Civil society engagement in Ghana’s public-private partnership regime: A study of Imani and Ghana integrity initiative (GII)

Abstract

This paper explores the patterns of civil society engagement in Ghana’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) regime. It examines the forms of civil society participation in the PPP regime, the political contexts within which they participate, and how the patterns of civil society participation reflect current theoretical claims in development partnership and cooperation. Using purely qualitative methods, the study relied on interviews as sources of primary data. Secondary data were drawn from reports and media interviews. Using both inductive and abductive frames of reasoning the study discovered that civil society participation has been fundamentally fringe-like, albeit some traces of inclusion in PPP arrangements. Their forms of participation have been largely accounted for by inadequate and unsatisfactory political responses to anomalies in the PPP. Moreover, it was evident that while some of the modes of participation of civil society in the PPP regime reflected current claims in development partnership and cooperation others did not. In this paper, we observe that a CSO may play crucial roles in PPP projects by reacting constructively to the actions and inactions of the coalition of state and private actors. The usefulness of their roles in reorganizing PPP regimes will be enhanced if they remain objective, consistent and factual in their claims