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Title:Effectiveness of grassroots participation in local governance in Ghana's Upper East Region: the case of assemblies in the Bawku area
Authors:Akudugu, M.A.
Fielmua, N.
Akugri, W.K.
Year:2012
Periodical:Journal of Local Government Studies (ISSN 2026-5840)
Volume:4
Issue:1
Pages:78-104
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:local government
community participation
community development
decentralization
Abstract:The participation of actors at the grassroots in identifying, designing, planning, budgeting, implementing, supervising and monitoring of development interventions is a critical component of local governance. Effective grassroots participation in local governance ensures that decisions made on development interventions are culturally agreeable, socially acceptable, economically viable, politically neutral, and environmentally sustainable to the target beneficiaries. However, the question is, how effective is the participation of grassroots agents in local governance? The paper examines the effectiveness of grassroots participation in local governance in the Bawku area (BA) of the Upper East Region (UER) of Ghana. Semi-structured questionnaires were used for data collection. The respondents included frontline officers of the BA and heads of selected decentralized departments, Area/Town Councils' and Unit Committees' executives, as well as opinion leaders. The study results revealed that beneficiaries of development interventions are in few cases only consulted at the project identification stage and are left out during the designing, planning, budgeting, implementing, monitoring and supervision stages of such projects. Therefore, it is concluded that the participation of grassroots agents in local level governance in the BA is not effective. This has negative implications on grassroots - local officials' accountability relations. As such, it is recommended that capacities of grassroots change agents such as Unit Committees and Area Councils be built and well resourced to enable them to perform their expected roles effectively. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]
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