The concept of participation seems to reflect in most development programmes that involve
people at the grassroots level. In Ghana, the introduction of the decentralization programme
in the late 1980s that aimed at promoting effective, comprehensive and rapid development,
more especially in the rural areas also adopted participatory approach. The approach led to
the introductory of district assembly system which was to enhance the involvement of people
at the grassroots in participatory activities. However, since the introduction of the
decentralisation system to promote grassroots level participation, the people are still inactive
and the level of involvement in development decision-making still remains weak.
To clearly understand these problems, the thesis has aimed at answering the following
research questions; how are rural people involved in participatory practice in the
development activities in their area; what barriers affect and hinder the active participation of
rural people and how could these be addressed? Answers to those questions helped to
examine the nature of participation at the grassroots level; understand how the district
assembly adopt participatory practice and to ascertain the nature of barriers that hinder
effective participatory practice. Using a case study approach for the investigation, an
interpretivists and constructivists were the philosophical underpinnings of the investigation.
The data was gathered through the use of focus group discussions and one-to-one informal
interviews.
It was observed that, participation continues to reflect in most rural development
programmes, but there are key barriers that still continue to hamper the effectiveness of
participatory practice. Power relations, threats, intimidations and more especially the use of
juju and witchcraft which never featured in most development literature are among the major
barriers that continue to weaken local people readiness to actively participate. Most rural
people feel threaten to participate for the fear of being bewitched or killed through the use of
juju, witchcraft or black magical powers. Without critically and effectively addressing those
bottlenecks and barriers, and put community members at the pivot of decision-making, the
use of outsiders¿ knowledge and ideas alone to address the problems of participation with the
hope of improving the lives of the rural people will not yield any significant result. / Title page missing
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/5263 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Cobbinah, J.E. |
| Contributors | Not named |
| Publisher | University of Bradford |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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