Development aid, non-governmental organisations, and the north-south divide in Ghana

Abstract

Aid effectiveness and sustainability has become topical as donor countries face more interesting demands in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the proxy war in Europe and low economic growth. In sub–Saharan Africa, poverty is perceived and acknowledged to be profound and nearly enduring. Many multi-lateral and bilateral organisations have intervened to address concerns of poverty and under-development, as donor-funded projects have targeted needy communities in developing countries. In Northern Ghana, years of neglect and lack of workable economic resources have culminated in its underdevelopment compared to Southern Ghana. Similarly, a plethora of third-sector funds have been channelled to the region with little evidence of their effect on poverty reduction. Despite the large inflows of donor funds, the north remains impoverished compared to the south. This thesis addresses the critical concerns of the north-south divide in Ghana, and the steps taken to lessen these development and inequality gaps. Data collection and analysis were conducted through a productive mixed-method approach, encased in a theatrically adapted grounded theory framework and technique. The study presents an invigorating perspective on the political economy of donor aid and its heterogeneity within a narrow target area of the savannah regions. It empirically showcased the culture of aid dependency through NGO activities based on the lived vulnerabilities of beneficiary communities. This was achieved through the evaluated mission and vision statements of NGOs, and their analytically measured impacts. The empirical evidence, however, shows a mismatch of interventions between some donor- funded NGO projects and community needs. Consequently, the study concludes there is beneficiary stress degenerating into a phenomenon the research calls ‘poverty dance’. As aid continue to target communities’ needs through project intervention advocacies, scores of NGOs similarly strived to be aid implementers with the sole aim of poverty reduction. There were various scenarios of aid fragmentation and project duplication efforts found in the research region, signalling a principal agent problem. Further evidence from this objective unveiled an aid dependency syndrome termed the red ii herring of aid implementation. The contextual conclusion to this thesis is that donor aid is producing an aid ineffectiveness conditions at the micro level, the twin phenomena of donor aid: the poverty dance of beneficiary communities and the red herring of NGO projects. This research leads the way in promoting the contestation of empirical ideas in donor aid effectiveness with robust theoretical debates on the underdevelopment of Northern Ghana. This thought-provoking research fills in the gap of the political economy of donor aid from the community perspective and proposed practical policy solutions to rural development.