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Managing Group Grievances and Internal Conflict: Ghana Country Report

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Managing Group Grievances and Internal Conflict: Ghana Country Report Working Paper Series Working Paper 11 Managing Group Grievances and Internal Conflict: Ghana Country Report Tim Hughes Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ Conflict Research Unit June 2003 Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ Clingendael 7 2597 VH The Hague P.O. Box 93080 2509 AB The Hague Phonenumber: # 31-70-3245384 Telefax: # 31-70-3282002 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.clingendael.nl/cru © Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyrightholders. Clingendael Institute, P.O. Box 93080, 2509 AB The Hague, The Netherlands. Foreword This paper has been written within the framework of the research project ‘Managing Group Grievances and Internal Conflict’*, executed at the request of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project focuses on the process of, and motives for, (violent) group mobilisation and aims at the development of an analytical tool to assist policy-makers in designing conflict-sensitive development activities. In the course of the project, a preliminary assessment tool has been developed in cooperation with Dr. Michael Lund, and discussed with the researchers who carried out the assessment in four country cases: Ghana, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka. On the basis of this testing phase, the tool has been substantially amended and refined**. The present report, which was finalised in September 2002, results from the testing phase and reflects the structure of the analytical tool in its original form. Section I provides a diagnostic, dynamic narrative of various factors that may explain the levels, course or risks of conflict. Section II could be regarded as the background research to this narrative, and consists of thirteen factor assessments. This second section lays out in a structured way two distinguishable sets of factors the researchers were asked to examine in their country of study. Part A of this section covers broad social and economic factors that help to determine the major interests of groups in society and the degree and kinds of incongruities that exist between those interests. Whether these structural predisposing factors will lead to the outbreak or continuation of violent conflict depends on the extent that other factors are operative as well. These intermediating structures, processes and policies are assessed in Part B of this section. * The project ‘Managing Group Grievances & Internal Conflict’ is part of the research programme ‘Coping with Internal Conflict’ (CICP), executed by the Conflict Research Unit of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’, at the request of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Responsibility for the contents and for the opinions expressed rests solely with the author. ** The report that sets out the assessment tool will be made available mid-2003. ã Clingendael Institute 5 Table of Contents LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS 9 I DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT OF CONFLICT COURSE AND PARAMETERS 11 Ghana’s Divides and Divisive Issues 12 Asante Dominance? 12 Party Political Competition 14 Conflict over Land 16 Traditional Leadership and Chieftaincy 18 Assessing Institutional Capacities 19 Democratic Consolidation 19 Beyond State Institutions 20 Assessing the Risks of Escalation 22 The Socio -Economic Challenge 22 Political Leadership and the Paradox of Reconciliation 23 The Regional Dimension 24 Conflict Assessment Summary 25 II SOURCES OF CONFLICT AND CAPACITIES FOR PEACE 27 A. Basic Social and Economic Conditions 27 Factor # 1. Level of General Economic Development or Deterioration 27 Factor # 2: Resource Base and Structure of the Economy 33 2.1. Energy Production 36 2.2. Water Supply 37 2.3. Employment 37 2.4. Education and Literacy 40 2.5. Health 41 2.6. Poverty Mediation Strategies 42 2.7. Expenditure on Poverty Reduction and Growth 45 Factor # 3: Population Distribution 46 Factor # 4: Society’s Cohesion or Division 49 6 ã Clingendael Institute Factor # 5: History of Inter-Group Violent Conflict or Co-operation 51 5.1. Conflict in the Northern Region 52 5.2. The Bawku Conflict 57 5.3. Continuing Conflict in the Northern Region – The Case of the Yendi Conflict 58 5.4. Religious Conflict 63 Factor # 6: Distribution of Economic and Social Goods 65 6.1. Land Policy 67 6.2. Land Disputes and the Courts 70 6.3. Land Disputes and the Lands Commission 72 6.4. Ethnicity and Wage Differentials 74 B. Intermediating Structures, Processes and Policies 75 Factor # 7: Group Political Mobilisation, Organisation and Strategies 