of life and lift them out of poverty. However, respondents claimed that only a few of the needy had access to such help and could indicate that the distribution was skewed to favourites and thus inequitable.
When the distribution of the support items tends to exclude others and therefore negate social justice, the total well-being of society suffers as disparities and inequalities create fault lines within the fabric of society. It is also evident that civil society organizations are partnering the District
Assembly to help reduce poverty in Elmina. Care however should be taken to ensure that the people of Elmina do not become dependent on handouts.
Conclusion
This research set out to examine whether the District Assembly in Elmina has played a key role in reducing poverty among the people from the peoples‟ own perspective. Key findings are that
49 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 most respondents are aware of the nature of the poor and what causes poverty. Respondents however are unaware of the fact that the poor also may be identified with intangible variables such as powerlessness and isolation. Another finding is the fact that most respondents are unaware of what goes into a decentralized system of local governance but are aware of some of the responsibilities and physical projects put in place by the District Assembly. Respondents also claimed that in their subjective estimation, the Assembly has worked to reduce poverty in the community but cautioned that it must ensure equity in the distribution of some social protection support systems. A number of conclusions may be drawn from the key findings identified in the study. First, the people of Elmina need to be educated on the system of local governance in the country as well as the role and responsibilities of the District Assemblies. Second, the multidimensionality of poverty informs not only efforts to understand and analyse poverty but also, crucially, the development and operationalisation of interventions to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development. The District Assembly as a duty bearer is obliged to respect, protect and fulfill all human rights entitlements of individuals through carefully prioritized and strategic selection of interventions. However, since respondents identified lack of education as the major cause of poverty, the District Assembly as a matter of urgency should improve school enrolment and retention rates and vigorously pursue technical and vocational training for the youth. The emphasis on education will improve the general quality of life through higher incomes and will make residents less reliant on handouts from state and NGOs. Finally, care should be taken whilst improving the quality of life of individuals not to create cleavages and fault lines within the social fibre that have the tendency to implode.
References Ahwoi, K. (2010). Rethinking decentralization and local government in Ghana – proposals for amendment. IEA.
Asante, F. A., & Ayee, J. R. A. (2004). Decentralisation and Poverty Reduction, paper presented at the international conference on „Ghana at the Half Century‟, July 18-20, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana and Cornell University, Accra, Ghana. 50 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Bossuyt, J., & Gould, J. (2000). Decentralization and poverty reduction: elaborating the linkages. Policy Management Brief No. 12 Maastricht: ECDPM.
Carmody, B. P. (2004). The evolution of education in Zambia. Bookworld Publishers.
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Chambers, R. (1995). Poverty and livelihoods: Whose reality counts? IIED (http://www.sagepublications.com) Accessed on 16th June 2014.
Commins, P. (2004). Poverty and social exclusion in rural areas: characteristics, processes and research issues. Sociologia Ruralis, 44 (1), 60-75.
Devereaux, S., & Cipryk, R. (2009). Social Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa. A regional review. Centre for Social Protection (www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfiles/SocialProtectioninSubSaharaAfrica.pdf) Accessed on 16th June, 2014.
DfID (1999). Sustainable livelihoods and poverty elimination. London: DfID.
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Government of Ghana (2010b). Draft Decentralization Policy Framework. Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.
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ILO (nd). Decent Work Pilot Programme. Country brief: Ghana. Accessed at www.ilo.org on 28th September, 2015.
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World Bank (2006). Ghana – Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and 2004 annual progress report. Washington DC: World Bank. (http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/04/7042768/ghana-growth-poverty- reduction-strategy-paper-prsp-2004-annual-progress-report) Retrieved 4th April, 2008.
53 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Change and continuity: Use of indigenous knowledge in selected farming and fishing
communities in Central Region, Ghana
Esia-Donkoh, Kobina
Senior Lecturer, Department of Population and Health, University of Cape Coast
Awusabo-Asare, Kofi
Professor, Department of Population and Health, University of Cape Coast
Abstract
Indigenous knowledge, encompassing skills, experiences and insights of local people used to address issues of daily life including that of the environment. As a basis for survival and livelihood strategies, it encapsulates the total worldview of the people of a given society. Using constellations of cosmovision related knowledge model, the study assessed indigenous practices adopted by farmers and fishermen in 15 selected communities in five traditional areas in the Ekumfi District and Mfantsiman Municipality of the Central Region of Ghana. Of relevance are these practices to environmental sustainability. Data were derived from key-informant interviews with community leaders, elders and other opinion leaders, focus group discussions with selected youth and a survey was conducted among 122 teachers about use and transfer of indigenous knowledge within the school systems. The results indicate that in the farming communities, indigenous knowledge was used to determine soil fertility as well as preserve harvested crops, whilst in the fishing communities the knowledge was used for sea navigation and determination of types of fishes and preservation of fish. It was further observed that some aspects of indigenous knowledge were challenged by both internal and external factors. The results from the survey also show that only 12% of the teachers taught or engaged local persons to teach aspects of indigenous knowledge that touch on the environment. Whilst some aspects of the indigenous practices need to change, others must continue. The paper recommends that integrating indigenous knowledge into the curriculum of the formal school system, at least, at the first and second cycle schools can help sustain the aspects of indigenous knowledge that are appropriate, relevant and currently applicable.
Keywords: Cosmovision, indigenous, knowledge, sustainability, traditional
54 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Introduction
The World Conference on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987), the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (1992) and the World Summit on
Sustainable Development (2002) have become major landmarks in the global commitment to environmental management and sustainability (United Nations, 2002). The concept of sustainable development defined as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED, 1987), has been the working framework. One of the calls which emanated from these meetings was the urgent need to incorporate all knowledge systems, including Indigenous Knowledge (IK), into environmental management (Mygatt, 2004). For example, Agenda 21 of the Rio Summit Declaration outlined strategies for integrating local knowledge into environmental sustainability programmes and activities (United Nations, 1992). These strategies and plans of actions were re-echoed and re- affirmed in the Johannesburg Declaration of 2002.
In spite of these guidelines and approaches on the need to incorporate IK to protect and sustain the environment, few countries including India, China, Bolivia and Peru have put in place institutional structures and arrangements to assess the role of IK in agriculture and health delivery system. The outcome is at two levels: a steady development in IK has been achieved through research, validation, documentation and practice; and institutional recognition of and access to traditional health care delivery (Lammerink & Otterloo-Butler, 2010; Hens, 2006). In Africa, such institutional recognition and integration of IK is scarce partly due to inadequate literature (Akullo,
Kanzikwera, Birungi, Alum, Aliguma & Barwogeza, 2007) and biases towards and preference for western knowledge systems in colonized countries (Shiva, 2000).
Although it serves as a resource that has been used in diverse socio-economic activities to conserve the environment, especially flora and fauna over centuries, indigenous knowledge has been threatened by a number of factors including the dominance of western science and philosophical thoughts which have expanded in the last 200 years through formal education,
55 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 religion and other practices. These discarded indigenous system of knowledge as „unscientific‟ and
„outmoded‟ because it does not follow a „certain‟ logic (Maison, 2007; Ocholla, 2007).
The political independence has not changed the influence of western philosophical thought, religion, school systems, governance and other practices in African countries. Using the cosmovision perspective, the paper assesses the indigenous practices adopted by farmers and fishermen in selected communities in five traditional areas in the Ekumfi District and Mfantsiman
Municipality all in the Central Region of Ghana, and their implications on environmental sustainability.
Theoretical and conceptual perspectives
Cosmovision of indigenous knowledge has been defined as the processes and interrelationships between spiritual, physical and human worlds (Millar, 1999; 2003). Transmitted orally from the older generation to the younger ones (Rouse, 1999; Gyekye, 1996), this worldview encompasses all aspects of life: social organization, governance, resource management, economy, technology, and environmental conservation within the human or social, natural or physical and spirit worlds (Figure 1). In terms of social relations, individuals, households and communities are expected to create harmonious environments for people to grow, survive and have descent life of togetherness. These views have been expressed in various statements such as „if all the people were to carry the heavens, no one individual would be humpbacked‟ and „if one person alone scrapes the bark of a tree for use as medicine, the pieces fall to the ground‟ (Gyekye, 1996:35), signifying the inter-relationships and the support for one another among people in a given society.
The physical world is perceived to consist of nature in all its forms: flora, fauna and other phenomenal objects such as lands, mountains and water bodies. Plants and animals which provide medicine and food to sustain life form part of this world. Physical features such as water-bodies also provide water for domestic and occupational purposes. Some, if not all, of these water-bodies are considered as abodes for gods (deities).
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The spirit world comprises different spirits such as God (the Supreme Being), the other gods and ancestral spirits. The belief is that God created the gods, and with ancestors, to act as intermediaries between Him and the human world; and that these gods reside in natural objects such as water-bodies, lands, mountains and groves (Asare, 2002). Therefore, any interaction with the physical environment may disrupt the abode and activities of a god. Another dimension is the belief in some societies (example, Bishnoi of India) that animals and plants also have life which needs to be preserved and, therefore, people consult spiritual leaders before killing an animal or cutting a tree. The Zaramo of Eastern Tanzania consider the Uluguru Mountain to be the abode of a god,
Kolelo and therefore such environment is preserved and worshipped (Kendie and Ghartey, 2000).
The intersection of the social, physical and spirit worlds (shaded part of Figure 1) indicates a perfect relationship and harmonious interaction of these worlds. The expected outcome of the intersection is the promotion of sustainability among all the constructs owing to their interdependence. As a result, such an interaction between all the three worlds is preferred and promoted in indigenous knowledge
Figure 1: Constellations of cosmovision related knowledge model
Source: Millar, (1999)
As in any other system, the element of sustainability is paramount in indigenous knowledge.
For instance, among the Akans of Ghana, it is the responsibility of the current generation at any
57 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 point in time to ensure that resources are utilized in such a way that they would be available for the next generation as well as providing a safe and congenial atmosphere for the ancestors (Millar,
2003; Asare, 2002; Awusabo-Asare et al., 2000); a view captured in the definition of sustainability in the World Environment Report of 1987 (Brundtland‟s Report). Such beliefs have informed interactions among individuals and with the environment leading to the protection of critical and fragile environments such as headwaters of streams, wetlands, and species of plants and animals.
Transmitted orally, the system ensured the sustainability of the knowledge within a given social context. But this oral transmission of knowledge was possible when local communities were fairly „homogenous‟ in nature with little or no interferences from external systems (Gyekye, 1996;
Ansu-Kyereme, 1998). Furthermore, the genorotocratic nature of the social structure ensured that people accepted the received knowledge and rarely challenged the status quo (Toyin, 2003,
Upawansa, 2001). Young generations who studied from old generations accepted in whole what was taught (Support for Decentralisation Reform Programme (SfDR), 2008). However, due to increasing heterogeneity of societies arising from interaction with other cultures, introduction of formal education, migration and urbanization, indigenous knowledge has come under threat. For instance, the elders, once the custodians of indigenous knowledge are no longer the repository of knowledge. The transmission of new knowledge is through the formal school system of which they are not part. Although this makes the call by international and regional meetings to preserve indigenous knowledge meaningful, it also becomes challenging. Part of the challenge is the identification of the resilient ones and re-packaging them for posterity.
Contextual issues
Ghana has different indigenous knowledge systems associated with various ethnic groups.
Common to the various ethnic groups is the belief in God, lesser gods, and ancestral spirits who have power to influence the activities of humans (Mbiti, 1991). The gods and spirits are either part of or reside in the natural environment such as groves, mountains, trees, rivers, lakes, lagoon, sea
58 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 and rocks. As abodes of these spirits, they are revered and protected (Kendie and Ghartey, 2000) and have become the basis for protecting and preserving the natural environment. For instance, communities along the coast believe that lagoons are abodes of gods, and therefore, have specific names and annual cleansing ceremonies which are geared towards the preservation of species. The sea-goddess is believed to have been born on a Tuesday and so she is not to be disturbed on that day; hence, fishing communities do not fish on this day and is used as day of rest, mending of nets, dealing with community issues and conservation. Some communities still adhere strictly to this practice and offenders are sanctioned.
Adherence to such rules has led to the preservation of certain species and their continuous sustainability (Hart, 2006). Currently, some of these worldviews are being challenged by other worldviews such as Christianity. For instance, some Christian religious groups have been contesting the six-week ban on noise making in May-June which precedes the annual festival of the Gas, the indigenous population of Accra (Witte, 2008). The cosmopolitan nature of Accra is such that some of these traditional practices are losing their significance among some residents, especially those who are not indigenes and Christians. The study sought to explore some of these challenges to indigenous knowledge and the opportunities for preserving and transmitting some of them to future generations. What has emerged is that Christians and those with formal education rarely understand, adhere to and use Ghanaian Indigenous Knowledge System. The view is that preserving and continuing to transmit IK will have to be done through the school system. Unfortunately, teachers at the basic and second cycle institutions who teach subjects that touch on the environment rarely draw views from indigenous knowledge to teach (Esia-Donkoh, 2007).
The method
Data for this study was based on a fieldwork conducted in five traditional areas namely
Ekumfi, Abeadze, Anomabo, Mankessim and Nkusukum Traditional Areas in the Ekumfi District and Mfantsiman Municipality, and Cape Coast Metropolis in 2005 and 2012 respectively. Each of
59 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 the traditional areas has its own governance structure1 (Mfantsiman Municipal Assembly, 2010).
The view was that each traditional area had some traditional beliefs and practices. Three settlements were purposively selected from each traditional area for key informant interviews (KIIs), taking into cognizance locations along main roads and off main roads, coastal and interior locations as well as farming and fishing communities. The purpose was to identify, if there were variations in space and economic activity in indigenous knowledge and practices.
In each settlement, a male and a female considered to be knowledgeable in IK were purposively selected. Through the process 36 key informants comprising 21 males and 15 females were selected. These were made up of 12 male and 9 female farmers on one hand, and 9 fishermen and six fishmongers on the other hand (Table 1). In addition, eight focus-group discussions (FGDs) were conducted. Four communities were selected, and in each community two FGDs comprising a male and a female each were organised. The participants comprised the youth aged 18-35 years.
The purpose was to assess the extent of indigenous knowledge, and its practice.
1 Traditional governance system is regulated by the chieftaincy institution of Ghana. The chieftaincy institution is enshrined in the Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and the Chieftaincy Act, 152. The structure of the institution comprises four main hierarchical levels: chief, sub-chief, divisional chief and paramount chief.
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Figure 2: Maps showing Mfantsiman Municipality and study communities
Source: Cartographic Unit, Department of Geography and Regional Planning, University of
Cape Coast, (2016)
Table 1: Selected communities under Traditional Areas for IDI
Traditional Settlement Main Number of KIIs Focus Group Areas Activity Male Female Discussion Mankessim Farming 2 1 Mankessim Eshirow Farming 1 1 Eshirow (2) Kormantse Fishing 1 1 Abuakwa Farming 1 1 Ekumfi Abaka Farming 2 1 Otuam Fishing 2 1 Abaka (2) Ekurabaadze Farming 1 1 Anomabo Egyaa No. 2 Fishing 1 1 Anomabo Fishing 2 1 Dominase Farming 1 1 Anomabo (2) Abeadze Abankrom Farming 1 1 Kyeakor Farming 2 1 Nkusukum Yamoransa Farming 1 1 Ankaful Fishing 2 1 Ankaful (2) Biriwa Fishing 1 1 Total 15 15 21 15 8 Source: Fieldwork (2005)
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To assess the transfer of IK in the school system, a structured interview was conducted among teachers in selected school. One basic school was selected in each of the settlements where in-depth interviews were conducted. Then a second cycle school was selected from each traditional area. The target was teachers who taught subjects which contained some environmental issues as shown in Table 2. One hundred and twenty-two teachers were selected from the schools comprising
108 from basic and 14 from second cycle institutions. The purpose was to find out if they had ever taught or used indigenous knowledge experts as resource persons to teach environment-related topics in the school syllabus.
Table 2: Subject-areas related to the environment
Basic Senior Secondary School Primary Junior Secondary School Environmental Science, General Science, Geography, Biology, Integrated Life Skills, and Social Studies, Life Skills, Science, Agricultural Science, Religious and Moral Agricultural Science, and Social Studies, and Education Religious and Moral Education Religious and Moral Education Source: Ghana Education Service (2005)
Other sources where data were collected were the Department of Soil Science at the
University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana, and two fishing communities at Cape Coast and Duakor
(near UCC). The data from Department of Soil Science were used to corroborate the data collected from traditional farmers on plant species used to classify soil types and their fertility. Similarly, information on use of stars for fishing which was collected from fishermen at Mfanstiman
Municipal was collaborated with that of fishermen in Cape Coast and at Duakor, all in the Cape
Coast Metropolis.
