Informal workers are a heterogeneous group distinguished by diverse activities and interests, but they have in common that they operate largely outside state regulations.In this article, we analyse... Show moreInformal workers are a heterogeneous group distinguished by diverse activities and interests, but they have in common that they operate largely outside state regulations.In this article, we analyse the ways in which informal workers in Ghana are organising (themselves) in response to proposed relocations of their workspace. Borrowing from Tsing, we distinguish three layers of friction that can lead to (structural) change, collective action, and an increase in informal workers’ political leverage. Our two case studies in Accra and Kumasi show how striving for inclusive development is a process shaped by diverse agendas and potentially conflicting interests. These relational and political aspects are crucial for understanding the frictions involved, as well as how these may lead to change. Where the tendency is to gloss over these frictions, we argue that they need to be the starting point for effective policies and initiatives for inclusive development.Résumé: Les travailleurs et travailleuses informelles constituent un groupe hétérogène qui se distingue par sa grande diversité d’activités et d’intérêts, mais qui a comme caractéristique commune le fait de fonctionner essentiellement en marge des réglementations gouvernementales. Dans cet article, nous analysons les différentes façons dont les travailleurs et travailleuses informelles au Ghana s’organisent en réponse aux délocalisations proposées de leur espace de travail. En nous inspirant de Tsing, nous distinguons trois niveaux de tension qui peuvent conduire à un changement (structurel), à une action collective et à un poids politique accru des travailleur·euse·sinformel·le·s. Nos deux études de cas à Accra et Kumasi montrent à quel point militer pour un développement inclusif est un processus façonné par des motivations diverses et des intérêts potentiellement conflictuels. Ces aspects relationnels et politiques sont cruciaux pour comprendre les tensions qui sont en jeu, ainsi que la manière dontelles peuvent conduire au changement. Alors que la tendance est de dissimuler ces nous soutenons qu’elles doivent au contraire constituer le point de départ de politiques et d’initiatives efficaces pour un développement inclusif. Show less
Literature on political vigilante groups has centred on the violence and conflict that emanate from their activities. This article approaches political vigilante groups as political actors who... Show moreLiterature on political vigilante groups has centred on the violence and conflict that emanate from their activities. This article approaches political vigilante groups as political actors who engage in political mobilisation and participation and therewith also contribute to nation state building. It explores how such groups participate in Ghana’s democratic governance and asks whether violence is an inevitable characteristic. The article builds on individual in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with political vigilante group members in Kumasi and Tamale in 2019. Findings show that political vigilante “youth” appeared to refer primarily to the social position attributed to non-elite groups in the political field. Political vigilante groups are multi-faceted in their organisational structures, membership, and activities both during electoral campaigns and during governing periods. While some groups revert to violence occasionally, the study concludes that political vigilante groups, in enabling different voices to be heard, are also contributing to democratic governance. Show less
This study on regulatory compliance in the logging sector in Ghana, attempts to understand how and why the key logging actors in the Ghana’s timber industry (i.e., licensed logging firms and... Show moreThis study on regulatory compliance in the logging sector in Ghana, attempts to understand how and why the key logging actors in the Ghana’s timber industry (i.e., licensed logging firms and chainsaw operators) respond to regulations in the sector and the extent to which the Forestry Commission, the main state regulatory institution, enforces these regulations to ensure compliance.For licensed logging firms, the study found that economic gains and societal pressures including demands from the local communities for developmental assistance and illegal activities of chainsaw operators influenced them to violation. Contrary, deterrence from third party non-state actors, particularly the EU market actors and forest certification bodies produced better compliance than the state sanctions. Also, for some firms, it was their religious beliefs including hope in eternal life, rather than deterrence from the state or non-state actors, that motivated them to comply. Regarding chainsaw operators, the violating activity was basically poverty-driven in the sense that it provides them with livelihood support. It also accounts for the bulk of lumber consumed locally and attracts low sanctions when violators are caught. Again, the study found that, the general socio-politico-economic context of the regulated actors and regulators exhibits traits that undermined compliance and enforcement efforts.All these demonstrate that enhancing compliance is a complex phenomenon and not just a straight forward calculation of increasing sanctions to achieve a higher level of compliance, as deterrence theory would like us to believe. More than that, compliance has other dimensions as well including social and normative motivations, and capacity to comply. What is important then for policymakers and practitioners to enhance compliance among various regulated actors is to understand how different actors respond to different compliance motivations under various socio-politico-economic and cultural settings. Show less
Building on the limitations of the efforts of aid agencies and non-governmental organisations to pull the poor out of poverty in low- and middle-income countries and declining opportunities for... Show moreBuilding on the limitations of the efforts of aid agencies and non-governmental organisations to pull the poor out of poverty in low- and middle-income countries and declining opportunities for market expansion in high-income countries, microfranchising is being promoted as a pro-poor business model, which promotes entrepreneurship. Sub-Saharan Africa has become a fertile ground for the propagation of this model. However, contemporary studies on microfranchising have not sufficiently explored what motivates people to turn to this method of doing business. Show less
