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A Critical Analysis of the Activities of the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA) to Promote Equity and Access in the Achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) for Education in Ghana: 2005-2010
By
Harriet Akanmori
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of a Master of Arts in Sociology in Education
Graduate Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto
© Copyright by Harriet Akanmori 2011
ii
A Critical Analysis of the Activities of the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA) to Promote Equity and Access in the Achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) for Education in Ghana: 2005-2010
Master of Arts, 2011
Harriet Akanmori
Graduate Department of Sociology and Equity Studies
University of Toronto
Abstract
Canada supports developmental efforts in Ghana through the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA). This dissertation investigates how Canada partners with
Ghana to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for education by 2015.
The study focuses on achieving equity and access to education in Ghana, and examines
how far Ghana‟s policy and Canada‟s aims and objectives (through CIDA) for adressing
these developmental issues converge or diverge.
The principal methodology for accomplishing this study includes literature review and a
content analysis of CIDA programmes and documents related to education in Ghana. The
study concludes that CIDA programmes and operations in education in Ghana have a
clear focus on issues relating to equity and access to education, and complement
governmental efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals for Education in
Ghana. The thesis ends with recommendation for further study on using spirituality and
indigenous knowledges to enhance and provide holistic education in Ghana.
iii
Acknowledgment
I wish to acknowledge the encouragement, advice and assistance of my fellow
Ghanaian students in OISE. You have been a tower of support during the very rushed
months of a one year M.A. programme. You mentored me and guided me, and it made
the journey less confusing. Thank you all.
Also, I wish to thank my husband for his support in sustaining me during this
time. It wouldn‟t have been possible to have peace of mind without you behind me.
Thank you.
And to my two children, David and Naomi – I dedicate this effort to you. You are
the joy of my life, and I hand down the mantle of excellence to both of you.
iv
Table of Content
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. ii
DEDICATION………………………………………………………………...........iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................ iv
TABLE OF CONTENT .............................................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................vi
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 A Background to Developmental Challenges Facing Africa and
Intervention of Development Assistance 1
1.2 History of Canadian – Ghanaian Relationship 6
1.3 Rationale for Study 10
1.4 Aims and Objectives of Study 11
1.5 Definition and Operationalization of Key Terms in the Study 13
1.6 Highlight of Thematic Areas: Socio-economic Marginalisation of Africa 14
1.7 Outline of Thesis 18
CHAPTER TWO
2.1 A Historical Overview of Education in Ghana 21
2.2 Colonial Systems and Structures 21
2.3 The Challenge of Post-Colonial Education in Ghana 25
2.4 Tracing the Milestones: The Birth of International Aid Effectiveness and
responsibility to Africa 27
2.5 International Strategies for Education for Development: Education for All
(EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals 32
2.6 Ghana‟s Response to International Initiatives for Education: The Growth
and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) 35
CHAPTER THREE
3.1 An Outline of and Justification for Theoretical Frameworks for the Study
of Ghana - CIDA Development Relations 43
3.2 An Anti-Colonial Framework 46
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CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 Research Design 50
4.2 Defining Document Analysis 51
4.3 Key Issues for Consideration in Document Analysis 52
4.4 Practical Procedure and Application for Conducting Content
Analysis of CIDA Documents 55
4.5 Coding for Document Analysis 57
4.6 Reliability and Validity of Data in Document Analysis Methodology 61
CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 The School Feeding Programme in Ghana 64
5.2 Strategic Initiatives for Achieving Gender Equality in Ghana 65
5.3 Promoting African Grassroots Economic Security through Education
and Skills (PAGES) 66
5.4 Ghana Programme Support Unit (PSU) - Bridging Phase 67
5.5 The Word on Development from Ghana 67
5.6 Canadian Organization for Development through Education
(CODE) - Programme 69
5.7 CIDA Institutional Support for UNESCO Institute for Statistics 69
5.8 Play to Learn Program 69
5.9 Canadian Teachers' Federation - Program 2005-2011 70
5.10 Poverty Reduction Strategy - Budget Support 70
5.11 Strategic Interventions for Gender Equality Project (SIGEP) and
the Alliance for African Women Initiative (AFAWI) 71
CHAPTER 6
6.1 A Data Analysis of Documentation Related To CIDA Operations
in Education In Ghana 75
6.2 Three Main Categories of Interest: Findings on CIDA Operations
in Education in Ghana 76
6.3 CIDA and Policies for Equity 77
6.4 CIDA and Programmes for Access in Education 78
vi
6.5 CIDA from an Anti- Colonial Perspective 78
CHAPTER 7
7.1 The Importance of This Study in the Literature 84
7.2 Why This Study Matters 86
7.3 Engaging with an Anti-Colonial Theoretical Framework 88
7.4 Directions for Future Study 91
7.5 In conclusion 93
References 94
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Statistical Report on International Assistance - Fiscal Year 2009-2010
Statistics Canada 7
1
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXTUALIZATION
1.1 A Background to Developmental Challenges Facing Africa and Intervention of
Development Assistance
In seeking to investigate CIDA‟s role in promoting equity and access to education
in Ghana, and CIDA‟s work in helping Ghana to move nearer to achieving the MDGs for
socio-economic development, it is important to put issues into perspective. Centering and
providing justification for interest in this study will pave a way for better understanding
of the theoretical and conceptual framework underpinning this study. As such, it is useful
to revisit the history that has brought most developing and African countries to the point
of needing and seeking the assistance of Western, Eurocentric countries, and the history
for the creation and adoption of the MDGs. This are dealt with in detail in Chapter Three,
the Literature Review.
During the Second World War, Western European countries, including Great
Britain, suffered many economic losses. The European countries came together with the
United States of America (USA) in July 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference to set up
a financial system to help overcome the challenges they were experiencing at the time.
Out of the agreements at this conference, the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund (IMF) were created to, among others, secure and provide capital for the rebuilding
of war torn Europe (Guitan, 1992). These two organizations are often referred to as the
Bretton Woods institutions, named after the New Hampshire town in the USA where the
conference was held, and the ensuing financial system is often referred to as the Bretton
Woods finance system. The purpose of the Fund and the Bank served the trading interests
2
of winners of the war, the Allied Forces. By this time, African countries remained
colonised and were therefore still part and parcel of the major countries and of large
empires of the Western world. Ghana was one such colony, without any socioeconomic
monetary system of her own. Ghana‟s economy was tied closely to Britain‟s, just as other
African countries were still part of the power structure of France etc. Third world
countries or developing countries, as they are now called, did not exist as independent
entities at this juncture.