Findings
Indigenous knowledge in farming
Rituals associated with clearing of land for planting
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The clearing of land for planting was also embedded in the indigenous worldviews of the respondents. Before a piece of land is cleared for planting, the god of that specific land area has to be contacted. This is to seek permission from the deity before the land is cleared. Rituals, prayers and sacrifices are made to seek permission from the spirit world to work on the land. If these were accepted, it signified acceptance of the farming project. A seventy-nine year old male farmer respondent had this to say:
There are various rituals from which one or two can be selected depending on
the location of the land and the taste of the ancestors and gods. For example
here, a fowl is always used for such sacrifice whilst akpeteshie (local liquor) is
used for prayers. If the foul lies on its back after the throat is cut, it indicates
that the gods and ancestors have accepted the ritual and the farming project as
well.
Presence of some plants or tree species that indicate fertile or poor soil
Farming in the traditional areas, as earlier indicated, constitutes the main economic activity.
It employs the youth, the aged, males and females in the cultivation of mainly food crops. Farmers use their indigenous knowledge to determine the types of soils to cultivate crops on. Knowledge about fertile and poor soils for cultivation is very crucial for productive and successful farming activities. In the IDIs and FGDs, respondents were asked to state plant species and soils which are used as indicators of fertile or poor soils for cultivation of certain crops. For instance, the texture of the soil accumulated around the holes of crabs is used to classify soils: dark sandy soils indicating a fertile area while clayey ones indicate poor soils.
In the farming areas, the presence of some plants species ensured economic utilization of such environments. Plants such as collocasia kenyinensis and ocimum basilicum usually planted along the edges of farms, serve both as boundaries of previous farms and to repel evil attack on crops. The presence of mbofra esã (cassia occidentalis) connotes fertile soil which can be used for
63 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 the cultivation of oil palm, cocoa, plantain and cassava while the presence of ananse ntrumuhuma
(centrosema) indicates that the area will be suitable for the cultivation of vegetables. With a few exceptions, assessment of the quality of soils and the crops that such crops can support based on IK are similar to the results from conventional science (Table 2). Thus, indigenous knowledge of the farmers provide basis for assessment and utilization of soils that are environmentally friendly with less cost.
Disease and pest control
Various practices were adopted to prevent and control diseases and pests that affected and attacked crops on the farms. Some of the respondents explained that the use of dwoanse momoe
(stored urine), and ash was effective to deal with diseases that affected the crops. Also, plants such as the nim leaves and nyanya (momordica charantia) when ground and mixed with water and sprinkled on the crops as organic insecticides. Others used this mixture to control incidence and spread of diseases as well. Mixed cropping was also mentioned as a method to reduce the incidence of pests attack and spread of diseases. Some of the respondents explained:
Our fathers taught us many ways to fight diseases that affected our crops. We
often prevented the attack rather than waited for its incidence, and if there was
any incidence to we dealt with it…we usually sprinkled dwoanse momoe [urine
stored usually for a week] and nso [ash] in turns to ward off diseases and to
control its spread. [A 63-years old female]
In most of our communities around, the nim and nyanya are used to deal with
insects that come onto our farms. These plants have strong scent that repels the
insects. We grind the leaves and mix with water after which we sprinkle on the
farm. [A 73-year old male]
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At present, the respondents explained that the use of modern methods have been introduced in their settlements. These include modern insecticide and disease control chemicals such as dichloro diphernyl trichloro ethane (DDT). This is because some of the farmers, especially the youth find the modern methods to be more effective and less time consuming as compared to the indigenous methods. Nonetheless, they admitted that some of the indigenous methods are gaining modern recognition. According to them, workshops have been organized to teach them how to use the nim tree as insecticide. They explained that one approach is to store the leaves in water for three to four days after which the solution is sprinkled on the crops. The other approach is to grind the leaves to make a solution with water for sprinkling.
Storage and preservation of food crops
The farmers also reported on different methods used to store crops. For instance, „local‟ maize, which is the main staple of the study area, was stored in barns constructed out of wood. A number of strategies were adopted to preserve the maize. In constructing barns, the received knowledge is that it should face the direction of the wind to prevent molding. Also, ash must be spread on the stored crop to repel insects. Then again, traps were used to protect the crops from rodents.
The introduction of new variety of crops and commercial farming has modified the storage and preservation practices in the area. Some farmers now use agrochemicals to treat and bag the crops. Existing side by side in the area is the use of „local‟ maize, which it is believed can withstand weather conditions and pest infestation. One of the youth had this to say:
The local maize can withstand pest infestation. You just put the crop on
the barn just after harvest with the husk and it can be stored for a year
or two…. We still use this method to store maize. [A 20-year old youth
farmer].
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Others have shifted to new varieties of maize which are provided by the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture. It was noted by a 45-year old male farmer that:
Now, we are told to use seeds and insecticides from the agricultural extension
officers. With their crops, if you do not apply insecticides, given the rainfall
pattern, the crops fail. Therefore, we use insecticides and bag the seeds.
While there is a conscious effort on the part of agricultural extension officers to promote new seeds, insecticides and mode of cultivation, the same cannot be said of IK. This has the potential of local communities in particular and the Municipality in general lose indigenous seeds which are noted to withstand unfavourable weather conditions comparatively (Boedhihartono,
2010).
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Table 2: Some plants species used for soil classification in IK and Conventional Science
Plant Species Based on indigenous sciences Based on No conventional science* Local Name Botanical Name Indicator Suitable crop Example of Soil type Indicator type cultivable crop 1 Mbofra Esã Cassia occidentalis Fertile soil Tree/food Palm tree, cocoa, Sandy-loam Fertile plantain, cassava Sandy Poor soil 2 Ntanta Grewia carpihifolia Poor soil Not applicable Not applicable Clayey-loam Fertile 3 Huhu Eni Ha Not applicable Poor soil -do- -do- - - 4 Ndadze Ha Jatropha curcas Fertile soil Tree Palm tree, cocoa Loam Fertile
5 Akyeampon Chromolina Fertile soil Food/ vegetable Cassava, maize, odorata pepper, garden eggs Loamy Very fertile 6 Akankorba Chrysophyllum Very fertile Food Maize, cassava, subnudum pepper Loam Fertile 7 Okanto nsoe Fagara Very fertile Food/ vegetable Maize, cassava, Sand-loam Fertile xanthoxyloides garden eggs, pepper Sandy-clay Poor soil 8 Akotompoto Uvaria ovate Fertile Food Maize, cassava Clayey loam Fertile
11 Ananse Centrosema Fertile Vegetable Pepper, garden eggs, Sandy-loam Fertile ntrumuhuma tomatoes Sandy Poor soil Source: Fieldwork (2012); Irvine, (1961)
* Conventional Science results were derived from the Department of Soil Science, University of Cape Coast.
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Indigenous knowledge in fishing
Use of stars for fishing
Historically, sea-related activities have depended on indigenous knowledge. The constellation of stars has guided sailing and fishing worldwide (Boedhihartono, 2010). According to the elders of the fishing communities, one person (the canoe-team leader) is always trained to observe and interpret the presence (or absence) of some stars before and during fishing. To them, the arrangement, type and the number of stars give indication of the direction to navigate and the types of fish which were likely to be caught. For instance, the presence of stars (such as Kwame
Tse) signifies the presence of fishes such as longfin herring, burrito and threadfin, while some stars were for navigation purposes (Table 3). This knowledge has guided fishermen for centuries and continues to be the preferred method.
Preservation and storage of fish
Another area in the fishing industry where IK is still used is the preservation of the fish caught. Traditionally, fish is preserved through smoking and salting. For the smoked fish, periodic heating was done to prevent decay and insect infestation; salted fish was regularly dried and stored in a room on the floor. It must however be indicated that the traditional ovens used to smoke the fish use considerable amount of fuelwood, thereby contributing to forest depletion in the study communities in particular and the nation as a whole.
New methods of storage which have been adopted are packaging in wrapped paper after smoking, salting and drying as well as refrigeration. It is in the preservation of fish that IK has been overtaken by modern methods of storage such as refrigeration and new methods of smoking such as
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the Chorkor Smoker2. Nonetheless, the traditional methods of fish preservation are still being
practiced in some areas.
Table 3: Local names of stars used for fishing purposes
No Local name of Description Appearance Purpose of use Type of Fish star 1 Aberwa It appears at night Big shiny star Indicates availability Herring, (9-10pm) or dawn surrounded by of fish at sea nankwanuna (2am) other stars Used for navigation 2 Adehyeworaba It appears around Single It shows that it‟s Herring, ntare, 3am. It is quite dull time to go for fishing eben (does not bright) 3 Kwame Tse Shiny Single Navigation Not applicable 4 Koaneesor Shiny Single Navigation -do- 5 Mawora It appears at night Single Indicates that fishes All types of usually at or after are moving towards fish in large 7pm traps or net quantity
6 Mpimpina It appears shiny but Group Indicates that the sea Herring, also disappears: not waves are rough and antwere stable heavy. It also indicates the availability of fish at sea. 7 Antopa It appears at Group Indicates that no fish Not applicable midnight is available at sea 8 Nkonoworaba It is shiny Single Shows the time to Nkankramba cast fishing net at (tiny fish), sea Ntare 9 Safoworaba It is shiny and at Single or in Indicates the type of Herrings, ntare times produces group of three fish. Also for more than one navigation back colour home Source: Fieldwork (2012)
2Chorkor Smoker is an improved type of oven used to smoke fish. The purpose of this improved technology (largely based on use of local resources) by FAO is to replace the traditional oven which has considerable disadvantages and relatively inefficient in capacity and fuel (wood) use. ‘Chorkor’ is a name of a fishing village in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana (see www.fao.org/bestpractices/content/06/06_02_en.htm).
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Challenges to the use of indigenous knowledge
The findings revealed that both internal and external factors challenged the indigenous knowledge and its practice. The internal challenges were increase in population and the changing pattern of rainfall. The external challenges were introduction of formal education, modernization and foreign religions. To the respondents, increase in population has forced some families to farm on fragile ecosystem, including river banks; resources that they have jealously protected using indigenous knowledge. Some of the respondents opined that creation of other alternative job options can reduce the pressure on the land which is finite. A 68-year old female farmer commented that:
In the past, River Emisa [name of a river] had very deep depth and a large
floodable area. But owing to the trees which were felled along the banks to
allow people to farm, the river has reduced in size and depth. There were a lot
of fish including mudfish. You could easily see the fish. But now, the river is
almost dried up with no fishes in it. Increase in population is the cause…it is
destroying what we used our local knowledge to preserve many many years
ago before my birth.
Some were also of the opinion that the introduction of modern methods of farming, partly due to commerce and the changing weather patterns has made indigenous methods less profitable, hence, unattractive to the youth.
On the issue of education, almost all the respondents explained that since most of their children were in school by law, the law must also address their concerns too by educating the teachers to teach their children indigenous knowledge in farming and fishing. One of the female key informants shared her concern:
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In the past, few schools existed and not all the children were sent to schools
too. But now, there are a lot of schools and government says we should send
all our children to school. But the school does not teach our children our
local knowledge but rather that of the „whiteman‟. Why can‟t the same law
make the school teach our children our knowledge too? [A 54-year old
fisherman]
Foreign religions, particularly Christianity, were flagged as a major challenge. To most of the respondents, Christianity restricted the use and practice of indigenous knowledge. For instance, most of the rituals and practices were regarded as „unholy‟ and „unrighteous‟ by Christians, hence, those who attended the church found it difficult to participate in certain cultural and ritual practices in farming and fishing. This report by a 67-year old fishmonger explains further:
The churches of today preach to the extent that even if your mother dies, you
may find it difficult to get near her. In the past, we had Methodist, Catholic,
Zion and Anglican churches and we had no problems. In those days, the
Christians also performed traditional rites… But today, we are afraid that our
churches may sanction us if found at such functions, or partaking in such
rituals.
The respondents were of the belief that modernization has been linked to Christianity and formal education. One of them, in his response, indicated that „Christianity is now synonymous to modernization‟. Another indicated that „if you don‟t go to school, you are regarded as backward‟.
In their estimation, modernization is only good if it improves the local knowledge of the local people to enable them function effectively at work and in the community. One of the respondents
71 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 further summarised the issue and emphasized that the modernization that challenges indigenous knowledge is westernization.
Modern life must come to help us, but if it is all about use of harmful practices
such as use of DDT, light and carbide to fish, then it is not only harmful but
against the knowledge of our ancestors and gods. [A 71-year old fisherman]
Transmitting IK through the school system
Transfer of indigenous knowledge is still oral or through the informal system such as on- the-job, observation, instruction, story-telling, rituals, prayers and other activities that characterize festivals and rites of passage. This mode of transmitting IK is now being challenged as a result of formal education, westernization and other worldviews. Instruction of young people is through a formalized system guided by curricula and syllabi. Teachers are trained within this new worldview to transmit same to children.
However, the sustainability of IK in the communities will depend on the extent to which these can be transmitted through the school system. The teaching of certain subjects (see Table 2) offers an opportunity to introduce IK to pupils alongside conventional science. To explore this opportunity, teachers of such subjects were asked to indicate whether they have ever taught aspects of IK in their class or used the local people to teach issues in their schools. The results indicated that 88% had never taught or used any local person to teach aspects of IK in their class (Table 5).
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Table 5: Ever taught or used local people to teach aspects of IK in class
Response (N) Total Level of school Yes No Primary 9 71 80 Junior High 3 25 28 Senior High 2 12 14 Total (%) 14 88 (100) 122 Source: Fieldwork (2005)
Reason which were given by respondents who have never taught or used a local person to teach aspects of indigenous knowledge that touch on the environment include: syllabi is silent on
IK and inadequate knowledge on IK on the part of teachers. Nonetheless, those who have ever taught aspects of IK explained that IK serves as basis to teach conventional science.
Discussion
Over the years, societies have used various strategies to sustain the environment and to ensure their survival over the years. Farmers have had to rely on indigenous knowledge to avoid unnecessary clearing of the land in search of fertile lands while fishermen used it to harvest right quantity and type of fish at the right time and when needed (United Nations Environment
Programme, 1999).
It does not imply that indigenous knowledge has answers to environmental sustainability. As a matter of fact, some of its aspects are affront to sustaining some of the environmental resources.
For instance, the use of local resources for smoking and preservation of fish for commercial purposes is a threat to tree sustainability in the local environment and even beyond. Thus, while changes should be embraced to prevent this, there is the need to ensure that certain aspects of indigenous knowledge are sustained and its application continued. The use of plant species to
73 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 determine the fertility of a piece of land before cultivation is natural and environmentally friendly.
It reflects practically the interrelationship that exists between the natural (plants), spirit (land which is the natural abode of the earth spirit) world, and the human or social world (farming). The short and long term negative effects of chemical farming therefore make indigenous knowledge use a vital environmental resource and a cost-saving option (Gyekye, 2013; Kendi & Guri, 2007).
The current changes in weather or climatic patterns have become essential in the discussion of indigenous knowledge and its use. Indigenous knowledge largely thrives on nature which has been studied for centuries. The changing climatic characteristics could impact, not only on sustainability of some of the plant species used to determine soil fertility, but also lunar objects that are used to predict outcome in fishing and navigation at sea.
In as much as the paper consents to validation of indigenous knowledge for authentication, such a process becomes relevant within the human and natural worlds only where empiricism is appropriate. With reference to the conceptual framework, indigenous knowledge encompasses two main sciences; empirical (objective or factual) and qualitative (subjective or tacit) sciences as shown in the human, natural and spiritual dimensions (Millar, 2000). Therefore, an ultimate authentication requires the consensus of all the three worlds. This position limits global acceptance and use of indigenous knowledge.
The continuity and use of indigenous knowledge to sustain the environment could be achieved if aspects of IK are incorporated into the syllabi of relevant subjects in the school. Thus, the Free Compulsory Basic Education (FCUBE) in the country provides an opportunity to introduce
IK in the school system. Whilst it is imperative for teacher training schools to integrate IK in their curriculum, custodians and practitioners of indigenous knowledge could constitute a rich human
74 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 resource-base for the school system to tap into in this regard (Millar, 2007). This will also make it possible to assess IK alongside western conventional science.