Oil communities rarely appear as case studies of local political arenas in Africa. More often, they serve to reify tropes and concepts based on rent-seeking and resource curses where a cash nexus... Show moreOil communities rarely appear as case studies of local political arenas in Africa. More often, they serve to reify tropes and concepts based on rent-seeking and resource curses where a cash nexus conditions the political behavior of local, regional, national, and international actors. Chapters 3 and 4 detail the history and recent history of political institutions and livelihoods in Gamba, Gabon, followed by applications of three approaches in Chapters 5 and 6 to determine what best explains politically-impacted change in this oil-bearing community. Chapter 7 applies the same method of historicization and theoretical application to Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana, but in a condensed manner. The history of extractive economies in sub-Saharan Africa has obfuscated local contributions to political development, while the inverse is true of essentialist approaches. My research hopes to reconcile this, using a body of literature which has yet to be applied to extractive spaces and which allows communities to “speak for themselves” and acknowledges the understudied condition of local politics in Africa. Oil extraction in this paradigm is no longer both cause and consequence of anomie, but another form of “sedimentation.” Show less
This research project aims at understanding the expectations and motivations of young women in Ghana's Upper East region with regard to starting their own business. Supporting the owners of small... Show more This research project aims at understanding the expectations and motivations of young women in Ghana's Upper East region with regard to starting their own business. Supporting the owners of small-scale businesses in the informal economy has become a central objective of the global development agenda. Using an anthropological approach, this research contributes to and criticizes the dominant discourse on the need to advance entrepreneurship. It argues that the theoretical discourse underlying efforts to advance entrepreneurship among the poor are fundamentally flawed. Four cross-cutting issues should be taken into account: the weak conceptualization of entrepreneurship in development discourse; the neglect of the socio-economic context in which "entrepreneurial" activities take place; the importance of cultural and psychological factors; and the ongoing attractiveness that entrepreneurship carries for development policymakers. These issues are relevant to the situation of seamstresses in Bolgatanga, but also apply to a wider field. Based on the stories of seamstresses in Bolgatanga, this thesis is an appeal to rethink policies designed to promote (female) entrepreneurship among the poor. It calls into question the portrayal of self-employment as "entrepreneurship" and the depiction of poverty as an individual problem.This book is based on Merel van ‘t Wouts’ Master's thesis ‘Entrepreneurs by the grace of God : life and work of seamstresses in Bolgatanga, Ghana’, winner of the African Studies Centre, Leiden's 2015 Africa Thesis Award. This annual award for Master's students encourages student research and writing on Africa and promotes the study of African cultures and societies. Show less
Conflicts are multi causal and remain an inevitable part of human existence, and Africa like other parts of the world has had to grapple with the phenomenon. The Northern Region of Ghana has over... Show moreConflicts are multi causal and remain an inevitable part of human existence, and Africa like other parts of the world has had to grapple with the phenomenon. The Northern Region of Ghana has over the years been a hotbed of conflicts as several communities have gained notoriety for frequent violent disturbances. Though the “North” is not the only place of simmering tensions and conflicts since colonial times, the violent nature and intractability of some conflicts which often make the headlines for obviously “bad” reasons leaves much to be desired This paper examines Northern Ghana’s intractable conflicts many of which have partisan and political undertones, and have served as fodder to exacerbate; chieftaincy succession conflicts, land and boundary disputes, and others that may arise from competing group interests. More importantly, some of these disputes may directly be as a result of struggle for political power or domination. Whilst relying on textual or content analysis of conflicts in Ghana and Africa the author also makes use of, interviews, personal observation and experiences gained from the area under discussion. Resource persons and researchers, some from these conflict areas offered great insight for this write-up. Show less
This paper focuses on informal workers in Makola Market, Accra (Ghana), and the ways in which they organize for collective action. Ghana has a long history of trade and this makes for well... Show moreThis paper focuses on informal workers in Makola Market, Accra (Ghana), and the ways in which they organize for collective action. Ghana has a long history of trade and this makes for well-developed and culturally embedded local institutions that have organized and represented the (informal) workersactive in markets. A prominent example is the market queens, who (cl)aim to oversee, protect and promote markets vis-a-vis the public and the (municipal) government. Yet, these social structures are not easily recognized as a kind of social movement by (inter)national trade unions. Hence trade unioninterventions and outreaches aimed at ameliorating the plight of informal workers tend to bypass and antagonize these existing formations, fuelling competition and division in the already fragmented and inherently competitive market space. Based on 2.5 year-long ethnographic research on strategic actors in inclusive development with a focus on informal workers, this article draws attention to empirical realities in Ghana. It demonstrates that bypassing culturally embedded groups is problematic because it feeds fragmentation and thus limits the possibilities for collective action. Show less
