Donor interventions and rural development: the experience of Adansi South District

This study is based on the realization that, the bulk of the country’s population live in the rural areas, the industrial raw materials for both export and domestic use come from the rural areas, food crops are produced in the rural areas, the major foreign exchange earnings of the country come from the rural areas. Efforts at developing the rural economy in Ghana imply improving the living conditions of the rural people and reducing poverty among the rural population. Realizing the need for rural development in Ghana the government in collaboration with donors/donor agencies have implemented various projects in the districts. However, majority of the rural people still experience low standard of living the consequence of which is the perpetuation of low factor productivity, seasonal unemployment and under employment, low incomes and domination of rural poverty. This study therefore examines the collaboration between the Assembly/government and donor interventions required to promote growth and development in the rural economy and recommend measures deemed essential to reduce poverty among the rural poor. The study revolved around a set of objectives, research questions, a well defined scope of operation and units of analysis. Adopting the Adansi South (formerly Adansi East) District Assembly as a study area, the various stakeholders in projects implementation, their roles and involvement were analyzed. The analysis was pursued with the help of qualitative tools a4ler field studies and gathering of secondary data. Some major findings that emerged from the study are that; 1. Donors/Donor Agencies have assisted the district to implement more projects in both rural and urban areas. Some of the projects implemented include school blocks, provision of educational materials, health facilities, markets and water and sanitation facilities. 2. The projects implemented in the district have contributed towards human resources development of the rural areas; increase incomes of the rural in people, improvement in the economic well being of the rural people and others. 3. Besides the projects implemented in the rural areas in the district, the people also require other projects like credit facilities to acquire machines for agro — processing, market centers to sell produce, income generating activities like mushroom farming, snail rearing, tie and dye, soap making, training in employable skills like carpentry, tailoring and craft making to help the people to generate incomes to acquire their needs. 4. Lack of gainful employment and poverty among the people do not make the projects implemented sustainable. 5. Problems confronting projects implementation in the district include, poor road network in the rural areas, lack of commitment and communal spirit among beneficiary communities, delays in projects implementation due to too much emphasis on capacity building and delays and irregular release of project funds by donors. The study concluded with recommendations to address the problems confronting projects implementation in the district and to make donor interventions in the rural areas in the district more effective. In sum, donor interventions in the rural areas of the Adansi South District have contributed to the development of the rural economy in the district.

Source: KNUST