After World War II, African, as well as other colonies, began the push for
independence, but for most, this came at a great cost. Some former colonies were forced
to take on the debts of their colonizers as one of the conditions of their independence and
recognition of their sovereignty, marking the beginnings of a legacy of spiralling debt. A
good example is Haiti, which, at the threat of war in 1825, was forced to compensate
France with a payment of the equivalent of $21billion today (De Cordoba, 2004).
Due to similar post-colonial arrangements, most African and former colonies had
major challenges developing and managing their economies successfully. To make matter
worse, the growing neo-colonial agendas of the former colonial Eurocentric masters
made it near impossible for these fledgling countries to meet the stringent demands
attached to offers for loans or economic aid. This sowed the seeds for and established a
vicious cycle of debt, as IMF and World Bank loans and assistance for developing
countries came with the obligation to adopt policies and programmes which seemed
carefully managed and designed to keep them bound to conditions whose negative effects
have had deep impacts on their economies (Kanbur, 2000). What is surprising is that
3
these are conditions which Western countries themselves do not follow (Bretton Woods
Institutes and Africa, 2009).
Most of Africa‟s debt problems can be traced to the conditionalities attached to the
importation of capital from Western countries channelled through the World Bank and
through the IMF. The conditionalities are defined as the commitments for adopting
specific economic and financial reforms made by governments of countries requesting
financial credit from the international financial institutions (Dominik Kopiński, 2006).
These institutions and their conditionalities play the role of preserving the interests of
rich Western developed countries in world monetary affairs.
Though much of the initial debts were the legacy of colonialism forcibly
transferred on developing countries at independence at very high interest rates by
colonizing countries, much more debt was acquired after independence. Such debts
resulted from factors such as massive loans paid out to corrupt dictators and neo-colonial
governments engaged in wasteful debt-based and financed civil wars. Nevertheless,
Western countries are partly responsible for the mismanagement and irresponsible
lending and expenditure during the oil crisis era of the 70s (Shah, 2007). Additionally, a
lot of aid was channeled into extensive infrastructure in pursuit of socio-economic
development of newly birthed countries in Africa. Instead of adopting and developing an
industrialized productive economy, most African countries fell into the trap of importing
from industrialized countries as a way of developing their economy. Needless to say, this
frenzied lending and borrowing resulted in major defaults, leading to a debt crisis in the
1980s. This led to the Bretton Woods lending institutions to devise Structural Adjustment
Programmes (SAPs) designed to streamline the economies of borrowing Third World
4
countries, as a means of protecting the investment of lender/donor countries. These
programmes required austerity measures to be reflected in sharp cuts in government
spending on social and public undertakings. The measures also emphasized direct export
of raw resources, and advocated the opening of stock markets to generate capital locally
instead of relying on foreign monetary inflows. Additionally, Third World governments
were encouraged to open up local markets to foreign investment, which also required
revising national laws of commerce in favour of multinational investors (Guitan, 1992).
Eventually, through this system, the economy became indirectly controlled by foreign
ownership through the debt mechanism. As Susan George (1990) states, “Debt is an
efficient tool. It ensures access to other peoples‟ raw materials and infrastructure on the
cheapest possible terms” (p. 143).
The SAPs economic plan formed the new precondition to further developmental
aid from Western developed nations to developing debt-burdened countries. Though the
terms of trade and investment outlined in these programmes were unfavorable to the
social fabric of these developing countries, their governments had no bargaining power
and were forced to pursue economic policies they knew would hurt their populations. The
conditionalities imposed on Third World governments have been blamed for the present
deep economic crises and for social deprivation of many African countries since the
1980‟s. The adverse effects of these SAPs are still visible on the African continent today,
especially as African governments were arm-twisted into cutting back essential services,
including subsidizing agriculture. This of course has resulted in spiraling and multiplying
widespread poverty, which has impacted progress in every facet of life, including the
5
ability of families, communities and governments to provide adequate education for the
youth (Helleiner, 2000; Kanbur, 2000) .
After continued declining economic trends in the 1980‟s, Ghana was one of the
African countries that adopted the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) and,
subsequently, the Structural Adjustment Programme I and II (SAP I and SAP II) in the
early 1990‟s, under the guidance of the IMF, and in the hope that these approaches would
bring in some social benefits for the Ghanaian population. The SAP programmes have
been heavily criticized for creating nothing but widespread poverty in developing
countries where they have been applied. At best, they have served to increase dependency
on the richer nations, contrary to IMF and World Bank claims that they would reduce
poverty (UNCTAD, 2002; Shah, 2010). These SAPs “tailored-facilities which also come
with strait-jacket conditions”were based on neo-liberalist policies that were designed to
ensure economic restructuring to promote debt repayment (Johnson and Wasty, 1993;
Kanbur, 2000). This was achieved by requiring the poor borrowing countries to reduce
spending on social programmes, such as health, education and development, and to
prioritize debt repayment and other economic policies that are unfavourable to the
general populace, for example requiring individuals to make a financial contribution
toward medication. In so doing, the standard of living of the people became considerably
lowered, resulting in further poverty and suffering, and in a breakdown in social services.
As such, debt has crippled the economies and socio-political growth of many developing
countries, especially in Africa (Khan and Sharma, 2001; Shah, 2007).
6
1.2 History of Canadian – Ghanaian Relationship
Canada is a multicultural society and this multiculturalism has resulted in the need
for equity in education documents and programmes to promote access to schooling at all
levels in Canada. The history of education is a central theme in Canada‟s social,
economic and political history. In the 17th century education was usually an informal
process in which skills and values were passed from one generation to the next by
parents, but four hundred years later, informal learning has developed into extensive
systems of formal schooling under the jurisdiction of provincial governments (The
Canadian Encyclopedia, 2010).
