Forest resource management in Ghana : an analysis of policy and institutions

Despite claims by many developing countries that they have adopted sustainable forest policies in return for bilateral and multilateral donor grants, deforestation rates are still quite high. In order to understand this problem, it has been suggested that forest policies of individual countries should be critically examined. Yet there is no comprehensive theoretical framework for analysing, in an integrated way, forest policy formulation and implementation in the developing world. To help fill this gap, an integrated policy network model is devised. This addresses the main weaknesses of the existing policy network approach, especially its negligence of power differentials and failure to analyse micro-interactions. The new model also provides a framework for analysing the influence of complex power relations and informal networks on actual forest policy outcomes. In order to test the robustness of the new model, it is applied to analyse forest policy formulation and implementation in Ghana. The analysis reveals that actual forest policy in Ghana has historically been exploitative. In response to international pressures, a new Forest Policy, with sustainable and participatory goals, was formulated in 1994. However, this has been poorly implemented, due to complex interdependencies and informal networks between state officials and forest exploitative groups. While local communities are marginalised, patronage networks among the political elite, top forestry officials and "big timber men" negatively affect revenue collection and checking illegal logging. Similarly, complex interdependencies and networks among guards, small-scale chainsaw operators and some farmers contribute to poor implementation of forest protection policies in the countryside. Based on these findings, it has been suggested that strengthening of the Forestry Department must be accompanied by social change and greater transparency on the part of state officials, if forest policy could ever be well implemented in Ghana. Donor pressures alone cannot ensure sustainable resource management, due to the ability of the executive to contest such pressures through the use of policy ambiguities. A change driven by civil society, and a strong local media should help improve governance and forest management in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa

Changing Patterns of Migration and Remittances in Rural Ghana

While migration is an important livelihood strategy adopted by individuals and households to improve living standards, there are contesting views on its effects on the welfare of the migrant households in migrant sending areas and socioeconomic development in migrant sending areas. Despite the recognition that migration can contribute to improved livelihoods and socioeconomic development, there is a general paucity of data on migration patterns and the relationship between migration and the wellbeing of migrants’ households. In Africa, most of the earlier studies on migration patterns and effects have focused on international migration, even though internal migration is more pervasive in the region. While a few researchers have examined the welfare impacts of internal migration in some African countries, these assessments are largely based on cross-sectional data. Relying on panel data generated as part of the Migrating out of Poverty (MOOP) research project, this Policy Brief examines changes in migration and remittance patterns of households interviewed in rural Ghana in 2015 and 2018.DFIDMigrating out of Povert

Victims of trafficking and modern slavery or agents of change? Migrants, brokers, and the state in Ghana and Myanmar

The authors provide critical insights into the creation of precarious and unfree labour in Ghana and Myanmar by examining the inner workings of the migration industry and the roles of brokers, the state and employers in positioning migrants in exploitative work in Libya, The Middle East, Singapore and Thailand. The evidence is based on in-depth interviews with returned and current migrant construction workers and domestic workers, formal and informal brokers, transport providers and other stakeholders. The research shows that brokerage is culturally embedded in local systems of reciprocity and closely depends on the collusion and cooptation of state actors. The research suggests that rather than viewing migrants and those who mediate migration in opposition and the state as a benevolent facilitator, they should be analysed as co-constituting systems of brokerage, irregular migration and exploitative work. The findings highlight the need for states to take greater responsibility in managing their own involvement in creating modern slavery. At the same time, the findings highlight the ways in which migrants use brokerage to exercise agency by taking advantage of irregular migration routes and informal employment

Gendered Dynamics of Remitting and Remittance Use in Northern Ghana

Until recently, the relationship between gender and remittances has received little attention in academic and policy circles. The majority of earlier studies, which largely employed quantitative approaches, suggest clear, gendered patterns of remitting and remittance use in various societies. In recent years, a body of literature has emerged which shows that the relationship between gender and remittances is shaped by social norms of household provisioning. However, most analyses on the relationship between gender and remitting behaviour give too much weight to structure over agency and therefore fail to examine how the relationship between gender and the sending of remittances is mediated by the household context and agency of household members. Drawing on qualitative data collected in Northern Ghana, which is largely a migrant sending region, and one migrant destination (the Greater Accra region), this paper contributes to the emerging body of literature on social norms and the gendered dynamics of remitting and remittance use. In contrast to earlier studies which suggest that there are clear gendered patterns of remitting and remittance use in the different societies, we argue that the relationship between gender and remitting/remittance use is more complex and is shaped by the interaction of social norms on household provisioning, the composition of households and the agency of household members. We demonstrate that, while social norms on gender roles and conjugality tend to produce gendered patterns of remitting, the household context and the agency of the individual household members may sometimes interact to produce remitting behaviours that are not consistent with the general patterns observed in the community.DFI