75 7.1. Political Parties and Contending Traditions 75 7.2. Major Identity Groups and Party Politics 77 7.3. Akan Asante 77 7.4. Politics and Ethnicity 78 7.5. The Watershed 2000 Electio n 82 Factor # 8: Openness of the Formal Political and Governing Political Institutions 86 8.1. Political Background 86 8.2. Popular Political Opinion Survey 86 8.3. Local Government Reform 89 Factor # 9: Exclusive or Accommodative Governing Institutions and Decision Making Processes 92 9.1. Privatisation 93 9.2. Women’s Marginalized Status 94 Factor # 10: Group Participation in Non-Official and Informal Processes and Institutions 95 10.1. The Role of Tradition and Kinship 95 10.2. The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations 97 10.3. Institute of African Studies 98 Factor # 11: Efficacy of Political Elites and Leaders 100 11.1. The Efficacy of the State Delivery 101 11.2. Political Leadership and Parliament 103 11.3. Traditional Leadership 104 ã Clingendael Institute 7 Factor # 12: Efficacy of Security Forces and Violations of Human Rights 106 12.1. Ghanaian Public Opinion on Human Rights Abuses 106 12.2. Security Force Reform 108 12.3. Security Force Under-Funding and Crime 109 12.4. Budgetary Improvements 110 12.5. The Security Forces Stakeholder Analysis 110 Factor # 13: International Engagement 112 13.1. Ghana’s ‘Special Status’ 112 13.2. Ghana’s Diaspora 113 13.3. HIPC 115 13.4. Multilateral Linkages 116 BIBLIOGRAPHY 117 ã Clingendael Institute 9 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms AFRC Armed Forces Revolutionary Council AGOA African Growth and Opportunity Act AU African Union BMATT British Military Advisory Training Team CBO Community Based Organisation CHRAJ Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice CPP Convention People’s Party DFID Department for International Development ECOMOG ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States FOSDA Foundation for Security and Development in Africa FTC Fast Track Court GCPP Ghana Consolidated Popular Party GLSS Ghana Living Standards Survey GSE Ghana Stock Exchange GDP Gross Domestic Product GWCL Ghana Water Company Limited GPRS Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy HDI Human Development Index HIPC Heavily Indebted Poor Country IEC Independent Electoral Commission IMF International Monetary Fund IPAC Inter-Party Advisory Committee LTA Long Term Average MOF Ministry of Finance MTDP Medium Term Development Process NDC National Democratic Congress NDPC National Development Planning Commission NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NMC National Media Commission NPP New Patriotic Party NRP National Reform Party OAU Organisation of African Unity OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development PNDC Provisional National Defence Council PPA Poverty Participatory Analysis PRGF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility 10 ã Clingendael Institute REGSEC Regional Security Council SMC Supreme Military Council TUC Trades Union Congress UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ã Clingendael Institute 11 I Diagnostic Assessment of Conflict Course and Parameters Ghana is characterised more by a condition of stable, if somewhat fragile and sometimes broken, peace than by conflict. This condition is dynamic however and the conditions that may give rise to violent conflict, both structural and contingent, are omnipresent. Whilst racially and nationally homogeneous, Ghana is an ethnically divided society that increasingly also exhibits sharp class and regional asymmetries. Additionally, Ghanaian society is a complex overlay of traditional and modern social, economic and political practices that makes both the identification of the drivers of conflict and their mediation and resolution challenging. Whilst Ghana has undergone a profound process of democratisation, and more closely approximates an institutionalised and increasingly plural democracy, it remains a country in transition and thus vulnerable to reversals. Although exhibiting indicators of economic recovery and social renewal, Ghana remains a poor and heavily indebted country. Its economy remains agriculturally based and its exports are heavily dependent on the export of externally priced commodities, principally gold and cocoa. It is thus vulnerable to both climatic and exogenous shocks and has experienced both in recent years. Whilst the country remains one of the world’s poorest, some overall progress has been made in poverty reduction, although this is uneven and has tended to exacerbate a broadly poorer north-more developed south dichotomy. Despite its recent developments, the country is entering a period of ‘conflict risk’ or vulnerability. It is undergoing a painful, and by definition, slow process economic restructuring
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