Canada‟s relationship with Ghana dates back to the early 20th century when, in
1906, missionaries from Quebec established a church in the northern part of Ghana. This
heralded the arrival of Canada into the country, and the beginning of a longstanding
collaboration between Ghana and Canada. The Canadian government has since
contributed to the socio-economic development of Ghana and bilateral ties between the
two countries have remained strong to date.
The table below is adapted from the CIDA website and provides some facts about
Ghana related to international development and compares them with similar facts about
Canada.
7
Table 1
Official name Republic of Ghana Canada
Capital Accra Ottawa
Area (thousands of km2) 238 9,985
Population (millions) 24.3 (2010) 33.9 (2010)
Population density (per km2) 100 (2009) 3 (2009)
Urban population (% en 2009) 51 81
Gross national income (GNI) (per capita)
US$670 (2008) US$41,730
(2008)
GNI purchasing power parity
(PPP) (per capita)
US$1,430 (2008) US$36,220
(2008)
Human development index (HDI) ranking
130 out of 169 countries
(2010)
8 (2010)
Gender inequality index (GII) ranking
114 out of 169 countries
(2010)
16 (2010)
Adult literacy rate (% en 2000-
2007)
Total
Men
Women
65
72
58
99
99
99
Source: Statistical Report on International Assistance - Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Statistics Canada
Canada has closely followed Ghana‟s socio-political progress with a keen interest,
and continues to support Ghana after more than fifty years of cooperation in diverse areas
such as regional peace keeping initiatives through funding of military training of the
Ghana Armed Forces, and supporting the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping
Training Center (KAIPTC) by the Canadian governmental agencies with millions of
8
dollars. In addition to this, Ghana receives much Canadian support in the international
arena such as the British Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations.
Apart from peace keeping and military support, Canada has been a valued partner
in terms of development assistance and cooperation. In 2006-2007 alone, Ghana received
around $71 million from Canada as contribution to demand-driven and budgetary support
for the economy. This was a significant boost to the Ghana government‟s efforts to deal
with debt and budgetary deficits, ultimately enabling the government to manage the
economy more effectively. Primarily channeled through Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA), Canada‟s main arm for executing developmental aid and
assistance, Canada has been actively involved in poverty reduction, economic and public
sector reform, gender equality and governance. These have remained the key areas of
Canada‟s engagement with socio-economic growth and progress in Ghana.
Canada has also benefitted from the relationship with Ghana. The 2009 CIDA
report on Canada/Ghana relations mentions that bilateral trade is robust, with Ghana
ranking as Canada‟s third largest market in sub-Saharan Africa for merchandise exports,
with $158 million in 2007 as against Canadian importation from Ghana of $22 million. It
is worthy of mention that, in addition to the existence of an over 70,000 strong Ghanaian
Diaspora in Canada, the number of Canadian volunteers working or studying in Ghana
has grown over the years, facilitating better intercultural cooperation between the two
countries.
As part of its Aid Effectiveness Agenda, the Canadian government announced in
2009 that it would focus 80 percent of its bilateral aid on 20 countries of focus which
were selected on the basis of real need, a capacity to make beneficial use of the aid
9
offered, and ability to align national policy with those of Canadian foreign policy
priorities. In this way, the Canadian government aimed to make Canada's international
assistance more focused, effective and accountable. CIDA‟s 2009 report on Ghana has
identified Ghana‟s main challenges in the face of the current global economic crisis as
follows:
Weak public sector institutions due to lack of adequate funding, resulting in poor
delivery of basic services in areas such as agriculture, health, and education.
Persistent food insecurity in the northern regions, resulting in deepening poverty
there.
Limited access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, especially in rural
areas.
Continuing inequality between women and men, and gender imbalance in
education and income.
In response to these challenges, in 2009, CIDA nominated Ghana as a country of
focus for Canadian aid effectiveness agenda, and CIDA has since supported the
objectives of the Ghanaian national budget and development framework technically and
financially to provide health and education services that benefit and significantly impact
the health and well-being of women, children, and youth. This was achieved by
designing, developing, and implementing programmes and policies in the areas of health
and sanitation, water resources, decentralization for efficient distribution and provision of
basic social and public services. CIDA (2009/2010) reports that it seeks to do this by
undertaking programs that are based upon and build upon projects and plans established
and undertaken by the Government of Ghana in the areas of public sector reform,
10
strengthening the parliament, and enhancing public participation in governmental
planning and policy making.
In CIDA‟s 2009/2010 country progress report on Ghana with regard to children and
youth, the report stated as part of its achievements that assistance to the national Youth
Employment Programme had enabled the provision of jobs to more than 110,700 young
people in 2009, and that assistance to the School Feeding Programme in 2009 had
resulted in approximately 1,700 schools and 657,000 children benefitting from the
programme, compared to 975 schools and 476,000 children in the previous year. In
addition to this, an increase in the enrolment rate at the primary school level to
88.5 percent had been achieved in 2009.
Additionally, according to the CIDA 2009 report, measuring factors for improved
delivery and monitoring of aid to achieve greater efficiency, strengthened partnerships,
and greater results, Ghana projected positive Aid Effectiveness ratings. This has resulted
in aid to Ghana being more untied, with more funds flowing through various
programmes. In fact, with determination to demonstrate leadership of development
cooperation, Ghana hosted the 2008, Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness,
having also taken strong ownership of the national development agenda.
1.3 Rationale for Study
As an educationist and international school teacher for over two decades, I have
been particularly interested in issues of equity and access in education for all students, no
matter their economic status or socio-cultural background, and more especially in the
11
growing disparity in educational opportunities and outcomes between privileged kids
from the higher social class, and those from “the other side of town”.
As a Ghanaian, I engaged in this discourse for two main reasons; first, as an
opportunity for deeper reflection on the subject of how equity and access in education can
be made a growing reality for twenty-first century children living in developing nations
in general, and in Ghana in particular. Secondly, it was important to investigate how far
programmes introduced in developing African countries by donor countries such as
Canada take into consideration and meet the needs of the receiving country as articulated
by the country‟s governmental agenda for education. In this context, the investigation
focused on the extent to which programmes such as those of the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) have been effective in helping African countries such as
Ghana make the needed and targeted progress, as mapped out in their Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) for Education.
As a social scientist, my interest lay in how CIDA‟s aims and objectives relating
to educational programmes differ or converge with Ghana‟s aims and objectives, and in
knowing whether there exists any traces of neo-colonialism in CIDA education-related
assistance programmes designated for Ghana.