This paper focuses on informal workers in Makola Market, Accra (Ghana), and the ways in which they organize for collective action. Ghana has a long history of trade and this makes for well... Show moreThis paper focuses on informal workers in Makola Market, Accra (Ghana), and the ways in which they organize for collective action. Ghana has a long history of trade and this makes for well-developed and culturally embedded local institutions that have organized and represented the (informal) workersactive in markets. A prominent example is the market queens, who (cl)aim to oversee, protect and promote markets vis-a-vis the public and the (municipal) government. Yet, these social structures are not easily recognized as a kind of social movement by (inter)national trade unions. Hence trade unioninterventions and outreaches aimed at ameliorating the plight of informal workers tend to bypass and antagonize these existing formations, fuelling competition and division in the already fragmented and inherently competitive market space. Based on 2.5 year-long ethnographic research on strategic actors in inclusive development with a focus on informal workers, this article draws attention to empirical realities in Ghana. It demonstrates that bypassing culturally embedded groups is problematic because it feeds fragmentation and thus limits the possibilities for collective action. Show less
The nexus between Pentecostalism and migration has been studied extensively and in divergent terms. One line of research has looked at churches founded by migrants as home away from home, helping... Show moreThe nexus between Pentecostalism and migration has been studied extensively and in divergent terms. One line of research has looked at churches founded by migrants as home away from home, helping migrants to settle in a new place and at the same time connecting them back to where they came from. Another strand has rather highlighted incorporation into a global Christendom and engagement in global spiritual warfare. Whereas the first line of research is often phrased in terms of diaspora and religion, the second one views Pentecostalism as producing globality on its own terms. With this article, we attempt to contribute to this discussion by asking how deterritorialized belonging is produced in daily Pentecostal practices. What is made present when a home is made absent? What kind of attentive practices create the presence of the Holy Spirit? In thinking with the notion of hodological care, we argue that Pentecostal churches founded by Ghanaian migrants in Southern Africa and Europe create belonging not to a “home" but to connections. They thereby produce forms of de-diasporization, which could be seen as belonging through disconnecting. Show less
This paper discusses general political and economic issues in Nawuriland during and after German colonialism. The paper argues that the legacies of German colonialism are still largely seen and... Show moreThis paper discusses general political and economic issues in Nawuriland during and after German colonialism. The paper argues that the legacies of German colonialism are still largely seen and felt in Nawuriland especially in plantation projects, land and chieftaincy. Show less
The district health system in Ghana today is characterized by high resource-uncertainty and narrow decision-space. This article builds a theory-driven historical case study to describe the... Show moreThe district health system in Ghana today is characterized by high resource-uncertainty and narrow decision-space. This article builds a theory-driven historical case study to describe the influence of path-dependent administrative, fiscal and political decentralization processes on development of the district health system and district manager decision-space. Methods included a non-exhaustive literature review of democratic governance in Ghana, and key informant interviews with high-level health system officials integral to the development of the district health system. Through our analysis we identified four periods of district health system progression: (1) development of the district health system (1970–85); (2) Strengthening District Health Systems Initiative (1986–93); (3) health sector reform planning and creation of the Ghana Health Service (1994–96) and (4) health sector reform implementation (1997–2007). It was observed that district manager decision-space steadily widened during periods (1) and (2), due to increases in managerial profile, and concerted efforts at managerial capacity strengthening. Periods (3) and (4) saw initial augmentation of district health system financing, further widening managerial decision-space. However, the latter half of period 4 witnessed district manager decision-space contraction. Formalization of Ghana Health Service structures influenced by self-reinforcing tendencies towards centralized decision-making, national and donor shifts in health sector financing, and changes in key policy actors all worked to the detriment of the district health system, reversing early gains from bottom-up development of the district health system. Policy feedback mechanisms have been influenced by historical and contemporary sequencing of local government and health sector decentralization. An initial act of administrative decentralization, followed by incomplete political and fiscal decentralization has ensured that the balance of power has remained at national level, with strong vertical accountabilities and dependence of the district on national level. This study demonstrates that the rhetoric of decentralization does not always mirror actual implementation, nor always result in empowered local actors. Show less
Koduah, A.; Akua Agyepong, I.; Dijk, J.W.M. van 2016