Conclusion and recommendations
Undoubtedly, the need to sustain the environment is imperative, and no one knowledge system has the clue to achieving that objective. The use of indigenous knowledge constitutes one of the systems of knowledge that can be harnessed especially at the local settings where local technology which is environmentally sustainable thrives. Current social and climatic tendencies, however, influence the use of indigenous knowledge (Boedhihartono, 2010). Integrating indigenous knowledge in school curricula will also enhance the use and validation of some of the aspects of the knowledge system relevant to local environmental sustainability. Environmental disasters have occurred partly because IK which sustained the environment were ignored.
The paper recommends that Ghana Education Service treats indigenous knowledge as an integrated subject in the school‟s curricula and syllabi at the basic, second cycle and the teacher- training institutions. Further, validation of some aspects of indigenous knowledge should be conducted by research institutions and individuals to authenticate its reliability for environmental sustainability. Lastly, custodians of indigenous knowledge such as the traditional authorities at the local setting should liaise with local school authorities to educate children on various indigenous ways they can adopt to sustain their environment.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the cordial responses and non-financial support from the traditional authorities in the study communities.
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Boedhihartono, A. K. (2010). Integrating traditional knowledge in climate change adaptation, In Subramanian, S. M. and Pisupati, B. (eds), Traditional knowledge in policy and practice: Approaches to development and human well-being. New York: United Nations University Press.
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Kendie, S. B., & Ghartey, N. T. K. (2000). Resource management and sustainable rural development in Africa. Oguaa Journal of Social Science, 2 (1), 60-72.
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Kendie, S. B., & Guri, B. Y. (2010). Indigenous institutions and contemporary development in Ghana: Potentials and challenges. In Subramanian, S. M. and Pisupati, B. (eds), Traditional knowledge in policy and practice: Approaches to development and human well-being. New York: United Nations University Press.
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Knowledge and Organisational Development, and Institute of Development Studies of University of Cape Coast.
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78 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016
Rethinking individual agency and accountability in local governance: Evidence from
Ntonoaboma in the Eastern Region of Ghana
Patrick OSEI-KUFUOR Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
Abstract
Decentralisation and local government approaches consider citizenship and rights as critical ingredients for the exercise of agency. Purposive individual action is seen as instrumentally desirable to get local government representatives to be accountable and responsive. However, there is little attempt in the decentralisation literature to seek a better understanding of how ordinary people engage with local government representatives to demand accountability. Drawing on qualitative data from Ntonoaboma, a resettlement community in Ghana, this paper explores understandings of individual human agency and how it is shaped by social relationships and institutions. The paper outlines certain factors that constrain and enable the exercise of agency for different people; complex individual identities, cosmologies and the unequal interdependence of livelihoods. The paper concludes that at the community level, complex set of factors shape individual agency, thereby making it very difficult for citizens to act individually to bring representatives to account. The paper recommends that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development facilitate the formation of civil society groups and adequately resource them through continuous capacity building initiatives to enable citizens to act collectively to demand accountability from their representatives.
Key words: Accountability, agency, citizenship, decentralisation, government, Ghana and rights.
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Introduction
More than a decade after the institutionalisation of decentralisation across Africa, local government authorities including sub-structures have emerged as the main vehicle for promoting effective inclusive citizenship. The emphasis on effective inclusive citizenship within the discourse of decentralisation is to enable people to participate in local decision making processes and hold others to account. As Lister (1997, p. 41) argues: „to be a citizen in the legal and sociological sense means to enjoy the rights of citizenship necessary for agency and social and political participation.
To act as a citizen involves fulfilling the potential of that status‟. Placing emphasis on inclusive citizenship as the very foundation of decentralisation suggests a more active notion of citizenship: one which recognises the agency of citizens as „makers and shapers‟ of interventions designed by others (Cornwall & Gaventa, 2000).
For the outcomes of decentralisation to be meaningful, arguments for agency and accountability must indeed become grounded in a conception of rights which, in a development context, strengthens the status of citizens from that of beneficiaries of development to its rightful and legitimate claimants (Cornwall 2000). A number of writers have argued usefully that the grounding of decentralisation in citizenship and rights is to strengthen the status of citizens to right bearing participants who are capable of adequately engaging with their representatives to shape the outcomes of development (Cornwall, 2008; Cornwall & Nyamu-Musembe, 2005; Gaventa &
McGee, 2010; Isin & Wood, 1999). These individual rights are considered radical enough to transform the values and beliefs of citizens and motivate them to purposively act to bring about transformation in local government with respect to transparency, accountability and responsiveness.
There is an emerging critique of how individual agency has been conceptualised and used in participatory approaches associated with decentralisation (Cleaver, 2007; Hickey & Mitlin, 2009a).
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Critics argue that the universal conceptions of citizenship and rights alongside the neglect of context in the framing of decentralisation (Coelho & von Lieres, 2010; O‟Neill, Foresti, & Hudson, 2007;
Rocha Menocal et al., 2008). Hall, Cleaver, Franks and Maganga (2013) explain that not much emphasis is placed on how rights claimed through citizenship promotes individual agency and transforms the governance processes associated with decentralisation at the community level.
According to them, little is known of how rights and citizenship are understood by poor people themselves, how they are realised in practice across different conditions and contexts, and with what impact.
Several factors either constrain or enable the exercise of agency. According to Cleaver
(2013), at the community level, agency is shaped by factors such as complex individual identities, cosmologies, the unequal interdependence of livelihoods and structure and voice but these factors are not given prominence when it comes to formalising rights in decentralisation policy documents.
Other authors draw attention to the role of social relations and individual social location in the exercise of agency (Cleaver, 2013; O‟Neill et al., 2007).
This paper draws on these critiques to examine the ability of citizens to exercise agency in local government spaces at the community level using the Active Citizens Programme implemented by the Afram Plains Development Organisation (APDO) with funding from British Government in
2006. The programme was implemented in Ntonoaboma, a resettlement community in the Kwahu-
North District of the Eastern Region of Ghana to promote participation in local government at the community level. The programme was structured in such a way that it first identified people who demonstrated local social responsibility. The Active Citizens programme sought to empower individuals to adequately participate in decision-making processes of their local government and also to further engage with their district assembly representatives for more accountable and responsive forms
81 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 governance. These training programmes were supposed to build the personal confidence of the participants to succeed in all aspects of their lives more especially in their engagement with local government authorities. This implies that with the capacity building programmes introduced by
APDO, citizens can exercise agency to shape the outcomes of community decisions and through that get their local government representatives to be accountable and responsive.
In the light of the above programme, this study explores the factors that shape the exercise agency. The paper argues that each actor is embedded in a complex web of interests and incentives, arising from their social relationships, and therefore, positioning them within a social world illuminates the extent to which their actions are mediated and shaped by social relations and other socially embedded practices. Local government reforms further place emphasis on establishing mechanisms to promote participation and accountability without sufficient attention to the factors that enable and constrain agency.
This paper is structured in six sections. The next section reviews literature focusing on the concept of individual agency underlying the participatory approaches in development while section three presents the methodology. Section four which is the results and discussion, focuses on how individual agency is shaped and exercise with respect to accountability at the community level. The final part of the paper draws key conclusions emerging out of the research to inform policy of local governance.
Theoretical and conceptual discussions on agency and accountability in local governance
The notion of individual agency has gained prominence in contemporary development policy and practice. Giddens (1984) writes that, agency refers to the ability of human beings to make a difference in the world. According to Giddens, agency centres on the ability of agents to
82 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 respond to the challenges that society throws at them, to confront and deal with risk. Chabal (2009), on the other hand, explains agency as the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. Agency is further understood as directed, meaningful, intentional and self reflective social action and the ability of actors to operate independently of the determining constraints of social structure. Rapport and Overing (2000, p. 1) defined agency is as “the capability, the power, to be the source and originator of acts”. It explores the intention and motivation, the meaning and subjectivity, and the process of negotiation and experience of individuals in taking actions.
These definitions resonate with the general definition of agency as the capacity for autonomous social action. According to Sen (2004; 1999), being able to achieve one‟s intentions and interests is what continues agency or capability. Thus, agency requires one to have the ability to exercise generative, transformative or productive power in order to make a difference (Layder,
2006; Clark, 2005; Lister, 2004; Giddens, 1984). The relationship between agency, capability and power is well phrased by Giddens, who suggests that an agent ceases to be such when he or she loses the capability to make a difference or to act otherwise (1984, p. 14). For Long & Long (1992), agency implies knowledgeability, intentionality and capacity.
Based on intentionality, the literature on agency makes three assumptions about human motivation for action, namely, strategic, individualistic and linear (Ahn & Ostrom, 2003). Strategic agency asserts that individuals are rational and motivated primarily by self-interest. The individualistic nature of agency implies that individuals are motivated by their own benefits, and make decisions independent of relationships. The linear transformation of agency assumes that individuals‟ incentive structures are, and can be, restructured by group membership, role expectation and clearly defined authority, backed up by sanctions.
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Giddens (1984) and Long (1992) are largely optimistic about the possibilities of individual agency, seemingly assuming that the exercise of reflexive agency and the conscious deployment of various forms of capital by the individual can overcome the constraints of social structure. Their assumption underpins the application of agency in decentralisation and local government approaches. For instance, in the case of decentralisation and local government, individual agency often equates to empowering action whereby citizens consciously participate in public decision- making and collective action to bring about change (Cornwall & Nyamu-Musembe, 2005; Kesby,
2005). Decentralisation policy perceives individuals as free agents who are instilled with new citizenship rights that come along with decentralization. Such citizenship rights are assumed to come with the necessary power and the resource to enable citizens to engage with their representatives on equal terms to bring about desirable outcomes (Hickey & Mohan, 2004). These assumptions seem to suggest that, a prototype individual with entitlements and capacities enshrined in citizenship rights should become active after the introduction of local government reforms
(Gaventa, 2006; Hickey & Mohan, 2004).
These assumptions underlying agency has been the focus of contemporary debate in decentralisation and local government discourse (Cooke & Kothari, 2001; Greener, 2002). Drawing on social theory, individual action is enabled and constrained by social structure (Cleaver, 2013;
Long & Long, 1992; Giddens, 1984; Douglas, 1987). Thus, actors do indeed strategize, innovate and negotiate in their engagement with institutions. However, the particular ways they do so are shaped by their multi-layered social identities, changing contexts and the web of relationships within which they live their lives (Schnegg & Linke, 2015; Cleaver, 2005). Furthermore, the exercise of agency is shaped by power dynamics, including the power implicit in the societal allocation of resources, the power adhering to particular social and political roles, functions and
84 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 regulations, and the power to challenge or to resist and subvert institutional arrangements (de
Koning, 2014; Cleaver (2013). Agency is also embedded in routinized practices, and may not be wholly conscious as practical action is often exercised in taken–for–granted ways, which people rarely consciously scrutinise (Cleaver & de Koning, 2015; Olivier de Sardan, 2008; Giddens, 1984;
Long et. al, 1992).
The rights based approach literature privileges individual purposive action as conscious and intentional, seeking direct causal explanations between motivation and behaviour (Hickey & Mitlin,
2009; Hickey & Mohan, 2005). The assumption of rationality suggests that economic factors, largely inform individual actions. From a social theory perspective this assumption is narrow and problematic as it ignores the meanings that people associate with their actions (Anyidoho, 2010;
Burkitt, 2012; Long, 2001). According to Cleaver (2000), the model of the individual is highly relational yet there is often little attempt to place individuals within a life world, to identify the differing strengths of incentives operating on them according to their place in the social structure, their personal history or characteristics.
A body of work in local governance document the complex and wide-ranging world views within which people, both consciously and unconsciously, place themselves and their actions
(Burkitt, 2012; Cleaver, 2000; Long, 2001; Mosse, 1997; Spillane, 2000). According to Cleaver and de Koning (2015), rationality is shaped by belief as well as calculations and both shape social behaviour, political expectations and understanding of the social order. Bourdieu (1977) emphasizes how strongly habitus (a set of dispositions that incline agents to act and react in different ways) shapes agency and the ways in which hegemonic elites shape habitus. For him individuals have agency, but the kind of agency they have is partially prescribed by the culture of which they are members. According to Cleaver (2007: 231), “a form of moral-ecological rationality links people‟s
85 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 perceptions of their own actions with the natural and supernatural worlds”. Thus, traditional superstition, cosmology and customs remain salient in guiding people‟s moral behaviour and instructing about them regarding what can be and cannot be done.
Other authors have been concerned with the effects of exercising agency (Cleaver & Toner,
2005; Kabeer, 2000). They argue that the mechanisms for demanding accountability from local government representatives tend to model agency as decision-making and are largely concerned with getting people into the decision making arena rather than on their ability to shape decision- making outcomes and demand accountability. Furthermore, concerns about unequal ability to shape decision-making and make local government representatives responsible and accountable are not prominent in decentralisation practice (Cleaver, 2013; Kabeer, 2000; Lister, 2004). Thus, the ability to exercise agency depends on the ability to act, to choose a course of action and the capability to make a difference in multiple arena in which interactions happen
Furthermore, the exercise of agency is shaped by power dynamics (Cleaver, 2013; Giddens,
1984). According to Giddens (1984), the exercise of agency is not just about choices but about challenging power relations and the ways that things are commonly done. Giddens explains that to exercise agency depends on the ability to act, to choose a course of action (or inaction), the capability to make a difference, that is to exercise some sort of power. However, Cleaver (2013) explains that not all choices are equal, not all agents are equally placed to make choices and similar actions may have very different outcomes. It is therefore important to consider not only an individual‟s ability to choose to act but how much power they have to shape the outcomes of decisions in the spaces in which they interact and the effects of such acts (Long, 2001). People may therefore differ in their capacity to draw on the new citizen rights offered by decentralisation to exercise agency.
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The multiple arenas in which individuals interact also shape their ability to exercise agency
(Cleaver, 2007; Dean, 1999; Agrawal, 2005). Considering the interaction occurring at multiple spaces of governance, bring to fore the multiple relations of power and authority implicated in the exercise of agency. People‟s actions within the new local government spaces are informed by their engagement with other spaces. Anyidoho (2010) writes that, the actions of individuals are subjectively interpreted and grounded in their live experiences. Thus, much of people‟s day to day social lives as well as their interaction are not only negotiated in these new local government spaces but also occur outside the arenas of social interaction. As Anyidoho explains, people live out their lives in many contests and at different levels and the actions are well as the choices they make and are informed by the social relations in which they are embedded.
Central to the idea of agency is the availability of resources and at the same time the ability to deploy these resources to bring about changes in existing state of affairs. Giddens (1984, p. 5) notes that “resources are the media through which power is exercised” and “resources are structured properties of social systems, drawn upon and reproduced by knowledgeable agents in the course of interaction”. However, Stones (2005) explains that the kind of agency required for individuals to actively shape development outcomes comes along with limited resources seen only in the form of citizenship rights. According to Cleaver (2007), even with the resources that come with rights, power differentials limit agents‟ relative capacities to mobilize resources to make a difference.
According to Cleaver (2013), the power to act to shape the outcomes of decision-making is shaped by social structures and the inequitable patterning of relations that ensure some individuals are better placed to deploy resources, to demand accountability than others. Thus, ability to deploy resources is vital in enabling the exercise of agency to bring about transformative outcomes.
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Methodology
This research was undertaken in Ntonaboma, a resettlement town located in the Kwahu
North district of the Eastern Region of Ghana in June 2010. Ntonaboma is about 30km from the
Kwahu North district capital, Donkorkrom. Ntonaboma was created as a resettlement town in 1968 due to the construction of the Volta Lake. The name Ntonaboma means „ato abomaa‟ literally meaning we have met the plateau. The majority of the villages affected by the construction of the
Volta Lake had populations of less than 100 inhabitants. Therefore, the resettlement scheme was consciously designed to regroup the communities into a larger community in order to facilitate the efficient and effective provision of nonsocial and physical infrastructure and services (King, 1988).
In Ntonaboma, four such villages namely Supom, Akroso, Yamuoso and Agyaade were put together to constitute the resettlement town. The Afram Plains district was established by Legislative
Instrument 1415, in 1988 and subsequently inaugurated in 1989.
