The Case of Land Guards and Land Protection in Ghana David Kwasi Bansah Kennesaw State University
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Kennesaw State University DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University Doctor of International Conflict Management School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Dissertations Development Fall 12-8-2017 Governance Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Land Guards and Land Protection in Ghana David Kwasi Bansah Kennesaw State University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/incmdoc_etd Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bansah, David Kwasi, "Governance Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa: The asC e of Land Guards and Land Protection in Ghana" (2017). Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations. 14. http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/incmdoc_etd/14 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development at DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Running head: GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: THE CASE OF LAND GUARDS AND LAND PROTECTION IN GHANA ________________________________ A Doctoral Dissertation Presented to The College of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, Georgia ________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Conflict Management ________________________________ by David Kwasi Bansah December 2017 © David Kwasi Bansah 2017 Keywords: land protection, land governance, security land guards, peri-urban land, customary land tenure system, Ghana. GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA ii Kennes Graduate College Thesis/Dissertation Defense Outcome Name KSU ID ' Email , Phone Number________________________________ Program Title - : Th Date( , Thesis/Dissertation Defense: , ,./ I Passed DFalled J Passed With Revisions (attach revisions) Signatures /i 14 Thesis/Dissertation Chair / Elate 1/ ( li' L / - Committee Member / / Date / //I(VI l( /A 0U tA ii 7"? < 7 Committee Member Date Committee Member Date Committee Member Date 1: -/ Proeram Director Date 7 7 Date Last Modified 05/26/16 GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA iii Dedication I proudly dedicate this work to my lovely children—Yvonne, Epiphania, Barbara, Delanyo, and Dela—for exhibiting good behavior while I was away on this project. GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA iv Acknowledgments My sincere gratitude, first and foremost, goes to the members of my dissertation committee, who have spent so much energy in terms of their time reading, reviewing, and guiding my research: Dr. Brandon D. Lundy, Dr. Volker Franke, and Dr. Akanmu Adebayo. This team really displayed a diverse set of intellectual experiences that proved indispensable at every stage of my research. The invaluable ideas, immediate reviews, and feedback of my committee chair, Dr. Lundy, always kept me on schedule. I would also like to thank the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for their financial support over my entire four years of doctoral studies. Without their financial support, I would not have been able to maintain my status as a full-time student, let alone complete this degree in a timely manner. As for maneuvering the research component of my program, I offer unqualified gratitude to the Ghana Police Service, the Lands Commission of Ghana, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, and the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA). Personnel from these institutions gave me the necessary hospitality and access during my fieldwork. My special thanks go to Brigadier-General (Dr.) Emmanuel Kotia, Deputy Commandant at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC), who, apart from his mentorship role, provided me with a research letter of introduction that greatly facilitated this project. Within Kennesaw State University’s PhD in International Conflict Management program, I also wish to thank Dr. Joseph G. Bock and Ms. Nicole Densmore, the program director and coordinator, respectively, for all of their feedback, guidance, and logistical support. Nicole and her husband, Blake, helped make my stay in the United States both enjoyable and fruitful beyond my academic endeavors. Finally, and most importantly, many sincere thanks to my immediate family and kingmakers of my clan who have given me the maximum support these last four GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA v years as I struggled through the days of learning and typing of scripts. I have really been inspired by your ability to hold the fort in discharging my traditional duties during my absence. GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA vi Abstract Land management policy in many developing nations has been riddled with conflict because of competing land tenure systems. Having transitioned through customary tenure systems to bureaucratic property rights regimes without a complete shift from the former, Ghana’s land management system, over time, has witnessed administrative challenges such that some desperate land protection schemes are taking root, including the use of unregulated security land guards in peri-urban areas. The fundamental objective of this research, therefore, is to explore and better understand the lengths to which people or groups will go to ensure land rights and protection in a regime of statutory rules and regulations. Relying on the World Bank-sanctioned Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) framework (2015), this study examines Ghana’s land governance structures and gauges citizen-government dynamics in land policy and management. The methodological approach adopted for this study involved the collection and analysis of field interviews across four different land-stakeholder categories: public sector officials; private landowners; land law enforcement agents; and unregulated security land guards. Overall, the study found that the land administration system of Ghana has not fully achieved effective land governance and consequently occasions instances where people have the tendency to seek other means of exercising control over land rights, including the implementation of land-guard operations. Delays in the adjudication of land cases, resulting from excessive numbers of cases, lead to bureaucratic frustrations informing the decisions of many landowners to seek shortcuts to land-dispute resolutions. This study recommends that the land policy administration consider alternative land-dispute resolution mechanisms to those currently in use. Additionally, traditional leaders’ involvement in the design of land management systems and dispute resolution, together with state agencies, should provide an acceptable solution toward better land governance for all GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA vii stakeholders. The study’s findings and recommendations indicate that Ghana, and similar sub- regional countries, stand to improve their levels of compatibility between customary land tenure systems and statutory property rights, thereby enhancing economic development and effective land governance. GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA viii Table of Contents Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ iv Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... xii List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. xii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 Emergence of Land Guards ......................................................................................................... 2 Problem Statement ...................................................................................................................... 7 Statement of Purpose ................................................................................................................. 10 Research Questions ................................................................................................................... 12 Significance of the Study .......................................................................................................... 12 Definitions of Terms ................................................................................................................. 15 Background of Land Use and Allocation System of Ghana ..................................................... 17 Post-independence Land Policy Complexities .......................................................................... 19 Research Sites and Participants ................................................................................................. 24 Outline of the Dissertation