This paper seeks to advance our understanding of health policy agenda setting and formulation processes in a lower middle income country, Ghana, by exploring how and why maternal health policies... Show moreThis paper seeks to advance our understanding of health policy agenda setting and formulation processes in a lower middle income country, Ghana, by exploring how and why maternal health policies and programmes appeared and evolved on the health sector programme of work agenda between 2002 and 2012. We theorized that the appearance of a policy or programme on the agenda and its fate within the programme of work is predominately influenced by how national level decision makers use their sources of power to define maternal health problems and frame their policy narratives. National level decision makers used their power sources as negotiation tools to frame maternal health issues and design maternal health policies and programmes within the framework of the national health sector programme of work. The power sources identified included legal and structural authority; access to authority by way of political influence; control over and access to resources (mainly financial); access to evidence in the form of health sector performance reviews and demographic health surveys; and knowledge of national plans such as Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy. Understanding of power sources and their use as negotiation tools in policy development should not be ignored in the pursuit of transformative change and sustained improvement in health systems in low- and middle income countries (LMIC). Show less
Background: Why issues get on the policy agenda, move into policy formulation and implementation while others drop off in the process is an important field of enquiry to inform public social policy... Show moreBackground: Why issues get on the policy agenda, move into policy formulation and implementation while others drop off in the process is an important field of enquiry to inform public social policy development and implementation. This paper seeks to advance our understanding of health policy agenda setting, formulation and implementation processes in Ghana, a lower middle income country by exploring how and why less than three months into the implementation of a pilot prior to national scale up; primary care maternal services that were part of the basket of services in a primary care per capita national health insurance scheme provider payment system dropped off the agenda. Methods: We used a case study design to systematically reconstruct the decisions and actions surrounding the rise and fall of primary care maternal health services from the capitation policy. Data was collected from July 2012 and August 2014 through in-depth interviews, observations and document review. The data was analysed drawing on concepts of policy resistance, power and arenas of conflict. Results: During the agenda setting and policy formulation stages; predominantly technical policy actors within the bureaucratic arena used their expertise and authority for consensus building to get antenatal, normal delivery and postnatal services included in the primary care per capita payment system. Once policy implementation started, policy makers were faced with unanticipated resistance. Service providers, especially the private self-financing used their professional knowledge and skills, access to political and social power and street level bureaucrat power to contest and resist various aspects of the policy and its implementation arrangements - including the inclusion of primary care maternal health services. The context of intense public arena conflicts and controversy in an election year added to the high level political anxiety generated by the contestation. The President and Minister of Health responded and removed antenatal, normal delivery and postnatal care from the per capita package. Conclusion: The tensions and complicated relationships between technical considerations and politics and bureaucratic versus public arenas of conflict are important influences that can cause items to rise and fall on policy agendas. Show less
This paper is about Kete Krachi. It discusses the various historical changes that took place after the area had contact with Germans. The paper points out the profound impact that colonialism had... Show moreThis paper is about Kete Krachi. It discusses the various historical changes that took place after the area had contact with Germans. The paper points out the profound impact that colonialism had on KeteKrachi. The author argues that chieftaincy, boundaries, allegiances trade and agricultural systems were reshaped by colonial policies and institutions under German rule in Kete Krachi. Show less
The documented analysis of the forest offences revealed eight forest offence types with prevalent cases being chainsaw milling, illegal logging and illegal farming. Between 2005 and 2010, the... Show moreThe documented analysis of the forest offences revealed eight forest offence types with prevalent cases being chainsaw milling, illegal logging and illegal farming. Between 2005 and 2010, the district recorded 121 offences with more offences occurring in the on-reserve areas than in the off-reserve areas. The timber species, which was most exploited illegally is Triplochiton scleroxylon (wawa), a scarlet star-rated species, which is under imminent economic threat. Analyses of the official records revealed lapses in record keeping since there are no references to the outcomes of most offences, especially those relating to cases under investigation by the Police and Regional Forest Services Division. A call for capacity development of the frontline staff of the Forest Services Division at the District levels is paramount especially in detecting, collecting, entering and analyzing forest offences cases and outcomes as well as training in forest investigation and incident management. Furthermore, equipping the district offices with the requisite technological equipment like computers and accessories, software and real-time Global Positioning System (GPS) trackers will enhance effective monitoring and data management of forest resources especially when Ghana is committed in ensuring timber legality under the Voluntary Partnership Agreement. Show less
This volume attempts to dig deeper into what is currently happening in Africa's agricultural and rural sector and to convince policymakers and others that it is important to look at the current... Show moreThis volume attempts to dig deeper into what is currently happening in Africa's agricultural and rural sector and to convince policymakers and others that it is important to look at the current African rural dynamics in ways that connect metropolitan demands for food with value chain improvements and agro-food cluster innovations. It is essential to go beyond a 'development bureaucracy' and a state-based approach to rural transformation, such as the one that often dominates policy debate in African government circles, organizations like the African Union and the UN, and donor agencies. Show less