This study is mainly qualitative in nature and considered interaction, action and the behavior of social actors as very central (Mason, 2002). All the members of the unit committee elected and appointed assembly members, staff of the Afram Plains District Assembly, traditional council representatives and other community members within Ntonoaboma constituted the study population. The study mainly used purposive sampling to select people with particular characteristics who will better be able to assist with the relevant research questions. The main methods for data collection were in-depth interview, informal observations and group discussion.
The respondents for the study are shown in Table 1.
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Table 1: Summary of the data collection methods
Who/Where Objectives Methods (Domains) Village To understand the social relations Unstructured observations. (Supom, at village level and how the Informal interviews with 8 community Akroso, existing social relations affected members purposively selected from each Yamuoso and individual participation in local of the four communities (32 respondents) Agaade government activities
To understand the interactions In-depth interviews with the 3 District between the local government Assembly Members in Ntonoaboma representatives and the In-depth interviews with 12 members of community members the Unit Committee (3 each from Supom, Akroso, Yamuoso and Agaade) In-depth interviews with 16 community members of the Unit Committee 6 Group discussions (1 with men and 1 with women in each community). (Source: fieldwork, 2010)
Results and discussion
The discussion focuses primarily on the process of demanding accountability from local government representatives, the authority structures used by community members for demanding accountability and the motivations informing the decisions to use a specific authority structure. The section further discusses the factors that enable and constrain the agency of community members in demanding accountability. The various off stage practices that community members use to demand accountability is also discussed in this section.
The practice of demanding accountability from representatives at the local level
In this section, the process of demanding accountability from representatives in Ntonoaboma is discussed with emphasis on the authority structures that people use in demanding accountability from representatives and the motivation for using these authority structures. The study noted that
89 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 community members used both customary and state-based legal and governance structures to demand accountability from representatives even though interviews suggested that the former was mostly used. The process of demanding accountability from community representatives was mediated through existing traditional authority structures that were conceived as capable and legitimate to do so. It came to light during the interviews that even formal local government representatives draw on traditional authority structures to engage with community members in their attempts to respond to the concerns of community members. For example, in responding to questions on the line of accountability concerning a school project, one of the Local Government
Representatives in Ntonoaboma said that,
“The chief and his elders have their own way of demanding accountability from
village members or representatives. The role of the chief is very important in
demanding accountability from the assembly representatives. When the chief asks
individuals in authority including the assembly members to account for their
stewardship they comply and rarely get offended but when other people including
community members ask representatives to render account they feel otherwise and at
time offended. So to demand accountability you have to go through a respected
person in the community who is also respected by the person involved”.
Interviews with community members revealed that they were aware of the local government mechanisms for accountability. However, they saw the Chief as the right avenue for getting district assembly representatives to be accountable. The reasons given by respondents for the use of the chief‟s position to demand accountability suggested they saw it as the right thing to do and in conformity with tradition. Thus, individual purposive action considered as conscious and intentional
90 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 explanations the conscious motivation and behaviour of the community members in the choice of the appropriate structures for accountability (Hickey & Mitlin, 2009; Hickey & Mohan, 2005).
Majority of the local government representatives interviewed for the study supported this position.
„We are all answerable to the chief who is the custodian of the land. Even aside
from my current position as an Assembly Member I am a subject of the chief. Before
I even became an assembly member there have been instances where the chief had
summoned other village leaders to his palace to respond to some issues concerning
village funds. Also I depend on the goodwill of the local chief to get village
members to provide communal labour for DA and other donor projects. The chief
even sanctions individuals who fail to attend village works so I have to be truthful
to him and let him know whatever is going on. Finally, the „gong gong‟ used for
mobilising village members for village meeting and collective work is also collected
from the chief‟s palace and he has to give me his permission before a gong-gong
can be beaten in the village. So I am accountable to him both as a community
individual and through my position as an Assembly member‟.
The above narrative highlights the mixed motives that informed people‟s decision to largely draw on traditional authority to get elected representatives to account. For the community members, using a legitimate source of authority was the right thing to do and it further showed respect to authority (Cleaver, 2001). The showing of respect to elders was dominant in the narratives of respondents and this was linked to being a good citizen. This account reinforces Bourdieu‟s (1977) position that habitus shapes agency and individuals have agency, but the kind of agency they have is partially prescribed by the culture of which they are members. The decision to use people in
91 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 authority shows the constraining effects of culture and the difficulties of acting beyond the roles in which society places them especially in the social filed in which they are embedded (Bourdieu,
1997; Long, 2001; Mosse, 1997; Cleaver, 2000). Furthermore, demanding accountability from representatives in the study area was governed by the “right way of doing things” and routine which seems incompatible with the notions of active citizenship based on citizenship rights as stated in decentralisation and local government policy documents (Cleaver, 2004).
However, it is important to note that by law, the Unit Committee (UC) members are to demand accountability formally from the District Assembly (DA) members on behalf of the community. Yet in practice the UC members failed to exercise this power as mandated in the
Decentralisation Act, Act 462. The UC members mentioned that they left this function to the traditional hierarchy due to the social positioning and the authority that they embody in community affairs which legitimises them to demand accountability from elected or appointed leaders on behalf of the village members (see Burkitt, 2012; Douglas, 1987). However the decentralisation or local government Act fails to recognise such a function of the traditional leadership in village life. Rather, the authority to monitor representatives of the DA and bring them into account is vested in the UCs which is unworkable in the day to day practice at the community level.
The study noted that the appropriate ways of being and behaving are not simply a matter of individual choice and the simple introduction of new local government units. Ways of being and behaving at the community level were shaped by the structural constraints within which agents operate (Giddens 1984; Long, 1992, 2001). In instances where embezzlement of village or public funds was obvious, the long process of accountability ended up at the chief‟s palace for the problem to be resolved. No conscious effort was usually made by community members to link corruption or embezzlement cases to the formal institutions of state such as the police or district assembly in
92 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 which representatives could be named and shamed. For most of the respondents, such an action seemed undesirable and may harm the social relations in which they are embedded (Cleaver, 2007).
Furthermore, the perception that no action will be taken against the representatives who misappropriated funds and the long process of court cases as well as the burden of proof did not motivate local actors to consciously exercise agency to demand accountability from local representatives.
This illustrates the complex and wide-ranging world views within which people, both consciously and unconsciously, places themselves and their actions, constraining their ability to act to demand accountability from representatives (Adams et al., 1997; Long, 2001; Mosse, 1997;
Cleaver, 2000). A the community level, the premises of active citizenship instilled by citizenship rights do not apply as people are bound by close mutual relations of kinship and reciprocity and it is these which mediate their access to certain resources in the community (Cleaver, 2007; 2000;
Douglas, 1987; Wong, 2005).
The choice for most community members under such a situation was to withdraw their involvement and leave everything to a higher moral authority that is supposed to demand accountability on their behalf (Cleaver & De Koning, 2015; Cleaver, 2007; 2000; Douglas, 1987).
The belief among some community members was that demanding accountability from representatives was not desirable but rather leaving duty bearers to a higher moral authority was more appropriate. So if, even community members do not exercise agency based on citizenship right to demand accountability from representatives, they act strategically based on moral reasoning
(Cleaver, 2000; Douglas 1987). This suggests that not reflexively exercising agency to demand accountability may be motivated by the belief in a higher moral authority to act on behalf of individuals in sanctioning offenders (Cleaver, 2000). As Wong (2005) puts it, the belief of a
93 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 supernatural authority demanding accountability on behalf of individuals shapes the actors‟ intentions not to hold leaders to accounts. Thus, „„deferral, accommodation, negotiation, selective appropriation and absenteeism‟‟ all connote the exercise of agency (Arce & Long, 2000, p. 3).
Social relations and accountability
In this section, the paper discusses how social relations shape individual agency. The fear of the negative social outcomes on social relationships and livelihoods concerns shaped the decision to demand accountability from representatives. The study noted that in order to avoid conflict situations among networks and family members, individuals will consciously not act to exercise agency to demand accountability from local representatives. The narrative from a respondent from
Agyaade village is used to demonstrate how the anticipated reaction of acting individually to demand accountability from local leaders constrains agency.
„By not stating your claim very well, demanding accountability from village leaders
may mean accusing them of embezzlement. Asking someone to render accounts is very
good but it may be re-interpreted to mean individual embezzlement or putting a charge
on the representative. This has the potential of leading to conflict. In this village we are
not plenty so we have to deal with such accusations very carefully so that leaders will
be able to do their work‟.
The narrative above suggests that the fear of the unintended consequences of demanding accountability from representatives constrained village actors from consciously exercising agency to hold leaders accountable. Giddens (1984) and Long (1992, 2001) emphasise the intended and unintended effects of individual actions and they way the perceived outcomes of individual action may render individuals unable to act. People live out their lives in many contexts and at many levels
94 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 fanning out from interpersonal to wider societal settings and the desire not to fracture the relations within such context and levels affect agency (Anyidoho, 2010; Lister, 2004; Kabeer, 2000). The fact that community members encountered each other in their daily social life limited their ability to exercise agency to demand accountability. Even for individuals equally positioned within the village hierarchy demanding accountability from the other within the public spaces if not done properly and with caution may lead to hostilities which have the possibility of spilling over into other spaces in which the individuals interacted (Anyidoho, 2010; Cleaver, 2007; Dean, 1999;
Agrawal, 2005). This brings to fore the significance of the social field in which individuals operate and how the actions in this field are motivated by several factors that may be relational, cultural or rational (Bourdieu, 1977).
The example of Obofuor illustrates how even within the constraints of agency people can exercise agency to demand accountability from DA representatives though such occurrences were rare within the community. Based on his drunkenness, Obofuor‟s contributions on village issues are deemed irrelevant. However, during a meeting between the District Assembly and the entire community members on a proposed Millennium Development Challenge Account (MCA), Obofuor publicly revealed how some community leaders are corrupt. Obofuor mentioned the embezzlement of PTA funds by the local School Management Committee (SMC) and misappropriation of tractor funds by the tractor committee. The chair person of the function stopped Obofuor midway through his allegations and informed the gathering that Obofuor was drunk. He was subsequently not allowed to conclude his allegation. However after the meeting some village members congratulated
Obofuor on his ability to publicly reveal the corrupt practices of the village leaders. Obofuor stated that if he was allowed to continue with his accusations he would have revealed a host of corrupt practices that were going on in the community.
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The action of Obofuor in making public the corrupt activities of community leaders shows the individualistic nature of agency seen as autonomous and purposive (Rapport and Overing, 2000;
Sen, 1999), as he did not consider social relations in deciding to act. He was also strategic in the sense that he is noted to be a drunkard and so could say whatever he wanted without fear. The muteness of other community members for not using the meeting to publicly demand accountability from representatives may be considered as a form of agency as their choice was not to harm any social relationship in which they were embedded (Schnegg & Linke, 2015; Cleaver, 2012; Long,
1992; Giddens, 1984). They justified their muteness by referring to the position of the community leaders alongside their role in community development and how the accusation of misappropriation of community funds will lead to unintended consequences due to the existing web of relationship.
Observations and interviews during the field study demonstrate that poor village members depended on powerful members in their daily interactions. However, such interdependence existed alongside structural inequality which they will not put under any discursive scrutiny. Evidence of asymmetrical relationship abounds in Ntonaboma, but it served as the basis for which individual interactions took place. Putting such unequal social relationships into perspective illustrates how certain individuals such as Fredrick (not real name), a farm labourer, depended on his landlord, a
DA member, in a patronage relationship, constraining him from acting to demand accountability from him. Apart from dependence on the patronage of the more powerful actors within the village, the powerful individuals were the same people who mediated their access to other social resources.
Therefore, Fredrick‟s relationship with his landlord was so important to him that he would hardly want to make it fragile.
Fredrick‟s example reveals that, though he is a village representative on the UC, he maintains an unequal relationship with his landlord. This relationship provides Fredrick with the
96 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 possibility to interact with his landlord and even run errands for him. However, their different social positioning within the village structure and the difference in the resources at their disposal make
Fredrick unable to shape, positively, their relationship. Transplanting such a relationship informed by livelihood security into the public domain where Fredrick is supposed to act purposively based on his rights as a citizen to demand accountability becomes a daunting task. Fredrick‟s suggestion of an external actor to demand accountability on his behalf may be interpreted to mean someone from outside the village, autonomous and not embedded in any social relationship and equally powerful. This reinforces Cleaver‟s (2012) position that, the exercise of agency involves mutuality and interdependence as well as relations of domination and subordination.
Getting village representatives to account through ‘off stage’ practices
In this section, I highlight how community members were able to act within the structural constrains in which they were positioned to bring village representatives to account. Community members in exercising agency to demand accountability collectively relied on gossip and withdrawal of labour to achieve their outcomes. Lister (2004) writes that these „back stage‟ acts were neither for personal gain nor for anti social purposes but were consciously used to „get back‟ at village leaders who were perceived to be corrupt or unresponsive to the needs of the village.
The location of certain people up the village hierarchy imbued with power does not suppose that they are insulated from the effects of the action of others. For example, certain „off-stage‟ practices of ordinary members in the village, such as gossiping about a representative‟s perceived corrupt behaviour ended up getting such leaders to publicly render account. When such gossips got into the public domain and leaders concerned got to know they made every effort to address the issue raised even though nobody had categorically requested them to respond to such allegations of
97 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 misappropriation. Though such gossips were not consciously focused on removing representatives from office they sometimes ended up unintendedly doing so (Cleaver & de Koning, 2015; Giddens,
1984).
Thus, understanding gossip as a part of community life reveals the unconscious nature of that action. This shows that, agency is also embedded in routinised practices, and may not be wholly conscious as practical action is often exercised in taken–for–granted ways, which people rarely consciously scrutinise (Cleaver & de Koning, 2015; Giddens, 1984; Long, 1992). Instances where gossips held committee representatives to account abound in the narratives of village members though such acts did not result in leaders either refunding embezzled funds but in other instances some individuals were reported to the police. The example of the former village water committee responsible for collecting water levies revealed how the „off stage‟ practices of village members such as gossips had the potential for achieving some important outcomes manifesting in the water committee members resigning their position.
A key strategy for exercising agency to get representatives to be accountable was through off stage practices of withdrawing labour or making the work of village leaders very difficult. Such acts were a reflexive way of acting within the village social structure to bring leaders to account.
Using the renovation of the Ntonaboma community clinic as an example, I will demonstrate how by withdrawing their labour the skilled youth in the village were able to get the Area Council (AC) chairman to render accounts for funds utilised and provide information on the budgeted funds for hiring skilled labour for the project.
During the renovation works on the Ntonaboma clinic, the AC chairman and the DA member for Agyaade were responsible for the day-to-day management of the ongoing construction work, such as taking deliveries from the Assembly and other private suppliers and releasing these
98 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 inputs to the workers on site. The AC chairman, drawing on the notion of community ownership requested village members who were artisans to provide free labour for the project as the amount of money budgeted for the project was not sufficient. However, the artisans, majority of whom were among the youth rejected the proposal of the AC chairman and demanded that the AC chairman briefed them of the total funds budgeted for the project According to the skilled artisans, if the AC chairman had employed individuals from outside Ntonoaboma to work, they would have paid them wages for their services. The AC chairman failed to accept the demands of the skilled artisans, hence the youth decided to withdraw their services from the project. The AC chairman reported the matter to the Akroso and Agyaade village chiefs and the District Technical Officer (DTO). At a meeting between the DA member and the artisans with the DTO in attendance, the DTO negotiated with the skilled youth on the daily wage that had to be paid them even though the rate was fixed below the prevailing market price at that time.
As the example of the clinic renovation shows, the youth, through collective action were able to exercise agency to get the village DA representative to account for the funds meant for the project and also negotiate for their services to be paid. The example also demonstrates that exercising agency to exert accountability from representatives is a relational activity, yet mainstream views on decentralisation assume that autonomous individuals are capable of exercising agency independently of one another to bring leaders to account. As Lister (2004) cautions, certain practices such as withdrawing village labour in a public manner are done whiles still accommodating the unequal power relationships.
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Conclusion and policy implication
The paper has raised a number of questions about individual agency in relation to demanding accountability from local government representatives. Mainstream views on decentralisation and local government place a great deal of emphasis on the agency of local people in formal organisations to achieve the normative ideals of good governance. However, this paper has shown that the concept and practice of decentralisation over-romanticises the agency of individuals to undertake certain actions to influence the outcomes of local governance, especially in terms of accountability. The paper further showed that active agency, epitomised in individual action is difficult to achieve in reality and seems a risky endeavour especially taking into account the role of social relations in social life. The discussions and the narratives of respondents revealed a link between people‟s subjective values, interaction and action. This reinforces the position that it is difficult and at times impossible to transform the way people behave through the institutionalisation of new local government structures with its own principles of citizenship and rights. This brings attention to the need to widen the gaze on the application of citizenship and rights in decentralisation approaches to include collective action.
