PublicationsThe U4 Blog

U4 Issue

Social accountability and anti-corruption in Ghana’s Fertiliser Subsidy Programme

Social accountability allows citizens and civil society organisations (CSOs) to identify corruption or resource diversion. It equips them with the necessary tools to hold public officials accountable. Through social accountability interventions, a loose coalition of CSOs in Ghana identified several corruption challenges in an agricultural subsidy programme. As a result, the authorities improved the programme and local-level governance. The CSOs actions even reduced smuggling. However, such organisations need logistical and institutional support for their operations, and other actors should also help address systemic challenges in the country.

11 May 2021
Download PDFRead short version
Social accountability and anti-corruption in Ghana’s Fertiliser Subsidy Programme

Main points

  • Agricultural subsidies have enjoyed a resurgence in Africa in the past two decades, after a long period of neglect in the 1980s and 1990s. By helping to boost agricultural productivity, fertiliser subsidies can contribute to rapid economic growth and poverty reduction.
  • In 2008, Ghana introduced subsidies on a range of fertilisers in response to the global food and energy crises. But the programme has been marred by many implementation challenges. In particular, Ghana’s subsidy rate of 50% is the highest in West Africa and has encouraged smuggling to neighbouring countries.
  • To prevent smuggling, a loose coalition of CSOs has instituted social accountability interventions in beneficiary communities to monitor implementation of the programme.
  • This paper evaluates attempts by this loose coalition of CSOs to ensure accountability in the implementation of the Fertiliser Subsidy Programme (FSP). It finds the social accountability interventions have succeeded in reducing smuggling. They have also improved the operational design of the programme and have increased awareness and participation of citizens in public affairs.
  • A key lesson is that ‘approach’ matters in the efficacy of social accountability interventions. These interventions depend on the cooperation of public officials, for instance, to get access to expenditure and revenue data for budget tracking. CSOs have, therefore, largely shifted from a hard (confrontational) to a softer (collaborative) approach, whereby they work together with public officials in search of solutions.
  • However, whenever behind-the-scenes consultations failed to yield results, the research found the CSOs reached out to their media allies to intensify pressure on government, while taking pains to maintain the appearance of partisan neutrality.
  • These successes could be potentially transformative, if social accountability interventions are sustained and scaled up. This would require that they gained access to more secure funding and strengthened their relationship with horizontal accountability mechanisms.

Cite this publication


Asante, K.; Mullard, S. (2021) Social accountability and anti-corruption in Ghana’s Fertiliser Subsidy Programme. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Issue 2021:6)

Download PDFRead short version

About the authors

Kofi Takyi Asante

Kofi Takyi Asante is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana.

Saul Mullard is a senior adviser at the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre and a civil society specialist with a background in historical sociology, development studies, and South Asian studies. His research interests include the relationship between corruption and climate change and the role of local communities and indigenous peoples in addressing corruption and environmental protection. Mullard holds a doctorate and master’s in South and Inner Asian Studies from the University of Oxford, as well as a BA in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

Disclaimer


All views in this text are the author(s)’, and may differ from the U4 partner agencies’ policies.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Photo


Photo:
Nana Kofi Acquah for IMWI
CC BY-NC-ND