1.4 Aims and Objectives of Study
The main objectives of this study were, using CIDA documents on Ghana between
the years 2005 and 2010 to:
12
1. Identify the policy goals and the programmes CIDA has outlined for assisting
Ghana to achieve the MDGs for Education, and how these diverge or converge
with the Ghana Government‟s stated efforts for doing the same.
2. Identify the focus for achieving equity and access in education within CIDA‟s
policy to assist Ghana to achieve the MDGs for Education, and how this
complements or hinders the Government of Ghana‟s stated focus for doing the
same.
3. Evaluate the extent to which CIDA‟s programmes have met their goals with
regard to meeting the MDGs for Education in Ghana, and compare CIDA‟s
stipulated successes and limitations with the successes and limitations outlined in
Ghana‟s Country Reports for meeting the MDGs for Education.
The following research questions were used to address the objectives of the study:
1. How far does CIDA collaborate with the Government of Ghana to achieve the
MDGs for Education? Is there a neo-colonialistic approach to the work of CIDA
in Ghana?
2. To what extent do CIDA policies and programmes articulate and work to achieve
equity and access in education in Ghana?
3. What is the rate of success of CIDA‟s policies and programmes, and how is this
measured by both CIDA and the Government of Ghana?
13
1.5 Definition and Operationalization of Key Terms in the Study
1.5.1 Equity
In this study, Equity in education referred to the question of justness, fairness,
impartiality and even- handedness in every aspect of selection for educational
opportunities, and in whatever relates to the practice of teaching and learning. Equity is
simply equal quality of treatment and opportunity, and equality of access. It also,
involves, potentially, equal outcomes from teaching and learning, regardless of a
student's circumstance, background and identity (David, 2008). Equity in education has
the potential to be impacted by one‟s social class and status, race and ethnicity, gender,
physical or learning disability and, in the case of contemporary global migration trends,
even immigration status. In this study, equity applied to theories when it was applied to
individuals.
1.5.2 Access
In the study, Access in education referred to the availability of, and ability to enter
into formal schooling. Access includes the notion of physical access to an educational
venue. More than that, access refers to a selection process and selection criteria which, at
best, make it possible for everyone to have equal chance. Often times, however,
particular categories of students or children are discriminated against and disadvantaged,
due to deficiencies in the system or in the processes and selection criteria. Within a
multicultural and a multilevel learning environment, access can mean adapting teaching
and learning activities to include all levels and kinds of students. Access or the lack of it,
can be influenced by factors such as geographical location and schooling facilities, the
14
unequal distribution of resources or lack of infrastructure, physical and learning
disabilities and corresponding lack of support structures to deal with such, as well as
cultural and religious limitations and practices (Akyeampong et al, 2007). Also, most
notably, socio-economic status and class, and race and ethnicity are closely related to the
concept of equity.
1.6 Highlight of Thematic Areas: Socio-economic Marginalisation of Africa
One can argue that post-colonial Africa is “disabled”, to depict the state of the
continent‟s disarray and lack of preparedness as the rest of the world strides towards
prosperity and economic emancipation in the developed West. The 1989 edition of the
Oxford English Dictionary defines “disability” as “want of ability ... inability, incapacity,
impotence” and “disable” as, among other things, “to pronounce incapable; hence to
disparage, depreciate, detract from, belittle.”
It is posited in this study that this is a very good description of post-colonial
Africa in terms of the socio-economic world order, and the global, new world order of the
post-modern times. Africa has become “disabled, wanting of ability, incapable, and
impotent” in the face of the onslaught of globalization, neo-colonization, neo liberalist
market oriented Western policies that seem poised to include Africa only as far as the
West can continue to extract natural resources and benefit from the poverty and
helplessness of the African populace and governments (Bourdieu, 1998). Africa does not
count when the profits of Western industrial exploits are being shared, despite being the
source of substantial raw materials. Nor do African concerns make any lasting
impressions in Western summits and grand meetings to press for social, economic and
15
political progress. Indeed, the African continent is “not only… ineligible to play the
game, they don‟t even count among the allowable number of players…” on the world
scene.
Ghai (2002) identifies a link between disability, race, and colonial theories in the
discourse of oppression, marginalization and exclusion, providing valuable space for
critical reflection and provocative discussion in the pursuit of the socioeconomic
empowerment of Africa. In order to provide a better future and open doors to
opportunities for Ghanaian children, it is necessary to expose social oppression, to
recognize multiple political, social, economic and cultural realities, and to facilitate
political action that will challenge Western discourses and systems structured to continue
hegemony and continued marginalization of Africa in the global economy today.
Pothier and Devlin (2006) state that “persons are manufactured as disabled” (p.5),
due to “the performance benchmarks we utilize to assess people”. Indeed, after decades
of a slave trade that decimated the human resource of the African continent, leaving the
young, the old and the feeble defenseless, and facilitating the carving of Africa into
artificial borders by European colonizers eager for profit and in a race for raw materials
to fuel their industries, it is no wonder that the result has been an Africa plagued with
political and civil upheavals, lack of leadership, progress, and characterized by economic
stagnation. It is a continent “manufactured as disabled”, with the Eurocentric former
colonial masters who have developed their economies at Africa‟s expense utilizing their
socio-economic and political performance benchmarks to assess Africa and finding her
wanting. The point here is that there is a historical context to the fact that Africa today
falls behind in development socially, politically, and economically. Memmi (1957, 69)
16
gives clear evidence that there has been an institutionalized process to marginalize Africa
on the world scene, in order to give Eurocentric forces a strong hegemonic grip on the
distribution and access to global wealth and its production.
As such, the West must come to terms with the fact that Africa‟s disability in
terms of socio-economic advancement and political emancipation are differences that
cannot be ignored, and that Anglo-European societies have created this “difference”. This
is a historically created phenomenon, and the Western world is deeply implicated in this
history of confusion, impoverishment and disempowerment (Foster, 1996; AFRODAD,
2002).
To achieve some appreciable measure of equity in the new world order and to
address the magnitude of the existing economic, social and industrial imbalance between
Africa and her former Anglo-European colonial masters, it is important to address the
gaping differences in order to realistically embark on an honest and purposeful effort to
dismantle the institutional and systemic barriers that have resulted in such inequalities.