At the national level, institutions responsible for the implementing decentralisation must pay attention to the role that social norms, cultural values, and complex motivations play in shaping participation in local governance. In Ghana for example, the Ministry of Local Government and
Rural Development must through capacity building activities provide individuals with the capacity required to participate effectively in local government spaces. Otherwise, the poor will acquiesce or self „discipline‟ themselves and let existing elites continue to populate and shape the new decision- making structures that come with decentralisation.
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At the district assembly level emphasis should be placed on educating citizens to improve their civic and political knowledge. Building the capacities of citizens will empower them for collective action and to use the new spaces that come with local government. The Ministry of Local
Government as well as the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA) must consider the structures of relation that inextricably prevents people especially marginalised individuals from active participation in the local government units. The MMDAs through the sub- district structures must provide an enabling platform to enhance the engagement between community members and their representatives and through that demand accountability from their representatives.
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Accountable governance in Ghana: Rhetoric or a reality?
Stephen B. Kendie
Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana
David W. Essaw
Institute for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana
Abstract
Ghana and similar countries implementing neo-liberal economic agenda of the World Bank think that in order to ensure accountability in governance there must be institutional reforms. An assessment of the nexus between accountable governance and development revealed that: the four arms of government and other stakeholders, who are supposed to provide the needs of the people, are caught up in the accountability failure syndrome. This is because their actions have been called into question by the sheer partisan endorsement of issues, stakeholders hobnob with politicians to seek selfish ends, and the perceived corrupt practices in successive governments do not reflect the needed development of the people. Moving the accountability rhetoric to reality the paper argued that development governance require that, the constitutional mandate of institutions needs to be respected and enforced. Public and social accountability approaches must be bridged to ensure that citizens have a space within the Ministries, Departments and Agencies for engagement on issues of transparency and accountability in the management of resources and service delivery. The paper concludes that accountable governance requires attitudinal change at the individual, family and societal level. For purposes of promoting and consolidating democracy and social progress, Ghana does not need modernizing elites, big men or women, or a “new breed of leaders” but leaders who represent veritable democratic forces, imbued with patriotism and enjoying the people‟s confidence.
Key words: Accountability, accountable governance, corruption, development, ethics
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Introduction
Accountability has been a watchword the world over given the attention on all kinds of happenings at the national and local levels on issues of poor governance leading to corrupt practices and the payment of huge judgment debts. Ghana is not the only country suffering this new canker.
The cash-gate scandal in Malawi is on-going; the BBC 2pm news on Monday the 3rd of February
2014 reported that there was no EU country without corruption and this occurred in the form of all kinds of dealings in the award of contracts.
Is accountability in governance a key to national development? Ghana and similar countries implementing neo-liberal economic agendas of the World Bank think so and have been led into institutional reforms in order to ensure accountability in governance. We also believe so to the extent that accountability in governance ensures resource availability for development. The
Tanzanian Parliament is said to have awarded MPs US$100,000 each totalling US$57 million – enough money to put up a decent hospital in this poor country. Our contention is how accountability is defined and operationalized. Where accountability is defined within the confines of multi-party democracy, centred on periodic elections (what we call electoral democracy or democracy without democracy), there obviously will be a problem in achieving both accountability and development objectives and we shall illustrate this soon. However, if accountability is defined in altruistic terms in a context where governments work to achieve justice for all (the just society) we expect that both accountability and development goals will be realised. There are obviously countries without electoral democracies that are both accountable and developing; and there are countries deep in religiously implementing multi-party, democratic governance principles that are unaccountable, corrupt and not developing. Similarly, there are countries where corruption is endemic and yet are developing just as there are countries where corruption is obviously drawing back the wheel of
10 6 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 progress. The examples of Mobutu‟s Zaire and Suharto‟s Indonesia are instructive. Mobutu is said to have stolen $5billion during his 32 year rule. Similarly, Suharto stole as much $15billion during his rule. The development gap between the two countries now is glaring (Chang, 2008).
A short history of where we have come from as a country in terms of accountable governance shows a rather chequered past. We are familiar with the documented corrupt and dictatorial tendencies in the first Republic manifesting rather crudely in the Minister‟s „golden bed‟ story. The President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was said to be a dictator and so issues of openness and responsiveness in governance were largely compromised. Yet that government oversaw substantial improvements in national infrastructure and sought also to change the structure of the economy away from peasant agriculture. Various military regimes took the mantle of governance after 1966 and were notable for the lack of democracy, pervasive corruption and cronyism and ineptitude. The civilian regimes of Dr. Busia (1969-1972) and Dr. Liman (1979-1983) were short-lived but did not depart fundamentally from the stories of corruption that were rife in the preceding regimes. Dr.
Busia‟s „co court‟ statement following the judgement of the Sallah case showed a tendency towards dictatorship. That unaccountability was real was shown in the military take-over of governance by
J. J. Rawlings and the launching of the 31st December revolution ostensibly to clean the stable and to bring this country back onto the path of honesty, responsibility and accountability. One cardinal principle of accountability is freedom of speech; yet the culture of silence that engulfed Ghanaian society from this bygone era bear testimony to the need for caution in interpreting public sector responsiveness under various regimes.
This short history paints a picture of poor governance in so far as the perceptions of corruption and dictatorial tendencies prevailed. Suffice it to note, that the struggle for independence in Africa was fought and won from the alliance between the masses and the bourgeoisie. This
10 7 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 alliance broke down soon after independence because the liberation struggle had:
Masked the conflicts of interests between these two groups. The ordinary people had
expected that independence would bring about both freedom and material prosperity
(or what we would call democracy and social progress). These “expectations of
independence” were not fulfilled. Meanwhile, the nationalist leaders who had led the
independence struggle went on to accumulate power and wealth in order to join the
ranks of the rich and superrich of today‟s world. With the exception of the fight
against apartheid and for total decolonization, these leaders would give only lip
service to the pan-African project of self-determination politically, self-reliance
economically, and pan-African solidarity internationally (Nzongola-Ntalaja, 2013).
Of course, we stand the risk of over generalisation here because there were leaders such as
Julius Nyerere that provided selfless leadership and were genuinely concerned about the welfare of the masses although we cannot say the same thing about his followers.
The consequences of these leadership tendencies coupled with structural economic problems which themselves derive from the leadership issue eventually led many African countries including
Ghana to disastrous economic outcomes and these countries are still grappling with the fallouts.
Take the case of Ghana as reported by Meredith (2005):
One of the most prosperous tropical countries in the world, (Ghana) had been reduced
by 1980 to a pauper. Its per capita GDP fell by more than 3 percent a year in the 1970s.
Output declined in all the major sectors – cocoa, timber, mining, and manufacturing.
The only sector that flourished was kalabule – the black market. The cedi traded in this
market up to 20 times below the official rate. The purchasing power of a labourers
wage fell during the 1970s to one-quarter of its value; a loaf of bread took two days to
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earn; yam sufficient for a family meal cost as much as two weeks‟ wages. ... Public
services disintegrated ... only one-third of the fleet of vehicles were serviceable.
Between 1975 and 1980, some 14000 teachers left the service and by 1981, one-half of
the graduates had migrated. When J. J. Rawlings took power in 1982, he railed at how
hospitals had been turned into graveyards and clinics into death transit camps.
These dire economic conditions have been explained to result from bad governance by the
Washington Consensus and so the prescriptions were largely about macro-economic restructuring controlled by the strict conditionalities of the World Bank and the IMF. These prescriptions, we are all familiar with, are still being implemented in Ghana today. One such prescription was the need to adopt multi-party democratic systems of governance and since 1992; Ghana has been implementing this type of regime. Multi-party democracy ensures pluralism in the body polity, opening up spaces for political participation. Through periodic elections, leaders are supposedly held to account for their stewardship. Political participation in turn opens up avenues for better decision making and planning.
Democracy is said to be essential for economic development and USAID boldly explained that „expanding democracy improves individual opportunity for prosperity and improved well- being‟. Democracy is one of the principles of good governance championed by the IFIs and the
Washington Consensus. The others are:
o periodic elections
o independent judiciary
o independent monitoring and enforcement institutions (CHRAJ, EOCO, Auditor General‟s
Department, etc.) to superintend over accountability processes
o freedom of the press
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o accountable civil and public service
o local governance structure to enhance participation
o accountable political parties
The summation of these principles really hinge on the concept of accountability – which allows leaders to fulfil the social contract with their citizens and to deliver the common good. These accountability mechanisms imply inclusion and representation of all groups and decentralizing responsibilities to bring political and administrative control over services at the point of delivery, in order to improve efficiency to ensure that development needs of the people are met.
Development needs of people are however, diverse and may differ spatially as well as within different economic and socio-cultural spheres. Nevertheless, these needs are universal and basic for the majority of ordinary citizens (Goulet, 1979). Yet development discourse itself is couched in terms that are fundamentally against the interest of the masses. It is argued that “development as conceived and practiced is not about helping poor countries and people out of poverty: it is a political project employed by the developed countries and wealthy people to appropriate the wealth of poor countries and poor people. The ruling elite in the poor countries in turn dissipate revenues generated in conspicuous consumption, corruption, patronage, expanding the state sector to gain political advantage over opponents and control of working people, as well as in debt payments‟
(Kendie, 2011). In this context accountability itself, and even the total governance project, gets couched in narratives that are sometimes populist but in most cases anti-people. The governance and development debates sincerely have great “difficulty in embracing the concrete developmental aspirations of the poor in practice, despite their theoretical sophistication” (Simon, 1997); multi- party democracy worsens the situation as the winner-takes-all-principle as practiced in Ghana does not allow for merit politics and development discussions.
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This paper, therefore, examines whether accountability in governance is a reality or rhetoric in
Ghana. The discussion begins with accountability in governance and its relationship with development. It also examines the emerging issues of accountability in governance in Ghana and draws conclusions to enable Ghana move from the accountability rhetoric to reality.
Accountable governance and development
Governance is the system of actors, resources, mechanisms and processes which mediate society‟s access to development. It is about how institutions of state manage public resources to ensure the satisfaction of the basic needs of the people. While government normally has the final say when it comes to decisions relating to public policies, programs, laws, and regulations, it is not the only player. Citizens, civil society organizations, and the private sector are also stakeholders.
Therefore, governance is about how government, civil society, and the private sector work together to achieve the development agenda of a nation. Thus “governance” acknowledges the power, which exists both inside and outside formal government authority and institutions, and the processes of decision-making by which decisions are implemented or not implemented (Kendie & Martens,
2008; UN, 2007). Implementing decisions in a transparent and open manner gives credence to accountability in governance.
Accountable governance can be defined as the responsiveness of the government to meet the needs of people (health, education, water and sanitation etc) in open and transparent manner. It is a process that should have inbuilt mechanisms for answerability to the citizens in terms of cost effectiveness, timeliness, availability, and quality of service delivery (downward accountability) and to those at the higher levels (upward accountability). Accountable governance could also be looked
11 1 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 at in terms of how people are elected, whether the election follows due process and whether the standards conform to the expectations of the people (democratic governance).
Thus, accountability in governance should be seen in terms of what the state, Civil Society
Organisation (CSO) private sector and all other stakeholders need to account for, who to account to, when and how to account as well as what will show that there has been accountability. This means that both the public and private institutions need to justify their actions and inactions because the aim of accountability in governance is to ensure that governance processes are open and transparent, and those in authority are committed to the achievement of the objectives of development.
Accountable governance is therefore central to good governance. According to the UNDP
(2007), “...good governance is, among other things, participatory, transparent and accountable. It is also effective and equitable. And it promotes the rule of law.” Similarly, The World Bank (2008) states that: “...good governance implies inclusion and representation of all groups in the society, and accountability, integrity and transparency of local government actions in defining and pursuing shared goals. Good governance implies accountability in governance.
Accountable governance includes participation by citizens, decision making through the rule of law, transparency in the actions of governance institutions, responsiveness to the needs and desires of citizens, equity in the treatment of citizens, effectiveness and efficiency in the use of public resources, public accountability, and the exercise of strategic vision in planning for development.
If an overarching goal of development is to widen people‟s choices over their lives, a key aspect to this is enabling participation. The opportunity to participate must be unhindered by impediments imposed by the state. This brings forth the rule of law as a development issue. The rule of law must enable freedom of association and speech, and enable the capacity to participate
11 2 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 constructively. Rule of law should also ensure predictable, fair and consistent application of these laws and government policies. Predictability is supported by transparency. Decision-making processes, however well intentioned, must be open to public scrutiny. Further to being transparent, institutions and processes must demonstrate that they are responsive to the hopes and aspirations of the people at large, allowing citizens to obtain redress for their grievances and advocate for change in policies and processes.
Accountable governance is also about eliminating favoritism towards special interest groups and treating everyone equitably. The equity dimension seeks to ensure that development is inclusive, that all people benefit from well-functioning political and economic institutions and political, economic and social processes. Finally, when the exercise of decision-making is accountable, it adds legitimacy to state-society interactions. Without accountability, the social contract between citizens and representative government is broken.
Governance and development
There are many studies now which present the governance and development linkage. The
World Bank (1992) in its report on 'Governance and Development' concluded that governance of an economy embraces all macroeconomic, microeconomic and fiscal policies, public economic agencies, regulatory bodies, company laws and legal institutions connected with economic matters.
In trying to ascribe a wider meaning to development, Gore (2000), defines development as a purpose towards which the exercise of state power is directed. It is the entire movement of society in a desirable direction and a way by which state power is directed in order to create a better future for the people. That purpose actually involves much more than the use of state power to ensure that law and order are maintained among the individuals and groups. It involves much more than the use
11 3 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 of state power to regulate the economy in order to check the defects and failures in the market mechanism and also to provide welfare and cushioning mechanisms to support the economically weaker sections of society. With the adoption of development as a central purpose of the exercise of state power, that power is used to organize future conditions of life and future relationships among the associations of people who form the state.
By describing the purpose to which state power is put as development, it is implied that this power is used to create a better future for the people. Sen‟s (1999) capability approach also affirms development as a process which builds capacity and responds to both material and non-material needs and goals of individuals and communities, such as being educated, healthy, and able to work and engage in cultural activities. Similarly, Todaro and Smith (2009) emphasise that development aims to achieve sustenance, which implies meeting basic needs and necessities of life, such as food, water, sanitation, health education and protection. They note that development ensures that self- esteem and rights of people are valued and respected, while freedoms and options open to people are expanded in order to improve well-being. Thus, true development occurs when there is greater freedom and accountability processes are open to all irrespective of one‟s position, race or colour.
Accountability is a relationship between an actor and a forum. Answerability and enforcement are the two concepts at the core of this relationship between the actor and the forum.
Answerability is the obligation of the actor to inform the forum about his or her conduct and the forum‟s power to interrogate the actor to question the adequacy of the information or the legitimacy of the conduct. Enforcement is the forum‟s power to pass judgment on the conduct of the actor. It may approve of an annual account, denounce a policy, or publicly condemn the behaviour of the actor. Enforcement includes the possibility of positive and negative sanctions. The possibility of sanctions makes the difference between non-committal provision of information and being held to
11 4 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 account (Bovens, 2006; Pollitt, 2003; Mulgan, 2000). Both answerability and enforcement are necessary components of an accountability relationship – neither is sufficient by itself.
The actor-forum relationship can be a two-way affair. A public official can be an actor and a forum at the same time. When a public official takes certain decisions he/she should be answerable to a forum for his or her actions and inactions. If he or she also takes instructions from above he/she should be able to demand accountability from the superior without fear or victimization. When one recognizes that ones actions are answerable in both ways and could be sanctioned without any favour one will be cautious about one‟s actions.
Accountable governance and ethics
Leaders who manage governance structures of institutions carry moral responsibilities or accepted ethical conduct to maintain the wellbeing of that institution and should act as moral reference points for the country as a whole. In this respect, Kendie, Enu-Kwesi and Akudugu (2012) argued that, the abdication of such ethical behaviour or moral responsibilities often leads to dire consequences, notable among which are corporate scandals and high level corruption among institutions which ultimately affect the governance of a country.
