Does size really matter? The prevalence of NGOs and challenges to development in Northern Ghana

ABSTRACT For decades, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have helped to fill the development gap in Ghana, often through donor-funded projects targeting the most impoverished households in Northern Ghana. However, after years of sustained concentration of development aid and NGO operations, entrenched poverty remains pervasive in Northern Ghana, with significant implications for rural livelihoods. The authors examine the apparent paradox of concentrated donor-funded interventions and poverty in Northern Ghana by exploring impediments to successful implementation of development projects. In their study, they adopted a qualitative approach and relied on primary data generated from semi-structured interviews with frontline NGO workers. The results of the study established that a lack of adequate coordination and regulation of ‘the NGO industry’, project duplication, and misuse of resources impeded development initiatives in Northern Ghana. Also, they found that NGOs were complementary to, but not a substitute for, the State in the provision of social services. The authors contend that the broad NGO presence and activities in Northern Ghana do not matter, since the concentration of development initiatives has not yielded tangible results. They call for proper intra-NGO coordination, coordination between NGOs and government agencies, and between NGOs and implementing communities in order for the full potential of donor-funded programmes to be achieved.