Development beyond Politics: Aid, Activism and NGOs in Ghana

212 Pages·2011·1.943 MB·English

by  Thomas Yarrow (auth.)

Development beyond Politics
Non-Governmental Public Action
Series Editor: Jude Howell, Professor and Director of the Centre for Civil Society,
London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Non-governmental public action (NGPA) by and for disadvantaged and margin-
alized people has become increasingly significant over the past two decades.
This new book series is designed to make a fresh and original contribution to the
understanding of NGPA. It presents the findings of innovative and policy-
relevant research carried out by established and new scholars working in col-
laboration with researchers across the world. The series is international in scope
and includes both theoretical and empirical work.
The series marks a departure from previous studies in this area in at least two
important respects. First, it goes beyond a singular focus on developmental
NGOs or the voluntary sector to include a range of non-governmental public
actors, such as advocacy networks, campaigns and coalitions, trades unions,
peace groups, rights-based groups, cooperatives and social movements. Second,
the series is innovative in stimulating a new approach to international compara-
tive research that promotes comparison of the so-called developing world with
the so-called developed world, thereby querying the conceptual utility and rel-
evance of categories, such as North and South.
Titles include:
Barbara Bompani and Maria Frahm-Arp (eds)
DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICS FROM BELOW
Exploring Religious Spaces in the African State
Jude Howell and Jeremy Lind
COUNTER-TERRORISM, AID AND CIVIL SOCIETY
Before and After the War on Terror
Jenny Pearce (ed.)
PARTICIPATION AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY CITY
Tim Pringle and Simon Clarke
THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSITION
Trade Unions in Russia, China and Vietnam
Thomas Yarrow
DEVELOPMENT BEYOND POLITICS
Aid, Activism and NGOs in Ghana
Non-Governmental Public Action Series
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–22939–6 (hardback)
978–0–230–22940–2 (paperback)
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Development beyond
Politics
Aid, Activism and NGOs in Ghana
Thomas Yarrow
School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography,
Bangor University
© Thomas Yarrow 2011
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-23642-4
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First published 2011 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-31448-5 ISBN 978-0-230-31677-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230316775
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
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country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yarrow, Thomas, 1977–
Non-governmental public action : aid, activism and NGOs in Ghana /
Thomas Yarrow.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-349-31448-5
1. Economic assistance—Ghana. 2. Ghana—Economic conditions.
3. Non-governmental organizations—Ghana. I. Title.
HC1060.Y37 2011
338.9667—dc23 2011013821
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
Contents
List of Text Boxes vi
List of Acronyms vii
Acknowledgements viii
Preface x
A Note on Names xvi
Introduction: Hope in Development 1
Part I Ideology
1 The Politics of Charity 19
2 Development in Person 45
3 Personal Relations, Public Debates 77
Part II Practice
4 Local and Global 105
5 Indigenous and Western 126
6 Policy and Practice 146
Conclusion: What Is to Be Done? 161
Postscript: Acting and Understanding 170
Notes 173
References 182
Index 193
v
Text Boxes
1.1 Emmanuel 27
1.2 Lucas 30
1.3 Simon 32
2.1 Emily 54
2.2 Florence 57
2.3 Patience 61
2.4 Kwaku 63
2.5 Akua 67
3.1 Joseph 82
3.2 Albert 84
3.3 Peter 88
4.1 Charles 116
4.2 Stephen 120
5.1 Sulley 129
5.2 Jacob 132
5.3 Chris 135
6.1 James 156
vi
Acronyms
CBO community-based organization
CFA Catholics for Action
CHD Centre for Human Development
DFID Department for International Development
FGP Forestry Governance Project
IKDC Indigenous Knowledge Development Centre
IMF International Monetary Fund
INCC Interim National Coordinating Council
JFM June Fourth Movement
MOFA Ministry of Farming and Agriculture
NDM New Democratic Movement
NGO non-governmental organization
NUGS National Union of Ghana Students
PADNET Participatory Development Network
PNDC Provisional National Defence Council
SRC Student Representative Council
WEFCU Wenchi Farmers’ Credit Union
WENREMP Wenchi Natural Resource Management Project
YCM Young Catholic Movement
YCS Young Christian Students
vii
Acknowledgements
It is an unfortunate artefact of scholarly convention that the contribu-
tions of the many people who made this book possible are not made
fully explicit in the text itself.
In the often frantically busy world of NGOs, time is a scarce com-
modity. I was therefore amazed at the amount of it that various people
invested in my project. My debts in this regard are too numerous to
fully acknowledge here, but I wish to thank in particular Tony Dogbe,
Celia Marshall and the rest of the Dogbe family, who did more than I
could possibly have wished to make me feel at home in their family,
while providing intellectual provocation and encouragement. During
my time in Accra, I stayed with Emily ‘Auntie’ Asiedu, in whose warmth
and hospitality I found refuge from fieldwork. Only retrospectively have
I come to see how much she contributed to my own understanding of
it. Oteng Danso made me feel at home in Accra and got me out of a
number of difficult situations with characteristic skill and diplomacy.
Many of the ideas in this book developed through thinking com-
paratively. The book has developed over a period of time in which I
have been lucky to benefit from the collective wisdom of colleagues
at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge,
the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester,
the Centre for West African Studies, University of Birmingham and
the School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor
University. In all of these places the book was shaped in relation to
intellectual currents whose sum is not reducible to their parts.
Specific inspiration came through my relationships with three key
people: From the outset Tony Crook saw more in my ideas than I
saw myself. Without his encouragement it is unlikely that I would
have continued with anthropology, let alone that this book would
have been written. Before her untimely death, Sue Benson provided
intellectual and personal inspiration. Though she never saw the final
result, I hope she would have recognized something of herself in it.
The book would certainly have taken a very different form without
her. As adviser to the project from which this book developed, Marilyn
Strathern placed productive limits on the theoretical paths I took. It
is only retrospectively that I have truly appreciated how freeing these
limits have been.
viii
Acknowledgements ix
As well as drawing attention to its limitations and omissions, com-
ments on various draft stages of this book (and of pieces of text that have
failed to make it that far) and discussion of the research on which it is
based have helped me to see unanticipated possibilities in my own argu-
ments. In particular, I wish to thank Karin Barber, Barbra Bodenhon,
Matei Candea, Jo Cook, Harri Englund, Maia Green, John Gledhill, Paul
Henley, Amin Kamete, Ann Kelly, James Leach, David Lewis, Annmarie
Mol, Yael Navaro-Yashin, Michelle Obeid, Adam Reed, Annelise Riles,
Mike Rowlands, Tony Simpson, David Sneath, Jack Taylor, Soumhya
Venkatesan, Dick Werbner, Pnina Werbner, David Yarrow and Rachel
Yarrow. In thinking through these arguments in the context of Ghana,
conversations with Lynne Brydon, Jane Clifford, Jennifer Hasty, Tom
McCaskie, Stephan Miescher, Bianca Murillo and Paul Nugent have
been particularly helpful. I would like to thank Christina Brian, Jude
Howell and Renee Takken at Palgrave Macmillan for editorial help, sup-
port, criticism and advice.
This book is partly about the importance of personal relations and
is also to a large extent an artefact of my own. In particular I wish
to acknowledge the intellectual stimulation and support of Anwen
Cooper, Duncan Garrow, Laura Jeffery, Sian Jones, Mark Knight, Rosie
Knight, Lesley McFadyen, Tomas Millar and Beccy Scott. Judith, Tony,
Hugh, Rachel and David Yarrow supported the endeavour, even where
its point wasn’t always evident. Marble helped too! Above all, I wish
to thank Chantal Conneller, who has borne the brunt of the anxieties
and difficulties I have encountered through research and writing, and
whose love and encouragement has helped see me through.
Funding for the research came from the Economic and Social
Research Council, the Smuts Fund and a Cambridge Domestic Research
Studentship. Most of the book was written with the support of a
Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship.