The Politics Of Public Policy Implementation In Ghana: The Case Of Small-Scale Mining Legislation

Abstract

In Ghana, successive governments have employed various measures to streamline the small-scale mining (SSM) sector. These measures span four broad strategies: the enactment of legislation; the deployment of security taskforce; stakeholder engagement; and constituting inter-ministerial taskforces. However, these strategies seemed not to have produced the expected results. Focusing on legislation, the study assessed the political drivers or factors that affected the implementation of the SSM legislation in Ghana from 1989 - 2022. The study used the complexity of joint action model to assess the power play between the actors and how it affected the implementation of SSM legislation. The study employed the qualitative research approach to obtain primary data while secondary data was obtained from books, journal articles, etc. The results of the study showed that the number of actors involved in the implementation process and the power play among them reduced the chances of the successful implementation of the SSM legislation. Similarly, political factors such as the winner-takes-all politics, the delegate system of electing national party leadership, the lack of a national political party funding, and other challenges such as conflicts, delays, lack of capital and geological data, among others, frustrated the implementation of SSM legislation. The study, inter alia, recommended the empowerment of regulatory and security agencies to curb the illegality and other challenges affecting the implementation of SSM legislation.