Ethical conduct within an institution depends on what is considered morally right or wrong by the leaders and followers based on the governance structure of that institution at any given time.
Leaders in governing positions therefore, have the responsibility to define what is ethical or moral and enforce such, and they themselves must live by example. The problem exacerbate in situations where leaders in society see themselves above ethical considerations thereby weakening their power to enforce such behaviour on their followers.
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Accountability and ethics in governance both have the element of answerability to forum by the actor. While in accountability the answerability is the obligation of the actor to inform the forum and the forum‟s power to pass judgment on the conduct of the actor, the ethical perspectives mandate the actor to put every activity within the governance structure in its place, knowing what is worth doing and what is not worth doing, and knowing what is worth wanting and having and what is not worth wanting and having (Solomon, 1994).
Ethics governs the relationships that exist among and/or between individuals, communities, organizations and even countries. What is considered right conduct in every society or institution is a manifestation of ethical conducts in relationships at the individual or institutional level. This means that it is unethical for individuals within the institution to engage in practices and conducts that do not conform to the institutional values and moral principles. Within the work setting there are complexities of relationship, boss-subordinate, subordinate-subordinate, boss-boss, and more, all of which require accountability and ethical principles. The successful management of such relationships requires effective and accountable leadership.
The debate on accountability in governance and development does not pertain to a particular type of governance. Accountable governance can occur in all governments be it dictatorship or democratic. Ghana has accepted the democratic governance for over 20 years now. Can we now say that the governance processes over the years have created the environment for a better future for the people? Are the processes of allocation and utilisation of the country’s resources transparent? Are accountability processes achieving the desired results? Is accountability in governance a reality or rhetoric in Ghana? Assessment of the performance of the democratic governance system points to some emerging issues that need to be addressed.
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Emerging issues of accountable governance in Ghana
Ghana embarked on decentralisation programme so that people at all levels could play active roles in the governance processes. As a result, certain systems and structures were put in place to ensure accountability in governance.
Local Governance
In the areas of decentralisation, successive governments have developed legal and regulatory frameworks that provide the environment for accountability to the people. The national context within which the decentralisation policy operates consists of relevant provisions in the 1992 Fourth
Republican Constitution. Within this framework, there are also defined mechanisms to enable people to demand accountability. The local government structure provides accountability processes at all levels. The Local Government Act 1993, Act 462 makes provision for governance processes in terms of local level elections, how the citizenry can participate in the governance process, and hold duty bearers accountable. Other relevant legislation for decentralisation and local governance are the Local Government Service Act, 2003, Act 656; Internal Audit Agency Act 658, Financial
Administration Act, Financial Regulation Act, Procurement Act, establishment of the Internal Audit function in public institutions, Audit Report Implementation Committee, the Functional
Organisation Assessment Tool (FOAT) (MLGRD, 2010).
The above systems and structures are supposed to provide avenues for accountability at all levels, ensure transparency in the actions of governance institutions to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in the use of public resources. A number of accountability issues have been raised, the implementation process either seems to be slow or have not been addressed due to technicalities. In some instances people do not know the processes involved in the application of these systems and
11 7 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 structures to enable them to demand accountability. A lot of financial information is shrouded in secrecy and in the domain of selected few. For example, in budgeting how many people are involved and how transparent is the process? How transparent is the process in allocating projects, and the resources that go with it? How are resources utilised? Where do people get information about levels of utilisation of resources? How is reporting of the utilisation of funds/resources done? How do the ordinary citizen know whether what was budgeted for has been spent, when were funds released? It is important to emphasise that the mere existence of these structures does not imply accountability in governance. The question is whether as a country we have been implementing these provisions to the fullest.
Transparency requires that the system for designing rules and regulations be open, that the regulations be simple and clear, and that financial, supervisory and enforcement institutions have strong disclosure requirements. Citizens‟ access to information remains weak and the failure to strengthen the interface between the assemblies and the local people has rendered citizen‟s request of accountability in local government leadership unsuccessful (CDD-Ghana, 2009). Avenues for accountability are limited in scope. In a number of districts, majority of the people are unaware or do not have information about the resources that are generated or made available to the assembly
(e.g. Internally Generated Fund (IGF), District Assembly Common Fund (DACF), District
Development Fund (DDF). This limits the extent to which they could hold duty bearers accountable
(Essaw, 2013). When people know how much is mobilised as IGF and its utilisation, some of the current practices by Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies will cease.
Improving accountability also ensures effective and efficient service delivery; particularly for the poor, it is argued. Local governments offer significant possibilities of exerting stronger pressures on government‟s performance both from below and from above and its non-partisan
11 8 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 nature in Ghana was designed to ensure that all citizens benefit. Decentralisation leads to new interactions and contractual relationships between local governments, and between providers and producers of services, and communities and non-governmental organizations. However, in Ghana‟s decentralisation, the evidence is overwhelming that what has been achieved so far could better be described to as „centralised decentralisation‟ whereby the centre still controls what happens at the local level leaving little room for genuine local level development discourse. The control mechanisms manifest themselves in various ways including manipulation of the membership of the
Assembly from above, the deductions from the DACF also from above as well as the mode of appointment of the political head of the district and channels of reporting from the district to higher authorities (AAG, 2002; Kendie and Martens, 2008). From these, it may be concluded that decentralisation in Ghana is intended, as a spatial and territorial strategy, to strengthen the state in the countryside, bringing about homogenous institutions, creating districts and local representations that can ensure local compliance with state regulations and which respond more to party political requirements than to local development imperatives. Are citizens satisfied with service delivery?
How are the MMDCEs accountable to the people?
The highest political authority in a local area is vested in the local governments. What is emerging in Ghana is that funds that are placed at the disposal of local governments for development sometimes are appropriated to service political authority which is not visible and in most cases not verifiable. Local government officials especially the politicians come under a lot of pressure to service political authority and have to dip hands into funds earmarked for development at the expense of service delivery to the people. Politicians are forced to find money to finance political rallies and other engagements that are not linked to developing the local area. The pressure that is brought to bear on the politicians is passed onto the technocrats who may empathise with the
11 9 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 politicians and decide to assist. In the process, the technocrats also take advantage of the situation and suggest all kinds of ideas to circumvent established rules, regulations, and laws in order to carry through the assignment ordered by the politician. Some other deals then take place on the blind side of the politician. The system, even with the stringiest of controls, gets compromised.
We have already stated that answerability and enforcement are the two concepts at the core of accountability relationships between the actor and the people. But, let us take the FOAT assessment for example: if an MMDA fails in the assessment, there are no mechanisms for the officials to explain their inability to qualify for the District Development Fund (DDF). There are no sanctions to the public official concerned. Even where there is dishonesty bordering on the accounts, nothing is done to the culprit. An official who has denied the whole District huge sums of development funds is left unpunished and the people they serve suffer. At best the only sanction is to transfer that person to another district. This situation does not pertain to the MMDAs only. In
Ministries, Departments, Agencies and other public institutions similar things happen.
The Executive and the struggle of accountability
Successive governments in Ghana have alluded to accountability in governance as one of the cardinal principles of their administration. Statements like “accountability and probity”, “zero tolerance for corruption”, “our commitment to the fight against corruption remains unshakeable” etc. reflect these inclinations. These utterances give an indication to the citizenry of the executives‟ willingness to fight corruption and instil accountability at all levels of governance and administration in the country. The declining performance of Ghana in the transparency index, the perceived corrupt practices surrounding the sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone and the sale of a whole drill ship by the Kuffuor administration and the sale of the Merchant Bank to Fortiz, SADA
12 0 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 and GYEEDA in the Mahama administration do not reflect this rhetoric. The Asamoa-Boateng conflict of interest case has been in court since 2009 and many other current cases in court such as
Wayome do not ever seem to be ending. Are these delay tactics for us to forget the cases as the public‟s attention wanes?
The Legislature
A legislature has a crucial role to play in any integrity system, as the watchdog for the people as to how the executive is spending public resources. A strong parliament ensures a strong democracy and accountability. However, Parliament‟s oversight role has been called into question by the sheer partisan endorsement of issues. Can we have a parliament where members sometimes vote for the common good of Ghana without partisan considerations? Accountability tenets demand that things have to be done because they are right, not because they are beneficial to us or our political parties. When an MP boldly announces the completion of a six-unit classroom block and the Assembly-man counters that no such building exists and the evidence shows that the
Assembly man is right, the honourable thing for this (dis)‟honourable‟ MP is to resign; yet she openly tells all to go to hell. This is the true story of the Sissala East MP and she may be a macrocosm of MPs in Ghana. We hope not.
The Judiciary
Throughout the world, experience has shown that without the rule of law, efforts to combat corruption for example, are largely futile. If judges are not impartial, professional in their work, and independent, the criminal law cannot be relied upon as a major weapon in the struggle to contain corruption. If they are actually corrupt, the situation is even frightening. Global surveys suggest that the public sees many judiciaries as being weak, dictated to by politicians, or even indulging in
12 1 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 corrupt practices (Pope, 2007). Are these findings different from what pertains in Ghana? Where is the rule of law as a tenet of accountability in governance?
The Media
A free, independent and pluralistic media is essential to a free and accountable system of governance. The media who has the voice to protect the vulnerable in society are also caught up in the accountability failure syndrome because of being either loudly unresponsive or creating an exaggerated sense of situations to distort information. There is the general perception that most of the media practitioners hobnob with politicians to seek selfish ends. Is this the reality?
Service Providers
Service providers are expected to perform to specifications contained in the contracts they sign. Many of such service providers are bent on doing the right thing expected, however, political pressures mounted on them sometimes influences changes in performance. Service providers, for fear of losing later contracts, may concede and either the service is not rendered or the quality of the service rendered will be poor. Accountability failures become clearly evident and the objective of governments to deliver quality services to the people is defeated.
Our Political Parties
Since the start of the wave of democratization in Africa, various forms of multi-party political systems have emerged purporting to present avenues for political participation in the deepening of democracy for development. Today, we live in times when more countries than ever before decide on their leaders through multiparty competition for power and many countries are governed by rulers of their choice. In democratic societies, political parties are therefore indispensable voluntary associations where people share common values and views about how to deliver the common good. Representative democracy rooted in political party organization helps
12 2 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 societies to produce leaders endowed with legitimacy and authority to apply and utilize resources for the common good (Kendie and Tuffour, 2012).
Diamond and Gunther (2010) stated that political parties play seven key roles in any society.
These are:
Political parties recruit and nominate candidates for electoral office
Political parties mobilize electoral support for their candidates thereby stimulating electoral
participation.
Political parties structure the choice among competitive groups of candidates along different
issues
Political parties represent different social groups either symbolically or in advancing
different specific interests.
Political parties aggregate specific interests into electoral and governing coalitions; and
finally.
They form and sustain governments and integrate citizens more broadly into the nation state
and its political processes.
Political parties straddle the space and span the connective linkages between citizens and government, and between a multitude of private, market-based, civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the general public. They also cut across at least four conventional processes of government: the electoral process, the legislative, the executive and the administrative.
Beyond cutting across government processes, political parties also shape public policies and programmes that cut across party politics and government functions, and even the state‟s response to transnational public policy issues where the party in power holds sway in implementing policies informed by its electoral pledges (IDEA, 2008). In Africa, some political parties have been active
12 3 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 not only in political mobilization but also in mobilization for self-help activities and conflict management.
By their very nature, political parties are expected to be representative institutions that endow regimes with legitimacy. They provide ideologies that represent social, economic and political interests and produce leaders who through democratic elections form the machinery of government
(from parliament to the executive) or opportunities for political participation or a combination of all.
They also intermediate and create opportunities for upward social and political mobility – the formation of coalitions of powerful political interests to sustain government. All these functions have a major influence on politics and the way in which parties carry them out is an indicator of whether a particular democratic system is institutionalized or fragile (IDEA, 2008). When political parties win elections or majority of seats in parliament, the political party‟s programmes also inform the government‟s policies and programmes.
The above issues are possible when political parties are transparent and accountable. When political parties mobilise funds from the public and proceed as if those funds are not public funds and so not subject to public audit, this creates room for misappropriation. When political parties also receive funds from dubious sources, they lose any moral right to demand accountability in the body polity. Accountability in governance must start from accountability in the organisation of political parties. Developed democracies have strict rules on campaign financing and punishments are swift.
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Moving the accountability rhetoric to reality
In search of a just society
Development discourse and development governance require that countries systematically work towards providing the conditions necessary for the operations of a just society. John Rawls
(1971) two basic principles of justice should provide guiderails to operate a liberal society in which the needs of the vulnerable stand supreme and of priority: The first principle states that: each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others. These basic liberties of citizens are the political liberty to vote and run for office, freedom of speech and assembly, liberty of conscience, freedom of personal property and freedom from arbitrary arrest. However, he says:
Liberties not on the list, for example, the right to own certain kinds of property (e.g.
means of production) and freedom of contract as understood by the doctrine of laissez-
faire are not basic; and so they are not protected by the priority of the first principle.
The second principle is as follows: “social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that3:
3 This section is taken from Wikipedia.org/a theory of justice. Rawls' claim in (a) is that departures from equality of a list of what he calls primary goods - "things which a rational man wants whatever else he wants" [Rawls, 1971, pg. 92] - are justified only to the extent that they improve the lot of those who are worst-off under that distribution in comparison with the previous, equal distribution. His position is at least in some sense egalitarian, with a provision that equality is not to be achieved by worsening the position of the least advantaged. An important consequence here, however, is that inequality can actually be just in Rawls' view, as long as they are to the benefit of the least well off. His argument for this position rests heavily on the claim that morally arbitrary factors (for example, the family one is born into) shouldn't determine one's life chances or opportunities. Rawls is also keying on an intuition that a person does not morally deserve their inborn talents; thus that one is not entitled to all the benefits they could possibly receive from them; hence, at least one of the criteria which could provide an alternative to equality in assessing the justice of distributions is eliminated.
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(a) They are to be of the greatest benefit to the least-advantaged members of society,
consistent with the just savings principle (the difference principle).
(b) Offices and positions must be open to everyone under conditions of fair equality of
opportunity (Rawls, 1971, p.302; revised edition, p. 47):
A just society should provide a level playing field for the game of life. Each individual should be able to achieve at their personal best without restricting their fellow human being‟s opportunities. The definition of development that we have come to accept as a working tool was formulated by Curry in 1973 thus: “development is the process of change through which a society evolves the values, political leadership and other forms of social organisation necessary to mobilise and utilise resources in such a way as to maximise the opportunities available to the majority of its members for the realisation to the fullest possible extent of their potential as human beings” (Curry,
1973:21). This definition emphasises the role of institutions and the contextual social, economic and political values that should guide resource mobilisation, recognising that all members of society have innate qualities needing to be developed and harnessed. These innate qualities cannot be developed however under conditions of poverty, ignorance, inequality and unemployment (Kendie,
2011). Seeking a just society does not mean a society full of saints and angels to deliver the common good. It is a quest for a society of law abiding citizens who regard each other as brothers and sisters. This is about reasoning together about the meaning of life and of civic virtue.
The stipulation in (b) is lexically prior to that in (a). Fair equality of opportunity requires not merely that offices and positions are distributed on the basis of merit, but that all have reasonable opportunity to acquire the skills on the basis of which merit is assessed. It may be thought that this stipulation, and even the first principle of justice, may require greater equality than the difference principle, because large social and economic inequalities, even when they are to the advantage of the worst-off, will tend seriously to undermine the value of the political liberties and any measures towards fair equality of opportunity.
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A starting point here is about attitudes and dedication to the community and the nation. We must challenge purely privatized nations of the good life and seek change in the perception of public property. Are our schools and churches/mosques inculcating this virtue in us? The search for wealth seams to have overtaken our sense of judgement. How can corruption be reduced in such an environment? Do we not need a benevolent dictator to secure such law abiding behaviour required to stem the spate of corruption? The democratic society we seem to be cultivating is completely at a loss as to how to deal with the decline of civic virtue.
The Washington Consensus has ensured the expansion of markets and market orientated reasoning into spheres of life traditionally governed by non-market forces. The attempt to privatise and metre water supply is a good example; then the taxes that are increasingly going into previously untouched areas such as the churches. If churches should pay tax, maybe we should consider taxing the political parties and remove tax concessions for philanthropy as well.