The injustices and inequities experienced by people of African descent are well
documented historical facts and need no narrative in this thesis. The significance of
identifying the acts of violence that have been perpetuated against the African continent
historically and contemporaneously, and which have contributed to the present state of
impoverishment, stagnancy, and malfunction of social institutions across African
countries cannot be underestimated (AFRODAD, 2002). This will enable effective
collaboration and negotiation between African countries and Western donor countries as
they navigate novel approaches for mutual benefit. According to Devlin and Pothier
(2006) to ignore difference is to engender exclusion. It is therefore important to identify
17
and carry out effective counter measures to ensure Africa‟s full inclusion and
participation in the world economy and generation of wealth and prosperity.
In response to sensationalist images of war, disease and disaster from Africa, the
tendency of Anglo-Eurocentric society is to doubt that, apart from providing
industrialized developed countries with raw material, Africa has no other positive role or
capacity for productivity. Thus, Africa has been discounted from being seen as worthy of
membership into the commonwealth and citizenship of productive, developed and
wealthy nations of the world. In light of positive reviews of the emerging developed
economies of Asia, things look even bleaker for Africa, which seems almost incapable of
rising out of economic debt and social disarray (Shah, 2010). Productivity, a term usually
common to economic activity, implies a consideration for cost-benefit analysis. The
economic policies of neo-liberalism that governs Western societies define who can and
cannot be considered productive, and the impact of such classifications has far reaching
implications on international discourse on Africa (Bourdieu, 1998).
The bottom line for the inability of Africa to rise out of the cycle of debt and lack
of economic growth is the economic policies and the philosophy of neo-liberalism,
capitalism and market oriented politics that have become the guiding principles for
human society and hierarchy. This is more so, given the massive exploitation the
continent of Africa has been subjected to in terms of both material and human capital.
Clearly, the time has come to challenge the basic assumptions and presumptions that
contemporary Western society holds in their conception of and relationship with Africa,
in order to effect a transformation of the socio-political dominance and economic
hegemony that characterizes this relationship.
18
1.7 Outline of Thesis
Chapter One outlines the introduction to the study, giving a historical background
to the issue of development and the challenges Africa has faced over the decades. It also
includes a statement of the aims and objectives of the study and research questions to
address these objectives. The chapter ends with an outline of the main focus of the thesis.
Chapter Two presents a review of the literature. This encompasses
A brief historical overview of the development of Ghana‟s education system
under British colonial rule
An overview of post-colonial development to the present time, describing the
current state of public schooling in Ghana
A review of globalization and education in Ghana, focusing on the role of
globalization, neo-liberalistic market oriented policies, and the effects of
conditions demanded by the Bretton Woods developmental agencies, such as the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and by other
development partners in the area of education in Ghana
Realities relating to the birth of international aid effectiveness and responsibility
to developing countries and to Africa, which includes:
- Tracing the Milestones in Aid Effectiveness
Issues from the 2008 Forum: Progress on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra
Agenda for Action
Motivations for Ghana‟s adoption of the Education For All (EFA) initiative and,
subsequently, the MDGs for Education of the United Nations Charter
19
The Millennium Development Goals for Education,
- MDG 2 consisting of Achievement of Universal Primary Education, and
- MDG 3 that focuses on Promotion of Gender Equality and Empowerment
of Women
The Ghana government Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and
Educational Programme
History of Canadian – Ghanaian relationship
Ghana‟s Progress on Aid Effectiveness
Chapter Three exposes the theoretical framework of the study, which encompasses
ideas underpinning the conceptual frame work for this study, and which guides the
researcher‟s interest in investigating Canada‟s developmental work in Ghana. It includes:
A historic background study of Ghana and the need for intervention of
Development Assistance, with close attention to the role and work of CIDA in
Ghana with respect to the promotion of equity and access to education, and with
regard to moving Ghana nearer to achieving the MDGs for socio-economic
development
An outline of and justification for an anti-colonial theoretical framework for the
study of Ghana and CIDA Development Assistance intervention in education
Chapter Four discusses the methodology adopted for collecting data on CIDA‟s
education-related developmental work in Ghana. The chapter provides justification for
choice of method and the process employed in the assessment and determination of the
extent to which CIDA‟s education-related work in Ghana promotes equity and access to
20
education, and the level to which CIDA‟s work enables Ghana to achieve the MDGs for
Education.
Chapter Five analyzes the content of the collected data for evidence that, in doing
developmental work in Ghana, CIDA is conscious and mindful of the need to promote
equity and access in order to achieve the MDGs for Education. This chapter also
identifies concerns relating to collaboration with Ghana on the country‟s developmental
needs and objectives.
Chapter Six discusses findings from the point of view of the extent to which the data
analysis provides information on and evidence of CIDA‟s successful work in assisting
Ghana to attain equity and access in education and therefore in helping to achieve
Ghana‟s MDGs for Education, as well as CIDA‟s sensitivity to Ghana‟s stated
developmental goals in their operations.
Chapter Seven presents conclusions from the study and recommendations for
improvement. The chapter also provides suggestions of potential further extension of the
study.
21
Chapter 2:
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 A Historical Overview of Education in Ghana
A historical review of education in Ghana begins with a historical review of the
role of colonialism in Ghana. While other Western societies were developing their
economies through the industrial labour-intensive 17th
-18th
centuries, Africa, Ghana
included, was being ravaged by the slave trade, and was being divided into colonies of
conquest under European countries, in their quest for land, raw materials and cheap
labour to feed the industrial revolution that had swept across Great Britain, Europe and
America.
The struggle for the emancipation and independence from Britain and from other
colonial powers left post-colonial African countries in a state of jubilation, but also in a
state of socio-political unpreparedness. In Ghana, the situation was characterized by
socio-political instability and subsequent economic decline, which have had far reaching
implications for the development of Ghanaian society and institutions, education and
educational reforms inclusive (Dei, 2004; 2006).
