Infrastructure Policy Reforms and Rural Poverty Reduction in Ghana: Perspectives from the Keta Sea Defence Project.

Abstract

Like many developing countries, Ghana’s most challenging issue of policy concern remains poverty reduction. Poverty in Ghana is largely a rural phenomenon. In recent years, scholars and development interests have espoused infrastructure development as crucial for rural poverty reduction. Although the government of Ghana has acknowledged the potential contribution of infrastructure development to poverty reduction, and continues to increase annual expenditure on infrastructure, government leaders are concerned about the failure of many infrastructure projects to reduce poverty. This paper argues that though infrastructure development has the potential to reduce rural poverty, poverty reduction should not only be about infrastructure development but also the policy and governance framework that guides its provision. This paper used the case of a large-scale infrastructure project in Ghana, the Keta Sea Defence Project, to illustrate this argument. It also explored the relationship between infrastructure development and rural poverty reduction, and the adequacy of Ghana’s infrastructure policy environment to make meaningful contributions to rural poverty reduction.

Keywords: Infrastructure, poverty reduction, rural communities, public policy, implementation, integrated development.