The evidence shows that Ghana has reduced absolute poverty; yet the gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider. Too great a gap between the rich and poor undermines the solidarity that democratic citizenship requires. It does not give room to design policies that will help the poor; rather it provides incentives for those in authority to seek to accumulate more wealth. This is one source of conflict and war in many countries. On the first score public services deteriorate as the rich no longer use them and so are less willing to invest in them with taxes. Indeed the rich and poor increasingly live very separate lives – one goes to public schools, the other to private schools etc.
On the second score, corruption increases and those in authority constantly seek new ways to siphon from the public purse. A just and accountable society focuses on the reconstruction of the infrastructure of civic life.
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Checks and balances are crucial to the functioning of any system of effective accountability.
Lack of information flow and transparency are major causes of accountability failures in the country. The leadership that are placed in responsible positions and who are supposed to execute their roles dispassionately, provide directions, and be selfless are themselves culprit to the accountability failures in the country. Their actions could therefore be likened to a basic saying that
“many of our leaders aspire, but few inspire”. In a situation like this, systems no matter how elaborate, will not work without moral unity. To move the accountability rhetoric to reality:
The constitutional mandate of institutions needs to be respected and enforced. Systems and
structures that have been developed need to be implemented to the fullest. Not only must
they exist on paper but must have functional independence, and in cases touching on rule of
law, be able to operate without political interference. Institutions that have been mandated to
ensure accountability should be seen to be performing their roles. Institutions mandated to
provide information should be seen to be at the forefront for accountability in governance.
The delayed information bill should be passed and the Whistle Blowers Act needs to be
pursued vigorously. The media have a role to play in this direction. A good media that has
attributes of honesty, objectivity and moral conscience and not a politicised media is what
the country needs to ensure accountability in governance.
Building appropriate local government structures requires bridging the supply and demand
side so that local governments can be downwardly accountable to citizens. A precondition
for downward accountability is to simultaneously empower local governments and citizens.
That requires setting priorities and sequencing decentralization reforms to strengthen
accountability on both the supply and the demand sides. There is the need to move local
governance closer to the people. The central government should find innovative ways of
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making the substructures function. In the distribution of the DACF a certain percentage
should be transferred from the central government directly to the sub structures. There is the
need to improve relationship between the DA and the sub structures. The relationship should
be more of partnership rather than master –subordinate relationship.
There should be transparency and openness in public and private institutions, public and
social accountability approaches must be bridged to ensure that citizens have the ability and
opportunity to demand accountability and that local governments have the means and
incentives to respond to citizen‟s demands for accountability and better service delivery.
Citizens, Civil Society Organisations should demand and secure space within the MDA and
MMDA system for engagement on issues of transparency and accountability in the
management of resources and service delivery. This platform should provide opportunities
for community groups to share good practices, experiences and lessons, to engage local
governments in advocacy to influence policies and programmes, and to hold duty bearers
accountable. This could be organised quarterly. CSOs can play a critical role in developing
the social and political capacities of the poor, increasing their effectiveness in influencing
governance institutions and making the latter more responsive to their needs. For example,
the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) and SEND-Ghana have local structures for
mobilising and empowering citizens to engage with duty bearers and to gather information
from the community level to the national level under the Governance Issues Forum Network
(GIFNET). More effective and selfless civil society interventions that break with local
patronage politics are essential to building the right kind of institutions (NDPC, 2008).
While recognising the merits of democratic governance, we must also not hesitate to
question the system of politics practiced in Ghana. Multi-party democracy has ensured
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political stability in this country since 1992. However, the links between democracy and
economic development are more complex than we are made to believe by the proponents of
the Washington Consensus. Multi-party democracy ensures that public office holders must
renew their mandates on a regular basis and this is said to raise the possibility of
accountability in the use of public resources. However, under conditions of poverty and
illiteracy, political participation by the majority of the population in Ghana is not directly
based on issues of development but on patronage (financial and ethnic considerations).
Continuing reports of impunity in the actions of politicians and corruption bear testimony to
the level of patronage and the role of ethnicity where some constituencies regularly vote
nearly 100 percent for particular individuals and parties (Kendie, 2011). Several
commentators have pointed to the fragility of neo-liberal democracy and the democratisation
process in Ghana due to the fact that democracy seems to be a contest between bourgeois
factions – a de facto two party system with each party bent on winning the next elections so
that real development challenges are seldom discussed on political platforms. This situation
has been described as democracy with poverty (Austin, 1993, Yeboah, 2007) or democracy
without democracy (Canterbury & Kendie, 2010).
Ghanaians need a system of governance that will talk about food security and agricultural
transformation, industrial development, health care, education, corporate and individual tax
issues, climate and energy reforms without worrying about losing elections. We need the
middle classes on the political landscape. It is only in high levels of participation by the
middle classes that we can open up the political space for ideas and for change. Politics has
been reduced to high octane vituperations and insults; the search for personal gain is
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rampant and the small middle class prefers to sit on the fences. Beyond these, the lack of
space for political parties to define and articulate alternative national development agenda in
their manifestoes is evident in the fact that all winning parties that formed ruling
governments in Ghana since 1992, have been implementing neo-liberal economic policies
under the tutelage and direct control of the IFIs.
Political reforms are required in Ghana and should focus on:
Ensuring that inter-party electoral competition is based on key issues rather than clientelist
interests. This is a personal responsibility of each citizen to hold politicians accountable for
their stewardship. The NCCE and the school system have prominent roles in this respect. As
the agency responsible for civic education, the NCCE needs to become more visible in the
communities to provide continuing education on their rights and responsibilities. The school
system, at all levels, needs to inculcate in students a high sense of national patriotism that
would empower them later in life to see politics as simply a system of differing ideas solely
for the socio-economic development of Ghana.
The middle classes in Ghana have remained largely outside the political system because this
class is evidently more concerned with consolidating their own positions in the various
organisations rather than with political issues. As the economy grows, it is expected that this
class (defined as persons whose daily expenditure varies from $5 to $20) will continue to
expand. Economically independent, this class should begin to demand more democracy and
accountability in the use of public funds. University lecturers fall in this category and must
be seen to lead the front in the crusade against corruption and patronage rather than
becoming part of a deceitful system.
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The many and varied questions about governance require research on a scale and a
complexity that the existing organisation of research in Ghana has great difficulty
supporting. Social science research centres may focus on specific issues depending on the
disciplinary background; yet these produce only half the story. Large-scale research is
required involving universities, NGOs and think-thanks to design the methodology and to
seek especially a more comprehensive operationalization of concepts and variables. This
evidence-based research is required to draw lessons for each level of governance.
Conclusion
Accountability in governance requires attitudinal change at the individual, family and societal level. Our actions, attitudes, thoughts, ways of doing things should change. Paradoxical theory of change says that “change is not about doing new things but being aware of who you are and how you do your things” Unless one accepts that it is not good for him/her to be at where he/she is, even if he/she is changed, he/she will still come back to where he/she was. Change must start from us. Some of the changes are not costly. How costly is being open? This only enriches the discourse. If heads of organisations will make issues, resources, budgets, plans, etc. public that will be the starting point for good accountable governance. Let us run open government as a collective responsibility. In a number of cases those who want to hold people accountable are themselves not accountable. If we can hold ourselves accountable on the things we do and say at work places, churches, mosques, market places, etc. accountable governance could become a reality in Ghana.
For purposes of promoting and consolidating democracy and social progress, Africa does not need modernizing elites, big men or women, or a “new breed of leaders” who are in fact militarists and dictators. The most appropriate leadership will emerge from mass-based
13 2 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 organisations of the people if current conditions continue. The Arab Spring is a foretaste. The leadership emerging from these mass-based organizations must consist of women and men of integrity. They must represent veritable democratic forces, imbued with patriotism and enjoying the people‟s confidence. Given the interests at stake economically and strategically in the larger world, these women and men must of necessity be irreproachable nationalists and pan-Africanists, and personalities who would defend against all odds the highest interests of their respective nations and of Africa as a whole.
Listen to one stanza from the Presbyterian hymn book: PHB 603
Every single word that I utter
Every little thing I do
I must ask thee my Lord Jesus
Whether it seems right to do
If we can evaluate the things we say or do and whether it seems right to say or do, if we can make amends if we do, then as individuals, as a country, we will be moving the accountability rhetoric to reality.
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Mulgan, R. (2000). “Accountability: An ever-expanding concept?” Public Administration, 78 (3), 555-573.
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National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) (2008). Ghana 10-Year Development Plan, 2006-2015. Accra: NDPC.
Nzongola-Ntalaja, G (2013). Panel presentation for the ASA roundtable on “Leadership in Africa: Who is Minding the Commons?” 56th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Baltimore, MD November 21-24, 2013.
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Yeboah, K. (2007). Mazrui hails Ghana, Daily Graphic, 23rd August.
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Peace Education as a Recipe for Terrorism in West Africa
Dr. Rasheed Adenrele Adetoro Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria E-mail [email protected]
Abstract Peace is a sine-qua-non for development all over the world. The current trend of terrorism reflects the need to deliberately teach culture of peace and tolerant attitude among youths. According to Ogunyemi and Adetoro (2013), the need to „catch them young‟ to curtail culture of violence and aggressive behavours among the adolescents needs urgent attention. Most nations in West Africa had witnessed and are still witnessing several political, religious, socio-cultural and ethnic-related conflicts that have claimed many lives and properties in the last three decades. Prominent among these is the rampaging Boko Haram insurgency that has claimed over 15,000 lives since 2009 with more than 300 schools damaged or destroyed and over 800,000 children displaced in North Eastern Nigeria (UNICEF, 2015). This worrisome trend calls for new strategies to promote peace culture through education. This is why UNESCO (1998) canvassed that Peace Education should be taught as a veritable means of promoting necessary attitudinal change to evolve a culture of peace and non-violence behaviour. This paper therefore intends to explore the various theoretical background that are relevant to behaviour modification like Bandura (1976) social learning theory; Jenkins (2006) and Kester (2007) pedagogies of engagement theory. These theoretical frameworks were used to justify Learning Together and Constructive Controversial classroom engagements for attitudinal transformation against terrorism. With copious evidences, the various multi-track peace education approaches like tolerant sociometry, and Reciprocal Peer Relations Conditional Learning (RPRCL) were recommended to form parts of the curricula recipe to stem the rising tide of terrorism in West Africa. Good governance was also suggested to be the pillar for the peace education curricula rescue.
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Introduction
The culture of peace seems to be lacking in some notable West African countries. This is due to “unwholesome state-civil relations” and “the current spate of terrorism” (Adeyemi, 2013).
Although terrorism is generally considered a recent development in West Africa but the use of terror as a strategy is not new. According to Ewi (2012), a bomb exploded in Accra in 1964 predating the assassination of President Kwame Nkrumah while kidnapping, hijacking, hostage- taking, murder etc. were common phenomena during political activities of post-independence era.
The coups and counter-coups coupled with ethnic massacre as witnessed in Liberia, Sierra Leone,
Cote d‟Ivoire and Guinea added more to the volatility of insecurity in the 1980s and 1990s in West
Africa. The recent 2015 palace coups in Guinea Bissau and Burkina Faso no doubt indicated that polity in West Africa is still fragile.
Transitional criminal activities like kidnapping, sea privacy, human trafficking, cybercrime, etc. have continued to pose serious challenges to governance in West Africa. According to Vorrath
(2013), they constitute “crime-terror nexus” for the people of West Africa. The activities of Boko
Haram insurgency has reached a crescendo such that it is networking with renown terror organizations like Al Shabaab of East Africa, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and recently the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to commit genocide in West Africa. It is on record that the six year old Boko Haram insurgencies in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon has left more than 20,000 people dead (Petesch, 2015) and over 1.4 million people displaced from their homes
(Oduala & Ola, 2015). Consequently, the United States of America recently decided to commit 300 of its troops along with surveillance drones to combat the militants in Cameroon (Sahara Report,
14th October, 2015).
The questions this paper therefore attempted to answer are:
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What are the scholars‟ positions on the concept of terrorism and its root in West Africa?
What forms and theoretical frameworks are available to explain the causes of terrorism in
the sub-region?
What is the position of peace education to build culture of peace in minimizing terror acts in
West Africa?
What other transformational learning pedagogies are available to combat terror behaviour in
the minds of West Africans?
Terrorism in West Africa conceptualised with its background
Terrorism as an act of violence, threat of violence, intention to coerce, compel or intimidate a population or government into some form of action (Maogoto, 2003 cited by Minteh & Perry,
2013) emanated from political and socio-religious movements in West Africa. Right from the days of anti-colonial struggle to the era of coups and counter-coups, combined with anti-government social movements were later to be complicated with religious fundamentalism which continuously fuel terror acts in West Africa. It is even on record that criminal elements trading in kidnapping, hostage and drug trafficking, cybercrime, suicide bombing, health-terror etc. have compounded the problem by exploiting the protocol on free movement of persons in West Africa (Odiogor, 2013).
A survey of literature by Afokpa (2013) suggests that most scholars agree that criminality and terrorism serve the same purpose of “unlawful use of force or violence against people and government”, sometimes with “inspirational ideologies” and “hatred” as the motivational factors
(Minteh & Perry, 2013). Statistically, Ewi (2012) recorded 50 major terror attacks in West Africa between 2000 and 2009 which swelled up to 300 attacks between 2010 and 2012. He also reported that 90% of the attacks occurred in Nigeria with 65% of them having to do with religion.
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While reporting transnational organized crime in West Africa as diverse and complex act of terrorism, Vorrath (2013) noted that challenges of violent attacks were often associated with oil and minerals‟ piracy along the Gulf of Guinea, oil bunkering in the Niger Delta, illegal exploitation of gold and diamonds in Ghana, rubber and timber theft in Sierra Leone, human and drug trafficking enroot Senegal. Even the 2009 assassination of the President and the Armed Forces Chief of staff in
Guinea-Bissau was linked to drug-related terror act (Vorrath, 2013). Indeed, West Africa is regarded as the most vulnerable to terrorist attacks because of management problem in the extractive industries, trans-border criminal networks, bad governance and illegal supply of small arms and light weapons (Bolaji, 2014). Added to these factors are chronic corruption, weak institutions, farmers-grazers land conflict, porous borders, ethnic and religious violence (Ewi,
2012).
Forms and theoretical frameworks on causes of terrorism in West Africa
According to Udeh (2011), the United States of America classified terrorism into six categories thus:
Political Terrorism: This involves violent criminal behaviour that is often exhibited during
electioneering campaigns or post-election violence, in order to capture power by all means.
According to International Relations and Security Network (2012), the relationship between
terrorism and electoral violence has been well established. This was the case of post-election
violence in Cote d‟Ivoire that claimed more than 3000 lives between 2011 and 2013
(Genocide Watch, 2013). As well as the tragic post-election violence of April 2011 that
claimed more than 1000 lives in Nigeria (Osimen & Ologunowa, 2015).
In Nigeria, opposition groups mostly northerners felt the election was a political
manipulation in favour of President Goodluck Jonathan to the detriment of the “unofficial
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power-sharing agreement” in Peoples‟ Democratic Party (PDP) that was to lead to Northern
hegemony until 2015 (Udama, 2014). There was even speculation that these disenchanted
Northern political elites later transformed into sponsors of Boko Haram sect to make Nigeria
ungovernable. Evidences are bound that during the 2007 and 2011 elections, some Nigerian
Northern Governors had been sponsoring the Boko Haram leaders as their political
protectors (247 Ureports, 2015). Even the Nigerian Army on September 26, 2015 raised an
alarm that they have information that some prominent individuals and political groups who
hail from Borno State in particular and North-East generally are determined to scuttle the
fight against Boko Haram terrorists in order for them to continue to enjoy certain benefits
(Nigerian Eye September 26, 2015). Earlier, Chad Republic and France interest in oil
drilling in Chad basin had been well documented as a reason for international partisanship
(The Cable, 2015, Ukwu, 2015; Ends 2014 & Freedom Africa 2014). Even, a former
Governor of Borno State was said to be a big player in the Chad oil and gas industry and at
the same time introduced two former Nigerian Presidents to the lucrative investments
(Freedom Africa, 2014). Hence, political terrorism can be linked with some economic gains
of some individuals and international community.