Can Rural-Urban Migration into Slums Reduce Poverty? Evidence from Ghana

Recent evidence indicates that the increasing levels of poverty in urban areas in Ghana are partly attributed to net migration of poor people to cities. However, evidence of the linkages between urbanisation, rural-urban migration and poverty outcome is mixed. In the light of the rapid pace of urbanisation and the resulting pressure on public facilities, policy prescription has largely occupied itself with attempts to curb rural-urban migration. There is a widely held perception – as emphasised in a number of policy documents – that ruralurban migration cannot lead to positive outcomes for migrants, their areas of origin, or destination. Recent poverty reduction strategies and urban policies tend to focus on the negative aspects of migration and little support is provided for rural-urban migrants in Ghana. Yet, the relationship between rural-urban migration and poverty reduction is not adequately understood nor explored. This study examines the livelihoods of poor migrants living and working in two urban informal settlements in Accra: Nima and Old Fadama. The findings suggest that, despite living in a harsh environment with little social protection, an overwhelming majority of the migrants believes that their overall well-being has been enhanced by migrating to Accra. Using their own ingenuity, the migrants build houses and create jobs in the informal sector and beyond in order to survive and live in Accra. The migrants are also contributing to poverty reduction and human capital development back home through remittances and investments. Yet, official assessments and perceptions of urban poverty do not take into account the fact that poor people are attracted to urban areas to utilise the multiple economic opportunities there, but instead only focus on head count measures that do not recognise these dynamics. Our findings show that urban slums are not just places of despair and misery, but places where migrants are optimistically making the most of their capabilities and are trying to move out of poverty, despite the obvious difficulties. Therefore, we urge the need for a more nuanced understanding of the connections between the migration of the poor to urban areas and the impacts that this is having on their long term prospects to exit poverty.DFI

Plantation, outgrower and medium-scale commercial farming in Ghana: which model provides better prospects for local development?

African governments are making important policy choices in their quest to modernise agriculture, with some promoting largescale farming on plantations while others promote small- or medium-scale commercial farming

Of Local Places and Local People: Understanding Migration in Peripheral Capitalist Outposts

This paper explores the ways in which migration and social change intermesh. It focuses on internal migration from Northern to Southern Ghana and through scrutinising changes to livelihoods in Northern Ghana in the long durée, the paper documents how these changes have contributed to women’s ability to migrate southward. Drawing on qualitative data collected in 2015 by pairing adults and youths from twenty-four households in Northern Ghana, the paper also provides insights into recent forms of change wrought by migration. This material is supplemented by data collected in interviews with migrants in Accra. The paper demonstrates that the relationship between migration and social change is not unidirectional. Deep seated social changes in Northern Ghana have precipitated the large scale migration of young women seen today. Migration, in turn, leads to two forms of change; surface level changes relating to the development of new ways of being and changes to deep seated cultural norms relating to the rise of new ways of thinking. By highlighting the different dynamics engendering social change in Northern communities the paper contests the notion of rural communities being sites of social inertia.DFI

The Political Economy of the Cocoa Value Chain in Ghana

The cocoa sector has, historically, been the backbone of the Ghanaian economy. Many households depend directly on the cocoa sector for livelihoods, and aspects of the cocoa industry, such as input supplies to farmers and cocoa pricing, have historically featured prominently in national and local politics. This paper examines the basic underlying political economy dynamics of the cocoa value chain, with particular focus on how the interests, powers and interactions of various actors along the value chain have contributed to agricultural commercialisation in Ghana. The paper also explores the challenges affecting the cocoa value chain, social difference within the chain, and how various segments of the cocoa value chain have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana since March 202

The Struggle to Intensify Cocoa Production in Ghana: Making a Living from the Forest in Western North

Since cocoa began to be cultivated in the 1880s in southern Ghana, it has created jobs, incomes and prosperity for the many farmers growing the crop. Until recently, cocoa farmers could make use of highly favourable conditions when clearing forests to plant cocoa. They needed to do little other than plant seedlings then wait to harvest the pods. When trees aged, or soil fertility declined, or swollen shoot viral disease attacked the trees, they could abandon the old groves and move to establish new stands of cocoa in virgin forests. Over the decades, the frontier for new cocoa farms moved west across the country. By the 2000s, however, the last available forests in Western Region were being taken up and the frontier closed. With no new land available for cocoa, farmers would need to maintain and renew their groves to preserve their incomes, and to intensify production if they wanted to earn more from cocoa. At the same time, farmers faced increasing attacks from pests, fungi, parasites and the deadly threat of swollen shoot – while their trees aged and needed replanting. As a result of a lack of technical knowledge and capital, farmers struggled to respond to these challenges, continue cocoa production and intensify further. This study explores if it is still possible to make a living from cocoa in the region and if so, how

Migration into Cities in Ghana: The Economic Benefi ts to Migrants and their Households

In the light of the rapid pace of urbanisation and associated challenges such as urban unemployment, urban poverty, and the emergence of slums, policy prescription in Ghana has largely occupied itself with attempts to curb rural-urban migration. There is a widely held perception that rural-urban migration cannot lead to positive outcomes for migrants and their households. Yet, there is little understanding of how rural-urban migrants in Ghana fare in the city relative to how they would have fared had they stayed in their original areas, or how their households would have fared had the migrant not left home. This briefi ng for policy makers is based on research conducted by the Migrating out of Poverty Research Consortium. It argues that while rural-urban migration can cause unemployment and lower income for a minority of migrants, most people who migrate from rural areas to cities in Ghana gain from enhanced incomes and improved wellbeing. The fi ndings indicate that migration from rural areas to cities in Ghana must not always be portrayed as detrimental to socio-economic development. Migration can be employed as a strategy to move out of poverty. The research fi ndings also call for the need to make potential migrants aware of the economic gains and losses associated with rural-urban migration.DFIDMigrating out of Povert