Comparing power spaces: the shaping of Ghana’s Education Strategic Plan

Abstract

This article compares the power spaces occupied by both donors and the Ministry of Education in the formulation of Ghana’s Education Strategic Plan (ESP). It shows that the formulation of the ESP was more donor-led than Ministry-led due to the donor-initiated global policy frameworks also referred to as the non-negotiables. Consequently, donors and the Ministry were respectively positioned as the dominant and dominated. A comparison and analysis of their unequal positions illuminates some of the reasons why the principles of aid effectiveness in terms of ownership and partnership, which persistently drive donor–recipient interactions, remain rhetorical.

Keywords:

• power
• donors
• Ghana
• Ministry of Education/Government of Ghana (MoE/GoG)
• Education Strategic Plan (ESP)

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to all those who provided feedback on earlier drafts of this article and to the reviewers of the final draft for their comments.

Notes

1. The MoE was once called the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, hence the MEYS.

2. In employing snowballing, most of the respondents helped in identifying other relevant respondents, especially when it was difficult to identify relevant key people (Robson 1993). In the case of theoretical sampling, sampling was done on the basis of ideas that had established theoretical significance to the developing theory of MoE–donor interactions and their shaping of the ESP (Strauss and Corbin 1990, 177).

3. However, I must introduce a caveat that, despite the important position participant observation occupies in the study as a great facilitator of all processes in the field, the data generated through observation recorded in field notes were not as extensive as the interview and documentary data sets. This came about because while participation enabled me to sample relevant MoE–donor interactions and events, access was gained to only a few where minimal direct observation could occur. Nevertheless, the observations recorded in field notes consolidated the meaning of the interviews and documentary evidence. They also helped me in the characterisation of contexts of MoE-donor interactions and the nature of the interactions.

4. HD: Hard Document (an Appendix of the list of hard and electronic documents is available on request).

5. It has been argued that subsequent ESPs in Ghana appear to have less donor influence in terms of priorities and funding support.

6. ED: Electronic Document.

7. FN: Field Notes.