Partnership building for community infrastructure provision: a study of Yilo Krobo District of Ghana

Despite many years of rural development endeavours, rural Ghana is still plagued with socio-economic deprivation. As a tool for smoothening the impact and also facilitate the general process of production and development, infrastructure is provided in the communities where majority of the people live and undertake economic activities. In providing the infrastructure, three aspects of institutional changes will need to be effected. These are: a shift from the existing control economy to one where the state will guide the growth of the economy; shift from public-private competition to partnerships; and the decentralisation and devolution of responsibilities. A shift to partnerships and the decentralisation and devolution of responsibilities will be to provide opportunities for all stakeholders in the districts of Ghana to pool their resources together in order to meet their infrastructure needs. There has been a tremendous advance in this endeavour worldwide, which we can learn from. However, the rural areas in Ghana do not significantly benefit from these advances because the institutional and management capacities as well as the legal framework available in the rural areas do not facilitate the process. This problem is applicable and manifest in the Yilo Krobo District, where in addition to the weak institutional and management capacities as well as lack of legal framework, there is no conscious effort put in place by the District Assembly to help nurture such partnerships. The main objective of the study was thus to help ascertain the nature of these problems (and others) and design a system of partnership (interaction) that can be used to galvanise the people into action. Primary information was obtained from interviews with District Assembly Departments that are engaged in some partnerships. This included: the District Planning Coordinating Unit, Community Water and Sanitation Agency and Electricity Company of Ghana. All the seven Area Councils of the district also provided information through focus group discussions. Sources of secondary information included journals and papers as well as textbooks that were relevant to the study. It was realised that partnerships are going on in the area of provision of electricity and water and sanitation infrastructure. However, these partnerships have not been deepened enough to enable the people benefit fully from them. For this to happen, the District Assembly will need to consciously nurture such activities and mobilise the collective potentials of all stakeholders in the district in an effort to build institutional, management and legal capacities. This can be done within a larger framework of enhanced interactions among all the stakeholders. For the partnerships to become accessible and more beneficial to the people, the partnership interactions should be decentralised to the communities to serve the peculiar needs of the residents. To concretise this and let it take root, the financial, management and institutional capacities of residents should be built to enable them avail themselves of the opportunities such decentralisation will offer them.

Source: KNUST