Traditional authorities as development brokers in rural education: evidence from the PPTAP in Ghana

ABSTRACT

Development brokerage has become a crucial and enduring phenomenon where local actors link their communities to the international development and aid system. Using the case of the World Bank-led Promoting Partnerships with Traditional Authorities Project (PPTAP) with the Asanteman Council in 2003, this study investigates the brokerage roles played by Traditional Authorities (TA) towards rural education. This study finds that the role of TAs was significant concerning improved time-bound projects, greater community participation and ownership, de-politicisation of projects, and accelerated land acquisition processes. However, issues of sustainability and gender remain critical concerns for the overall success of TAs as development brokers.

KEYWORDS:

• Participation
• education
• partnership
• capacity development
• aid effectiveness
• sub-Saharan Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Asanteman Council constitutes a union of TAs in the various sub-states of the Ashanti Kingdom headed by the Ashanti King.

2 This article focuses on the brokerage role of the Asantehene (and his sub-chiefs) in the PPTAP. The overall grant by the WB for the PPTAP was US$5.05 million to both the Asanteman Council (the focus of this article) and the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Royal Air Maroc grant number and St Antony's College, University of Oxford [STAR Grant TT16].

Notes on contributors

Kwaku Abrefa Busia

Kwaku Abrefa Busia is currently a HKPFS doctoral candidate at the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with research interests in Rural Development, Decentralisation and Local Governance, Chieftaincy Studies, Gender and Family Studies. He holds an MPhil in African Studies from the University of Cambridge and an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford.