Fostering land-sharing scheme as alternative resettlement to the inevitable Old Fadama evictions and challenges in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The study aims to explain the essence of an alternative approach to the Old Fadama inevitable eviction and to justify the merits & feasibility of a land-sharing scheme to the community. Previous studies used principles to explain the feasibility of land-sharing, but the present study adopted both principles and theories. The injustice and social inequality from evictions are ironed out by applying Amartya Sen’s idea on justice that counters transcendentalism theory. The study answers three critical questions: why the community residents demand justice, how advantageous land-sharing is to other methods, and how feasible land-sharing is to the research area. A survey was done in the study area using structured questionnaires, interviews, and observations. A purposive sampling technique selected 600 affected community residents, 30 local government officials, and one coordinator from Amnesty International Ghana. Both qualitative and quantitative analytical methods were used to analyse the primary data. First of all, the study findings revealed four substantive claims for requesting justice from the local authorities; citizenship rights, property rights, temporal permit, and long-term stay. Secondly, land-sharing is preferred to relocation and cash compensation because it poses less risk than the other two. Finally, the study supported the feasibility of a land-sharing scheme to the Old Fadama based on Rabé’s (2005) principles. The study also concluded that information and compensation are critical to the resettlement process; hence, local authorities should.

KEYWORDS:

• Evictions
• Amartya Sen Idea of justice
• Land-sharing
• Rabe feasibility principles
• Old Fadama- Ghana

Acknowledgments

I want to thank the reviewer(s) and the co-editor for their comments which redefined and enriched the research article. Moreover, it is worth mentioning Prof. Mohammed Zaman; school of Public Administration, Hohai University, China, for his guidance in bringing this study to fruition in 2019.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Amartya Sen’s idea is used to explain justice to include social-realization focused rather than transcendentalism. Moreover, it guides the position of the paper to reflect the need for an alternative approach to inevitable evictions.

2. P. E. Rabé (2005) principles were adopted to explain the feasibility of a land-sharing scheme to the research area.

3. Field interviews were reported in the same expressions to maintain the exact posture of the respondents in the research area.