The effectiveness of decentralization policy as a tool for poverty eradication in the East Gonja District of Ghana

Abstract

Decentralization has been a global phenomenon since the 1980s. It has been advocated as a major administrative reform package by donors and development agencies, and an important strategy for improving local governance, thereby promoting poverty reduction at grass-roots level. Since the implementation of the decentralization policy in Ghana, few studies have been carried out to establish its purported relationship to poverty reduction. This thesis examined the impact of decentralization on poverty reduction in the East Gonja District in Northern Ghana. The indicators of poverty used in this study are income, access to social services and community participation. Data for the study were gathered from mixed-methods approach based on three set of survey questionnaires, focus group discussions and interviews. The respondents for the surveys were household heads (n=310), elected members of the District Assembly (n=10), and Assembly’s staff (n=10), from which, selected respondents participated in six organized focused group discussions and three in-depth interviews. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS statistical package. The regression analysis between poverty reduction and decentralization was 0.642, indicating that this correlation is not significant. This result shows that poverty levels do not depend on decentralization. The data analysis further revealed that all the household heads interviewed were deprived of the set of indicators for measuring poverty, and are therefore considered to be living in absolute poverty. The study recommends measures to improve and increase productivity in agriculture through the provision of irrigation dams, access to extension services and a more functional sub-structure of the district assembly.