University of Alberta Governing Through Developmentality: The Politics of International Aid Reform and the (Re)production of Power, Neoliberalism and Neocolonial Interventions in Ghana by Lord Cephas Mawuko-Yevugah A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science ©Lord Mawuko-Yevugah Spring 2010 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. 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Smith, Political Science Dr. Andy Knight, Political Science Dr. Rob Aitken, Political Science Dr. Ali A. Abdi, Educational Policy Studies Dr. Rita Abrahamsen, School of International Development & Global Studies, University of Ottawa Dedication For Yvonne, Jude and Jaden Abstract The international donor community led by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has in the last decade or so intensified and consolidated its promotion of ‘poverty reduction’ as the central focus of international aid. The two institutions claim that this new approach is radically different from the top-down structural adjustment policies of the preceding two decades. Drawing on the West African state of Ghana, this study interrogates the arguments, policies, practices, evolution and implementation of this new architecture of aid. Drawing on the critical social theory of Michel Foucault and postcolonial scholars, the study concludes that contemporary discourses about, and practices of, poverty reduction in Africa and elsewhere represent an attempt to discursively (re)produce the global South in ways that justify and legitimize Western interventions through the imposition of neoliberal reforms. I interrogate discontinuities and continuities in the new aid and development agenda in order to show that what is produced and maintained through the various interventions is, in fact, the dominance and influence of a neoliberal agenda in Africa’s postcolonies. This hegemony of neoliberal orthodoxy persists despite the rhetoric of a post-Washington Consensus development paradigm, which points to practices of consultation, civil society participation and local ownership as core principles that mark a difference from the earlier paradigm. More fundamentally, I show that, as with earlier structural adjustment policies, the poverty reduction strategy framework can be seen as a governing technology that reinscribes the status quo of western economic power and dominance. I argue that contrary to the claim that the poverty reduction strategy framework alters aid relationships by transferring power and influence from donors to aid recipient countries or even developing an equitable ‘partnership’, there is, in fact, continuity and intensification of disproportionate donor influence and even domination in the development policy making process Preface Like other Sub-Saharan African countries, Ghana’s postcolonial political history has been marked by periods of turbulence as well as relative stability. In January 2001, Ghana made history when outgoing President Jerry Rawlings of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) handed over power to then President-elect John Kufuor of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). This was the first peaceful change of government through the ballot box in the postcolonial political moment. In 1957, Ghana was the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to gain its independence. Addressing his ecstatic compatriots at the hoisting of the brand new Ghanaian flag, the hero of the anti-colonial movement and the new Prime Minister, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah declared: “At long last, the battle has ended…And thus Ghana, your beloved country is free forever…From now on – today –we are no more a colonial but a free and independent people....”1 Surrounded by his fellow country men and women of the liberation struggle, he added: We are prepared to pick it up and make it a nation that will be respected by every nation in the world...We can prove to the world that when the African is given a chance he can show the world that he is somebody!...Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world…That new African is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all, the black man is capable of managing his own affairs2 This was no doubt, a proud moment and the people had every cause to celebrate and hope for great things to come. However, the euphoria and optimism of independence did not last long. In 1966 the Nkrumah government was overthrown in a military coup d’état. This was followed by several other coups, political uncertainty and economic instability. By 1981, some 22 years after independence, Ghana had experienced its fifth military coup, which 1 Kwame Nkrumah, “Ghana is Free Forever”, Accra, March 6, 1957 2 Ibid. brought to power the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) junta, led by Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings.3 The 1990s were marked by a growing local and global call for democratization and ‘good governance’ both globally and on the African continent4. In 1992, the Rawlings government caved in to pressures for political change, forming the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party and scheduled national, which its leader, Rawlings, easily won and was re-elected in 1996. By 2000, however, there was a growing public discontent with the Rawlings government, and his enthusiastic implementation of the harsh economic prescriptions of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. There was also a widespread perception of complacency and creeping corruption5. The NDC lost the 2000 general elections to the opposition New Patriotic Party. Rawlings was not a candidate because of the constitutional limit of two terms. His handpicked successor and former Vice President Attah Mills lost the presidential run-off to NPP’s John Kufuor6. Against predictions to the contrary, Rawlings and his NDC party accepted defeat. This was applauded worldwide and earned the country much international respect and recognition. A few days after taking office in January 2001, the new president, John Kufuor, through his finance minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, told parliament that the country was in dire economic straits resulting from mismanagement and bad policies of the previous government7. Accordingly, the new government, he added, would access the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative 3 Jerry Rawlings first came to power through an uprising by junior officers of the army that overthrew the military regime led by Gen. Fred Akuffo on June 4 1979. He presided over the military junta (AFRC) which lasted until September 24, 1979 when he handed over power to the democratically elected President, Hilla Limann. Rawlings later overthrew the Limann government on December 31, 1981 and declared a ‘people’s revolution’ which lasted until January 7, 1993 when he metamorphosed into a civilian President after winning the 1992 general elections. 4 see Rita Abrahamsen (2000),