2.2 Colonial Systems and Structures
Albert Memmi (1957,1969) characterized colonization as an aggressive ideology. The
relevance of Memmi‟s work to this study is that it explores the subject location of the
colonizer and colonized within the context of education, and examines in particular the
social and the psychological consequences of colonization. In order to establish
recognition by western Eurocentric societies (which Memmi observed was wielded as a
22
tool for colonialism) and legitimacy of the need for a more equitable world socio-
economic order, Memmi invites dialogue on the renegotiation and redefinition of the
historical roles, relationships and socio-economic effects created by colonization. To this
day, colonization, or neo-colonization continues to be rooted in economic gain. Indeed
Ayi Kwei Armah (2006) describes it simply …. “..all Africa at the time was divided into
colonies, territories ruled by European states, and from which European corporations
took out whatever resources they wanted, for their own prosperity, leaving practically all
Africans in the deliberate poverty and neglect now euphemistically called
„underdevelopment‟ ” (pg. 39). No wonder Patrice Lumumba of Congo described the
colonialist system as draining off enormous riches yet bringing no creative changes.
Historically, formal education in Ghana as a British colony was started by
missionary effort. Ghanaian education has been based on the British educational system,
and on the British National Curriculum (Dei, 2004).
According to Scott and Gough (2003) “education during the colonial period
across the British Empire and other colonial powers was motivated by a desire to
inculcate the values of the colonial society and to maintain the status quo in the process
that Peter McLaren refers to as “hegemony”. In this way, even though Ghana gained
independence from Britain in March 1957, Britain continued to maintain domination over
Ghana, not by exercising force, but through the social practices that Scott and Gough
(2003) describe as “consensual”. In effect, social forms, structures and practices that had
been established by the colonial masters in institutions such as the church, state and
government, school, political systems and the mass media, continued to reflect and to
23
reproduce British dominance. Indeed, this even translated into family and cultural
systems as well (McLaren, 1989, p. 173, cited in Scott and Gough, 2003).
Clearly, for the British, education remained a contested site for continued
hegemony over the former colony to present day, evidenced by the regular educational
tours of British colleges and universities to Ghana through the British council to attract
young Ghanaian students into British educational system where, needless to say, they pay
huge and exorbitant fees for British education. Indeed, in Ghana, despite the 20 year era
of Chairman Rawlings and his team‟s efforts to localize education to the Ghanaian
context, education in Ghana continues to value British education, and western education
and knowledge systems as more superior to local knowledge systems and productions.
The net result of this system of education is that it has produced an elitist form of
education in which those within the elite group espouse Western values at the expense of
developing and validating Ghanaian values and educational resources. In this way, the
elite become the means by which British hegemony is reproduced, at the expense of the
general masses of the Ghanaian population, which is subjected to an educational system
that does not meet their needs, an education that is irrelevant to their social reality, one
which ultimately is outside the margins of access to quality education and meaningful
participation in the global economy. In actual fact, what has ensued is that the elite have
become allies of the former colonial masters in supporting the breakdown of the local
systems in favour of the pursuit of what is British or Western.
Thus, the state of education of post-colonial Ghana to date is characterized, and
continues to be, by a loss of indigeneity and indigenous cultural knowledges, reflected in
24
the pedagogy, educational philosophy and, even more importantly, the curriculum
material (Dei, 2006; 2010; 2011).
2.3 The Challenge of Post-Colonial Education in Ghana
Karl Heinrich Marx viewed colonialism as a form of capitalism which enforced
exploitation and social change. Within the global capitalist system, colonialism has
resulted in a legacy of uneven development, and has been an “instrument of wholesale
destruction, dependency and systematic exploitation producing distorted economies,
socio-psychological disorientation, massive poverty and neo-colonial dependency”
(Dictionary of Human Geography). Thus, colonies such as found on the African continent
and in the Diaspora were constructed into production sites and search grounds for raw
materials. In post-colonial era and contemporaneously, Africa is still on the Western
agenda in the neo-colonialist search for new investment opportunities resulting from the
same underlying inter-capitalist rivalry for capital accumulation that existed when the
African continent was carved up between competing Anglo-European colonial powers. In
addition to the negative effects of colonialism and post-colonial instability, with Africa
trying to grapple with the legacy of colonial rule, the continent of Africa has had to
contend with neo-colonialism and neo-liberalist market-oriented policies, which, through
the era and vehicle of globalization, have further served to strip the former colonies of
much needed wealth and resources, and create an unbalanced power relations between
Africa and Western developed countries (AFRODAD, 2002).
The impoverishment of Africa followed the failure of African leaders to maintain
economic growth and to successfully develop their subsistent agrarian economies for
25
their own industrial gain. This caused many African countries to turn to former colonial
masters, turned “development partners”. These “development partners”, perceived by
some as “wolves in sheepskin”, have offered aid with stringent conditions attached,
typically demanding the budgetary cut backs of government spending on social services
such as health, education and even agriculture. The continued imposition of harsh rigid
conditions on developing countries in return for aid has resulted in widespread poverty.
Additionally, they are sometimes aimed at taking as much natural resources as they can,
and giving back as little as possible in return. African countries have become socio-
economically disabled and subject to the politics of marginalisation by richer, developed
Western countries. These socio-economic and socio-political developments have had
devastating and debilitating effects on the daily life of people in developing countries,
particularly in the area of health, employment and education (Shah, 2010).
With respect to globalization and education in sub-Saharan Africa, Scott and
Gough (2003) supported by Hickling-Hudson et al. (2004) state that it “is a system still
geared to producing an elite that is supportive of globalization, while the education
provided to the rest of the masses remains largely irrelevant. Post-colonial education
continues to sustain the oppressor and oppressed dichotomy that post-colonial theorists
purport to challenge.” In this paradigm, little effort is made to localize knowledge
systems but, instead, a Eurocentric curriculum is adopted with little regard to the need to
consider cultural or local knowledge systems or resources. The main concern and
preoccupation of African governments seems to be the issue of making education,
whatever that might be, accessible to the masses (Dei, 2004; 2010).
26
This uncritical adaptation and wholesale use of teaching materials inherited from
the colonial education system tends to have an adverse effect on African children in that
the extensive use of Eurocentric curriculum materials either perpetuates the superiority of
the English language and culture or it marginalizes many children in rural and non-urban
communities who are unfamiliar with Eurocentric or Western culture and its influence,
compared to their city-dwelling counterparts.
