The Changing Role of CSOs in Public Policy Making in Ghana

Abstract

The last two decades have seen significant changes in the relationship among the State, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Development Partners (DPs) in many developing countries. In Ghana, this relationship has ranged from mutual suspicion and exclusion to one of greater en-gagement and accommodation. Between the 1950s and the years of Structural Adjustment in the 1980s, the state was seen as the central mechanism for economic and social development. Consequently, policy making centered on a small team of government officials with support from development partners. Since the mid-1990s, however, Ghana has witnessed a major para-digm shift in the relationship among the State, Development Partners and CSOs with regard to development policy dialogue in particular and pub-lic policy making in general. Indeed the role of civil society is growing, as exemplified in its role in some important national development policies such as the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II: 2006-2009) and the National Budget Processes since 2005. The new development paradigm is further exemplified in the emergence of numerous civil soci-ety networks and coalitions that seek to increase the penetrating powers of CSOs in the policy making processes. While skeptics may still view the policy making environment with mixed signals, there is clearly a discern-able trend for all key stakeholders – government, development partners and civil society – to look to one other not as competitors or enemies, but as partners in the development process