PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: THE GHANAIAN EXPERIENCE Francis Gbadago School of Arts and Media University of Salford, Manchester, UK Submitted in Partial fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2020 Supervisor: Prof. Seamus Simpson Co-supervisor: Dr. Carole O’Reilly 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... 2 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... 10 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... 12 DEDICATION ......................................................................................................................... 13 ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................. 14 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. 15 CHAPTER ONE: ...................................................................................................................... 16 INTRODUCTION: THE NEED FOR STUDYING PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION IN EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT .......................................... 16 1.0 INTRODUCTION: ............................................................................................................. 16 1.1 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................ 16 1.2 RESEARCH GAP/ THE NEED FOR RESEARCHING INTO THE PROJECT .......... 18 1.3 EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION FOR IMPLEMENTING DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES ........................................................................................ 20 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................ 20 1.5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................... 21 1.6 THE CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE OF THE RESEARCH ............................ 21 1.7 RESEARCH DESIGN/APPROACH IN BRIEF ............................................................ 22 1.8 DATA ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................... 22 1.9 THESIS STRUCTURE ................................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER TWO: ..................................................................................................................... 26 LITERATURE REVIEW: THE SEARCH FOR ACADEMIC PERSPECTIVES ON AND ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT ..................................................................................................................... 26 2.0 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 26 2.1 DOING LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................. 26 2.2 COMMUNICATION ...................................................................................................... 26 2.3 COMMUNITY ............................................................................................................... 27 2.3.1 The concept of participation and community participation .................................... 28 2.3.2 Forms of participation ............................................................................................. 29 2.4 THE CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT AND DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION ............................................................................................................ 30 2.5.1 The World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD) .................... 34 2.5.2 The current status of Development Communications and its relevance ................. 35 2.5 DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT COMMUNICATION (DSC) ......................................... 36 2 2.6 THE ORIGIN OF PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION ....................................... 36 2.7 CHALLENGES IDENTIFIED FROM THE USE OF PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES .................................................................................................................... 37 2.8 CONSEQUENCES OF LACK OF PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION ............ 39 2.8.1 The theory of change as an organising principle of project design in participatory communication............................................................................................ 39 2.9 THE INTEGRATED APPROACH AS SOLUTION TO THE CHALLENGES IN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION ........................................................................ 40 2.10 DEVELOPMENT POLICY-MAKING AND PARTICIPATION OF KEY STAKEHOLDERS ............................................................................................................... 41 2.10.1 Citizen participation and sustainable policy making in developing the green plan in Mexico City ................................................................................................ 41 2.10.2 Public development policy making in Pakistan .................................................... 43 2.11 PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION IN AFRICAN CONTEXTS ..................... 44 2.11.1 Participatory communication: The case of South Africa ...................................... 44 2.11.2 Participatory communication: The case of Kenya ................................................ 46 2.11.3 Exploring the 2010 Constitution of Kenya and participatory communication in national development ......................................................................... 47 2.11.4 Participatory communication for reduction of poverty in Kenya ......................... 48 2.12 THE POSITION OF POLITICAL ACTORS IN DEVELOPMENT POLICY PROCESSES OF DEVELOPING NATIONS ..................................................................... 49 2.13 CONTRIBUTIONS OF MASS MEDIA AND PARTICIPATORY GROUP MEDIA IN DEVELOPMENT .............................................................................................. 50 2.14 THE COMMUNITY RADIO SYSTEM-A TOOL FOR PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT. ...................................................................................................... 51 2.15 THE JOURNEY TO THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK/APPROACH FOR THE RESEARCH ................................................................................................................. 52 2.15.1 Modernisation theory in the development process in third world countries ......... 53 2.15.3 Dependency Theory .............................................................................................. 55 2.15.4 Participatory Theory .............................................................................................. 56 2.15.5 Justification for the choice of participatory development communication as theoretical framework .................................................................................................. 58 2.15.6 The participatory development communication (PDC) model ............................. 59 2.16 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 62 CHAPTER THREE: GHANA, THE CONTEXT FOR THE RESEARCH ............................. 63 3.0 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 63 3.1 BRIEF GHANAIAN HISTORY .................................................................................... 63 3.2 GHANA FROM THE PRECOLONIZATION ERA ...................................................... 64 3.2.1 Ghana (Gold Coast) before the arrival of Europeans .............................................. 64 3 3.2.2 The arrival of Europeans, trade and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade ...................... 65 3.2.3 British colonial rule and political independence ..................................................... 66 3.2.4 The 1948 riots and dynamics leading to self-government ...................................... 67 3.2.5 Ghana: From independence to the Fourth Republic................................................ 68 3.3 CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL PROVISIONS FOR LOCAL AND GRASSROOT PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNANCE IN GHANA ................................. 70 3.3.1 Rights and freedoms of the people .......................................................................... 70 3.3.2 Freedom of the media .............................................................................................. 70 3.4 THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN GHANA ................................................................... 71 3.5 DECENTRALIZATION AND ESTABLISHMENT OF A LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM .................................................................................................. 72 3.5.1 The Nature of participation in decentralized local government system in Ghana. .............................................................................................................................. 73 3.6 THE DECENTRALISATION CONCEPT IN EDUCATION IN GHANA................... 76 3.7 INDEPENDENCE OF THE MEDIA AND MEDIA PRACTICE IN GHANA ............ 78 3.8 PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION CASES IN GHANA: DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE COMMUNITY RADIO CONCEPT ........................