Tiffin and Koh (cited in Scott and Gough, 2003) discuss how former British
colonies attempt to “Africanize” or localize “the remnants of images of colonialism”,
thus attempting to give them an African identity. They also question “the postcolonial
discourse that continues to accept the English language as the medium of literacy”. In
their opinion, echoed by sections of Linguistics Professors at the University of Ghana,
“the legacy of colonial education continues to do violence to local cultures and to devalue
local education; it represses histories of slavery, and inculcates racist stereotypes and
empire loyalty”.
They argue that the continued use of the same language of former colonial
masters as a means of communication ensures continuity of the colonial legacy. In
Ghana, the Rawlings 20-year administration sought to rectify this, recognizing that the
British colonial legacy was too entrenched into the Ghanaian educational system,
experience and outcomes. In a move from political rhetoric to concrete action, there was
a drastic attempt to reform the educational system, the curriculum materials and content,
and even the structure of subjects studied from primary and secondary education. The
British based Ordinary Level (O‟Level) and Advanced Level (A‟Level) examination
27
system was abolished and replaced by a locally constructed education system in structure
and form that moved away from the British system. The only problem was that these
drastic reforms were not accompanied with careful evaluation of human and economic
resources that would be needed, and the short and long term strategic planning that would
be required to enable and sustain implementation.
In response to these lapses, the Ghanaian elite, politicians of the day included,
having been nurtured and fed on British education, continued to fetish it. This fueled the
proliferation of private international schools which uphold “the superiority of Western
education…, particularly exemplified by a system that continues to assess the students
with instruments developed in the West. In addition, education in the postcolonial sites
has changed little in form and structure” (Scott and Gough, 2003). Thus, clearly, the
challenge to the notion of the superiority of Western education in Ghana was not quite
successful. This has resulted in a wide gap between a largely underfunded and poorly
resourced public schooling system, shunned by as many as can afford it, in favor of
private better resourced and better managed schools. These private schools continue to
breed Ghanaian citizens who are more and more Westernized and elitist, and who
become the products of a system that “causes daily assault and violence to the local
cultures”. Most of the children who graduate from these private schools, of course, end
up in Western tertiary institutions such as American, British and Canadian universities.
Ultimately, this has affected access to quality education and equity in educational
opportunities and outcomes in Ghana.
2.4 Tracing the Milestones: The Birth of International Aid Effectiveness and
Responsibility to Africa
28
In the 1990s, as it became clear that structural adjustment programmes were
taking a disastrous toll on human life in developing countries, particularly in Africa, the
international community began to pay attention to the poor state of economic growth in
Africa and its crippling effect on poverty levels (Shah, 2010). As a result of this
awareness, the international aid effectiveness movement began taking shape in the late
1990s, by which time donor countries and multilateral aid agencies in particular had
begun realizing the heavy costs and socio-economic burdens they had imposed on aid
recipients by their many different approaches and requirements. To mitigate the harmful
effects of their failed strategies, the donor countries came together in cooperation with
each other, as well with the recipient countries to harmonize and coordinate the different
approaches and requirements into a more streamlined and effective structure aimed at
better serving the needs of developing societies.
This led to the first Human Development Report, which “was first launched in
1990 with the single goal of putting people back at the center of the development process
in terms of economic debate, policy and advocacy” (UNDP 1990). The 1990 Human
Development Report declared in its opening statement that “People are the real wealth of
a nation”. This report contained a wealth of empirical data, and proposed innovative
approaches to measuring development. Subsequently, the report had a wide impact on
how countries, agencies and international organizations thought about development
worldwide. From a “Human Development Index” perspective, Human Development
Reports present “agenda-setting data and analysis” which focus international attention on
29
pertinent people-centred issues and policy options and strategies to realistically and
adequately meet the challenges of development (UNDP Human Report, 1990).
By 2002, at the International Conference on Financing for Development in
Monterrey, Mexico, it had become clear that, even though providing more financing for
development was important, providing money by itself was not going to be enough to
overcome barriers to development. Effective use of that money was the main key to
development. In 2003, various donor and recipient partner countries, as well as the major
multilateral development banks and international and bilateral organizations met again in
Rome for a High-Level Forum on Harmonization to take stock of progress that had been
made since 1999, and to improve upon the management and effectiveness of aid delivery
for development.
They resolved that, before meeting again in 2005 donor countries, multilateral
development institutions, and international organizations would work to ensure the
harmonization and streamlining of donor policies, procedures and practices, ultimately
with the aim of adapting and aligning donor assistance to recipient countries‟ context and
development priorities. The United Nations, the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund, with the World Trade Organization were tasked with overseeing
coordination and cooperation and the promotion of effective use of aid funding (UN
Archives, March, 2002).
The 2005 Human Development Report revealed that international cooperation
was at a crossroads. Foreign aid and trade, as well as the global security situation had
created an unequal world. The 2005 Human Development Report took stock of human
30
development in general, including progress towards the MDGs. Beyond presenting just
statistics, this report highlighted the human costs due to missed targets by developing
countries which, to a large extent, had been a consequence of broken promises and
commitments made by donor countries in 2000, when the MDGs were established.
Ultimately, the extreme inequality that exists between developed and under developed
countries is clearly one of the “main barriers to human development…and…a powerful
brake on accelerated progress towards the MDGs” (UNDP Human Development Report,
2005).
The 2005 Human Development Report presented a comprehensive overview of
the quality and quantity of international development assistance. It critically reviewed
trade negotiations, and assessed how unfair trade rules reinforced inequality between the
rich and poor countries of the world. The report also outlined the cost of human conflict
on development and strategies for conflict prevention. This report left the world‟s richest
governments with a choice to make: either they jumpstart the process towards
development of Third World countries and commit to providing the financial resources,
technology and capacity to end poverty, or they pursue a policy of “business as usual”
and live with the cost of human development failure. This, the report stated, would be
evidenced by loss of human lives, increased inequalities, violations of human rights and
threats to local, regional and global peace.
Thus, clearly, international aid remains one of the most effective weapons in the
war against poverty, and needs to be revamped, reshaped and sustained. The richer
developed countries should think of it as an investment as well as a moral imperative. To
31
this end, the 2005 Human Development Report proposed three conditions for effective
aid. The three comprise the need to provide sufficient quantity of aid; better quality,
reflecting value for money, in terms of having a predictable and low transaction cost; and,
significantly, aid which allows the receiving country to have ownership of its
implementation and application. All these considerations were crucial for immediate
success of the aid programme as well as its future progress.
