Community Participation in the Delivery of Social Infrastructure in the Shai Osudoku District of Ghana

Abstract

The drive for development globally has provided in-depth knowledge on the ways of enhancing the living conditions for all people with emphasis on the poor and vulnerable over the past decades. Ghana over the past 25 years has been implementing decentralization reforms as part of its strategies to enhance development through grassroots participation in the planning, design and implementation of its program and projects. Though the concept of local community participation is an important function in local government structure and decentralization process, local communities’ involvement in charting their development path is considered to be tokenistic. The unintended consequences associated with non-inclusive participation is one of the most structural challenges facing Ghana’s decentralization process and specifically local government objectives. Using the stakeholder participation framework, this study critically examines the concept of community participation in the delivery of social infrastructure in the Shai Osudoku District of Ghana. The qualitative method was used in collecting primary data. Medium Term Development Plans and Action plans from the district were also a helpful source for secondary data. The findings from the study showed that a representation of the substructure of the Assembly and a handful of community stakeholders are involved in determining the social infrastructural needs of the communities through the development of the District Medium Term Development Plan. Findings also revealed that social infrastructure is seen as physical structures but not soft social infrastructure which are services benefited from the physical structures. The study revealed that the planning process is formally initiated by the district assembly with a legal framework from the Local Government Act (Act 462) and that stakeholders within the community are only invited to participate in the process. The process of assessing the needs of the community is representative and the channels of invitation is not inclusive enough leading to the exclusion of significant number of community members. Community stakeholders University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh v particularly interest groups have high interest but low influence and therefore are not able do much in the participatory process. Findings also revealed that language is a barrier between district assembly officials and members of the community and this make communication and interaction with the locals a challenging task. Local citizens are not invited for public hearings or meetings organised by the district assembly but for the few influential and privileged in the community. The study argues that a Local Project Management Team (LPMT) constituted by key stakeholders in the community has to be made responsible for planning the needs of the community. Responsible management and coordination of the delivery of social infrastructure within the communities must be recognised in the Local government system. Efforts must be made consciously to build the capacities of local stakeholders to give the right environment for local participation. This will enhance the local government structure and largely the decentralization process to fast track an improved social infrastructure delivery process that has direct impact on the livelihoods of local people in Ghana.