Civil Disorder: This is a common type of terror act in West Africa. It is described as a
collective violence that interferes with the peace, security and normal functioning of the
community (Udeh, 2011). Cases of such are bound on boundary disputes, traffic and
students‟ riots, market disturbances, borders‟ clashes, farmers-grazers land conflicts etc.
indeed, the June 21st 2015, Sodom and Gomorrah riots in Accra occasioned by peoples‟
displacement after a demolition exercise (The Guardian June 22, 2015) as well as the July
30, 2015 students‟ riots that claimed two lives in Northern Ghana were examples of civil
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disorders (Daily Guide July 31, 2015). Equally, the protest of Nigerian youths in Cote
d‟Ivoire on May 6, 2013 over maltreatment by state securities was another example of civil
disorder (Premium Times May 6, 2013). It is also on record that the Modakeke-Ife and
Umuleri-Aguleri massacres of the 1980s and 1990s respectively in Nigeria were civil
disorders that could be likened to terrorist acts (Fatile & Awotokun, 2009; Nwanegbo,
2009).
Non-Political Terrorism: This, in the view of Udeh (2011), refers to conscious design to
create and maintain a high degree of fear for coercive purposes, but the end is individual or
collective gain rather than the achievement of a political objective. Consequently, other
terror acts like kidnapping, cybercrime, narco-terror, armed robberies, abduction and human
trafficking come under non-political terrorism. A current case of cyber terrorism was the
duping of Nigeria‟s Vice-President to the tune of 8 million naira (Nairaland Forum October
24, 2015). Indeed, sporadic kidnapping and hostage-taking for ransom have been major
source of AQIM and Boko Haram financing in West Africa. Goita (2011) reported that
AQIM alone received a total of 70 million dollars as kidnapping ransoms and 60 million
dollars for 600-kilogram cocaine shipment between 2006 and 2011. The Hezbollah
connection in the illicit funding of terrorism through Lebanese diamond trading in Sierra
Leone and importation of used cars from United States of America to Togo and Benin with
narcotic trafficking from South America were reported to have fetched an estimated 329
million dollars out of which about 150 million dollars was seized between 2011 and 2012
(Afokpa, 2013). Hezbollah through Lebanese commercial activities is seen as both a bigger
terrorist and criminal group financing its terrorist affiliates with AQIM and Boko Haram in
West Africa. Boko Haram bank robberies‟ fortune was also reported to have fetched
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terrorism in Nigeria between 500 million and 1 billion Naira (3 to 6 million dollars) in 2011
alone (Afokpa, 2013).
Indeed, kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria has become a good source of enrichment for both local and international criminal gangs. Nigeria was ranked 11th on world highest kidnapping prevailing countries in 2008 (Okoli & Agada, 2014). At the local scene, around the Niger-Delta region, the movement for the Emancipation of Nigeria Delta (MEND) and the „Bakassi boys‟ in the
Eastern region were allegedly engaging in frequent hostage-taking, kidnapping for ransom, pipeline vandalization, oil theft, arson and ambush between 2008 and 2012 (Adeyemi, 2013). Ngwama
(2014) also reported that more than 200 foreigners were kidnapped between 2006 and 2008 in the region with the sum of over 600 million naira collected as ransom. In addition, sometimes the victims were maimed, raped, or killed while the families and associates are knocked down by intractable trauma (Ngwama, 2014). It is even on record that the former Governor of Nigeria‟s
Central Bank (Prof. Charles Soludo) had to pay as much as 200 million naira to secure the release of his father from kidnappers in 2010 (Adeyemi, 2013), while the former Secretary to the Federal
Government of Nigeria, Chief Olu Falae had to pay a ransom of 5 million naira for his release from his abductors in 2015 (Badejo, 2015). Thus, prices for ransom are quoted based on the worth of the victim (Adeyemi, 2013).
Quasi- Terrorism: This refers to activities that are incidental to the commission of crimes
of violence that are similar in form and method to genuine terrorism (Udeh, 2011). These
include various forms of domestic violence, rape, customs – smugglers encounters, plane
hijacking etc. These are common daily affairs which in most cases may lead to government
declaration of curfew as a result of wanton destruction of lives and properties. All the
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cultists‟ activities in schools and communities with their attendant maiming and killing of
people can be categorized under quasi-terrorism.
Limited Political/Religious Terrorism: These acts of terrorism are committed for political
or religious motives but not for the purpose of capturing or controlling state. Most religious
fundamental conflicts like that of Christianity versus Islam and Islam versus traditional
religions are of limited dimensions. For examples, the Maitatsine religious riots of 1980 in
Kano that claimed 4,177 lives with extensive destruction of property, the Kataf (Christians)
versus Zangon (Muslims) conflict of 1992 in Zaria, the Sharia law crises of year 2000, all in
Northern Nigerian can be categorized as religious terrorism (Ugwu, 2009). Indeed, most
religious crises that snowball into terrorist acts are due to attempts on forceful evangelism.
Official or state terrorism: This could also be known as structural terrorism. It refers to
government terrorism through fearful and oppressive rule. According to Udeh (2011), it is a
terrorism carried out by government in pursuit of its political objectives, sometimes as part
of foreign policy. Thus, the issue of Umaru Dikko abduction in London in 1984 by
Buhari/Idiagbon regime and the assassination of Dele Giwa (a fearless journalist) through a
letter bomb in Nigeria on 19th October, 1986 during Babangida era were cases of state
terrorism (Ewi, 2012). The August, 2015 palace coup in Burkina Faso by the Presidential
Guard leading to riots and political tension was another classical example of state terrorism
in West Africa. Equally, Udama (2013) identified the murder of Chief Moshood Abiola, the
Nigerian acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 election in detention during the late General
Sanni Abacha regime and that of Chief Bola Ige (former Nigerian Minister of Justice)
during President Obasanjo regime in 2003 as other examples of official/state terrorism. It is
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even observed that very often, motorists and commercial vehicle drivers easily fall prey to
the bullets of state securities as a result of non-release of bribe in Nigeria (Udama, 2013).
The last form of terrorism which is uncommon in literature is health-related terrorism. It
would be recalled that in the 1960s to 1970s, it was cholera but in the 1980s, it was
HIV/AIDS and today it is the Ebola diseases that is terrifying the whole of West African
countries. According to the BBC news report of 19th June, 2015, Ebola disease has claimed
about 11,284 lives since its outbreak in the last one year in West Africa. Liberia recorded the
highest causality figure of 4,808, followed by Sierra Leone with 3,949, Guinea with 2,512,
Nigeria with 9 and its continuous outbreak are still being reported in Sierra Leone, Liberia
and Guinea up till today (BBC news, June 19 2015). Thus, Ebola becomes a health-related
terror that still terrifies all West African residents.
Theoretical frameworks adduced for terrorism
In literature, different theoretical frameworks have been adduced by scholars for causes of terrorism in West Africa. For political terrorism, since politics is a process of competition to capture power, then scholars often aggregate conflict theory (Truman, 1984) to explain why oppositions in politics are in desperation and constant struggle to capture power as Boko Haram even claimed at a point in time that their main objective was to create a “Sunnah caliphate” of their own and consequently declared Gworza as their headquarter with their flag hoisted there. This theory is also supported by relative deprivation theory (Dollard et al., 1939 & Davies, 1962) whereby the collective frustration of the Boko Haram initiators and the Niger-Delta militants turned to anger and violence, calling for genuine democratic system that will respect peoples‟ fundamental human rights with adequate provision for social justice and economic prosperity for all.
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The theories of anomie, justified thievery, and Queer Ladder have been used to rationalize criminal violence like kidnapping, hostage taking, abductions, armed robberies, smuggling, human and drug trafficking in West Africa. For instance, Durkheim (1964) posited that law and order can breakdown in a society where socio-structural constraints of behaviour become inoperative. Hence, the perpetrators of criminalities in West Africa see kidnapping and abduction for ransom, armed robberies, smuggling and drug trafficking as more lucrative and alternative social enterprises. The justified thievery (Warner, 2011) and Queer Ladder (Mallory, 2007) theories posited that it was the exploitative social forces that operate in West Africa coupled with the need to climb-up the social ladder that makes people to engage in cybercrimes, smuggling, drug and human trafficking.
However, from the perspective of public choice theory (Shaw, 2012), it is the wide prevalent of public corruption that made people to pursue selfish economic interest and commit criminal and terror acts for personal gains.
Nevertheless, the most popular theory is the leadership failure theory because it is believed that the leadership is to account for both the progress and challenges that occur in a society.
According to Onuoha (2010), leadership failure has played a significant role in Boko Haram crisis because of the careless extra-judicial killing of its foremost leader, Mohammad Yusuf in 2009 and further jungle justice meted on other captured Boko Haram members by the Nigerian security forces. More of the leadership failure led to the defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan and its political party in the 2015 Nigeria‟s general election. Its regime was accused even by his so called „Godfather‟, Chief Edwin Clark for lacking courage and political will to tackle Boko Haram militancy and corruption in Nigeria (Nigeria Bulletin, 2015). Other political leadership in most
West African countries are not doing better as Sierra Leone ranks 2nd, Mauritania 4th, Gambia 5th,
Chad 13th and Guinea Bissau 18th in the 2015 topmost 20 most corrupt African countries (Africa
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Ranking, 2015). The pervasive corruption in most West African countries can therefore be attributed to leadership failure.
Peace education to the rescue
If conflict is inevitable in human society and inner peace is a prerequisite for corruptless leadership, then peace education is very germaine to checkmate terrorism in West Africa. Peace education according to UNESCO (1998) is an education to enable individual to acquire knowledge on how to resolve dispute peacefully and in the spirit of respect for human dignity and of tolerance.
UNICEF (1999) elaborates further that Peace Education is for promoting the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about behaviour changes that will enable children, youth and adults to prevent conflict and violence whether at an intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, national or international level. It is therefore an education for promoting culture of peace (Galtung,
2003; Ogunyemi, 2006 & Adetoro 2014) which will involve pedagogies of engagement (Jenkins,
2006 & Kester, 2007) in order to foster community values and practices of sharing, caring and fellowship.
Indeed, the „hatred attitude‟ and „culture of violence‟ that are pervasive in West Africa calls for catching them young by „de-segregating the mind‟ to build the „culture of tolerance‟ using transformative approaches (Ogunyemi, 2006; Adetoro, 2014) as against what Freire (1992) called the “banking model” as being practiced today. Consequently, the type of Peace Education that is required according to Upeace (2006) is an integrated study that relates with other studies like
Gender Education, Sustainable Development Education, Multicultural Education, Human Rights
Education, Education for Social Justice and Non-Violent Conflict Transformation. It also covers
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Governance and Leadership Education as well as Personal and Inner Peace Education in a wholistic manner as can be seen in figure 1.
Peace Education
Development Development Sustainable Sustainable Education
Figure 1: An Integrated Peace Education Study Proposed for Curbing Terrorism in West Africa (Source: Adapted from Upeace, 2006)
In other words, the recommended integrated Peace Education is to cover a wide range of issues like Educating for Dismantling the culture of war, Conflict Resolution and Non-violence behaviour, Educating for living with Justice and Compassion, Educating for promoting Human
Rights and Responsibilities, Educating for building cultural Respect, Reconciliation and solidarity
14 7 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 behaviour, Educating for living in Harmony with Earth and for Cultivating Inner Peace (Marthe,
2012). Thus, as rightly submitted by Julius, David and Paul (2012), Peace Education should be used to promote both inner and outer peace in order to create a shield for human survival on the planet.
Behavioural modification theory for taming terrorism in West Africa
The social learning theory as advocated by Albert Bandura (1976) using learning together and constructive controversial pedagogies in classroom interaction has been found to promote tolerant attitude and solidarity among learners than the direct instructional mode of teaching
(Adetoro, 2014). Even Isom (1988) had earlier submitted that if aggression is detected very early and if possibly cooperative learning strategies like (learning together, constructive controversy and
Jigsaw) are applied, there is the tendency that the individual would be reframed from being adult criminals. The strongest benefits of these pedagogies are that students would cooperate with each other, like each other and have improved relations among themselves and different ethnic groups
(Balkon, 1992). This is because the pedagogies afford the learners collective celebration of successes and collective regret of failures because of their group processing and social interdependent working relationships (Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1993). So in an attempt to catch them young, teachers are encouraged to apply cooperative learning strategies in teaching peace education in the classroom.
In a meta-analysis of 158 studies, Johnson, Johnson and Stanne (2000) found learning together to promote the greatest effect size of between 0.82 and 1.03, followed by constructive controversy with 0.59 and 0.91 in promoting higher social interdependence and greater learning outcomes. On attitudinal outcomes towards peaceful living, Adetoro (2014) found that students treated with constructive controversy had a higher mean post-test scores of 89.13% as against those
14 8 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 taught with learning together that scored 86.09%. In conflict resolution skills however, the learning together group came first with 66.47% mean scores as against 65.25% scored by the constructive controversy group. By these findings, constructive controversial engagement was found to be more beneficial in classroom interaction while learning together proved better in acquiring conflict resolution skills.
Tolerant sociometry and reciprocal peer relations conditional learning strategies for curbing terrorism in West Africa Indeed, a multi-track Peace Education approaches like tolerant sociometry and Reciprocal
Peer Relations Conditional Learning (RPRCL) for psychological rehabilitation, sharing and reconciliation values, equity and fair play culture are necessary in the school curriculum at all levels of education. Tolerant sociometry as a group psychotherapy should be combined with psychodrama to promote interpersonal relationships in the classroom (Thompson, 2010; Blatner, 2012 and
Socratorna, 2014). As people of other ethnic background are usually disliked in a community, then using tolerant sociometric approach in the classroom, the teacher should always ensure that students of different ethnic background often interact in group discussions, group problem-solving and group role-play to strengthen good ethnic relations. This will reduce cynical hostility that causes anger, irritability, mistrust, aggression and violence (Socratovna, 2014). According to Ingles, Delgado,
Garcia-Fernandez, Ruiz-Esteban and Diaz-Herrero (2010), this Reciprocal Peer Relations
Conditional Learning (RPRCL) would make children and adolescents to acquire better psychosocial adjustment and psycho-affective relationships in future.
Using Teenage Inventory of Social skills (TISS), The Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory
(SPAI) and Sociometric Peer Nomination Test (SPNT), Ingels et al. (2010) discovered that it is possible to detect the level of prosociability and aggressiveness of a student in the classroom. They
14 9 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 therefore suggested an application of Reciprocal Peer Relations conditioning in teaching. This would lead to psychosocial-mixed grouping and application of socio-dramatic learning that would engender tolerant sociometry.
General Recommendations As terrorism is becoming a reactionary measure undertaken by the disenchanted and neglected in West Africa, there is need for both regional counter-terrorism collaboration and good governance. The regional counter-terrorism should involve partnership with ECOWAS countries,
Central and North African states “to develop a robust tri-regional mechanism” to combat “the flow of drugs, arms, weapons, explosives and fighters in the Sahara-Sahel region” (Onuoha & Ezirim,
2013). Using ECOWAS and AU standing armies, it should also involve collaborative combat pressures against the current rampaging Boko Haram, AQIM and Al-Shabaab militant forces in
West, North and Central Africa. In the views of Onuoha and Ezirim (2013), this collaborative tri- regional forces should help to establish a Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre (RIFC) for warehousing intelligence and information on militant activities to inform collective reactive responses.
Against the „militarycentric approach‟, there is the need for good governance in West Africa in particular and Africa in general. According to Bolaji (2014), the proponents of this ultimate approach argued that there would neither be need for peacekeeping and conflict prevention if good governance principles are adhered to by states and that this will make African countries not to be conducive to terrorism. These principles of good governance include establishment of representative and accountable form of government; freedom of expression and association; observance of the rule of law and impartial legal system; high degree of transparency and participatory service delivery; broad-based economic growth with dynamic public-private sector
15 0 Volume 2, Number 1, January 2016 and social policies that will lead to drastic poverty reduction; high priority on investment on education, health and other social facilities; good corporate governance with respect for social norms and property rights. In West Africa in particular, it is recommended that institutions have to be re-built and distribution process of public resources has to be re-ordered to be corruption free.
Furthermore, electoral institutions must be reformed and economic liberalization entrenched.
Indeed, state security forces must always be professionalized and well-equipped while sustainable micro-credit schemes for the poor must be well-entrenched into government finances.
Conclusion It has been well established that the battle against terrorism in West Africa cannot be won on military operations alone but must be supported with building culture of peace through a multi-track approach to peace education with good governance. It is also a known fact that no nation can win the battle alone but with the collaboration of other neighbouring countries and Africa in general. It is therefore essential that good leadership with well-articulated socio-economic policies and deliberate teaching of peace education are required to engender peace and combat terrorism in West
Africa.
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