Eventually, in 2005, when the international community came together again in
Paris, over 100 signatories from partner governments, bilateral and multilateral donor
agencies, regional development banks, and international agencies endorsed the Paris
Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The sole agenda was to review and reaffirm
commitment for the aid effectiveness agenda and targets set for achievement by
2011. The Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) expressed the international community‟s
commitment to and support for reforms to ensure effective use of development assistance
for the achievement of the MDGs by 2015.
To this end, it was agreed that communication between developing countries and
donor partner countries would be strengthened to enable predictability in planning,
expenditure and results. Also, the question of ownership played a key role in discussions,
as the need for developing country governments to involve their parliaments and civil
society organizations has become more pronounced. With regard to the issue of
ownership, it was decided also that recipient country systems, and not donor country
systems, would be used to channel aid. This would, in turn, facilitate the switch from
applying prescriptive conditions to giving aid to focusing on the developing country‟s
32
self-identified development objectives. This new approach further required each donor
country to further untie their aid to developing countries. Working in collaboration, donor
countries agreed on the need to streamline aid channels through a new country-led
division of labour to avoid aid fragmentation. In this new spirit of cooperation,
partnerships are encouraged, not only on a North South basis, but also an engagement of
south-south relations. These new measures to ensure the success and efficacy of
development assistance for the achievement of the MDGs by 2015 called for both donor
and recipient countries to be committed to transparency and accountability through
assessment reviews of progress documenting stronger parliamentary and citizen
engagement, and the provision of credible independent evidence.
The Education for All initiative (1990), and the Millennium Development Goals
Policy (2000) were adopted as focus for commitment for all UN member states to ensure
socio-economic development by 2015 for all countries. Two of these MDGs address
Education specifically, and will be the focus of my discussion on Canada‟s development
work in Ghana.
2.5 International Strategies for Education for Development: Education for All (EFA)
and the Millennium Development Goals
Education for All
In the last two centuries, education has become internationally recognized as a basic
human right. To acknowledge this, in 1990, the Education for All (EFA) initiative was
launched to ensure that, by 2015, all members of the international community would
commit themselves to collectively and individually ensuring that all children, particularly
33
girls, children living in poor economic conditions of the developing world, and those
belonging to ethnic minorities, would have access to free and compulsory primary
education. The concern was children receiving not only basic education, but also good
quality education. This was further reaffirmed in the formulation of the MDGs in which,
out of eight goals, three focused on access to and equity in education. Thus, clearly, the
issue of access to education has become a very important consideration universally. A
2007 UNESCO and UNICEF report evaluating the EFA initiative at that point
highlighted three main interrelated rights upon which the initiative stands-
The right of access to education
Education must be available for, accessible to and inclusive of all children.
The right to quality education
Education needs to be child-centered and relevant, and needs to embrace a
broad curriculum, and be appropriately resourced and monitored.
The right to respect within the learning environment
Education must be provided in a way that is consistent with human rights, equal
respect for culture, religion and language, and must be free from all forms of
violence.
(2007 UNESCO and UNICEF: Evaluating the EFA Initiative)
The Millennium Development Goals for Education (Goals 2 and 3)
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
34
Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to
complete a full course of primary schooling. It is hoped that this will be achieved by
targeting:
2.1 Net enrolment ratio in primary education
2.2 Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary
2.3 Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, women and men
The current situation can be summarized as follows:
Much more needs to be done to achieve universal education by 2015, even though
many developing countries are making much effort.
In Sub-Saharan Africa the vast majority of children are still out of school.
Inequality continues to be a major challenge to progress towards universal
education.
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005,
and in all levels of education no later than 2015. This targets an increase in:
3.1 Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
3.2 Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
3.3 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
The current report stands as follows:
For girls in some regions, education remains elusive.
Poverty is a major barrier to education, especially among older girls.
35
In almost every developing region, men outnumber women in paid employment.
Women are largely relegated to more vulnerable forms of employment.
Women are over-represented in informal employment, with its lack of benefits
and security. Top-level jobs still go to men - to an overwhelming degree.
Women are slowly rising to political power, but mainly when boosted by quotas
and other special measures.
(UNESCO, 2009 Report)
2.6 Ghana’s Response to International Initiatives for Education: The Growth
and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS)
Towards the end of 2005, the National Development Planning Commission of
Ghana released the country‟s Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) for
execution for 2006-2009. Within this Strategy was articulated an educational programme
which focused on improving access to basic education for all school-going aged children
as a means to achieving poverty reduction. To this end, school attendance for all children
from 4 to 15 years (i.e.11 years) became obligatory. This comprised two years of Pre-
school or Kindergarten, six years of primary school, and three years of Junior High
School.
Provision was made for the improvement of infrastructure and the physical
environment of schools, to ensure quality standards in teaching and learning, particularly
in the areas of basic numeracy and literacy. Thus, within the four year period under
target, the Ghana Government built nearly 4,000 units of new Primary and Junior High
School blocks, and rehabilitated thousands of older existing school blocks. To provide
36
better quality of training for teachers, the Ministry of education was mandated to oversee
the transformation of teacher training colleges into diploma-awarding institutions, and the
training of thousands of untrained teacher assistants who were filling the gaps through
technology aided distance-learning programmes (GPRS II Document, 2009).
This according to the 2009 national report on education has resulted in the raising
of education standards and attainment of children in Ghana. Specifically, it resulted in the
much needed improvements in standards of teacher training and education, and in the
restructuring of curricula at all levels of basic education. Ultimately, the programme aims
at bringing the educational standards in Ghana at par with international basic education
standards. The provision of universal basic education has been recognized internationally
as a child‟s human right and these efforts have been aimed at attaining the aims and
objectives of the Education for All initiative as well as the Millennium Development
Goals for Education. Also, the Ghana Government recognizes that, in contemporary
times, the education quality of a nation‟s work force is the most crucial factor in the
attainment of economic success. Thus, investing in and nurturing a workforce equipped
with more than the basic levels of educational attainment as defined in the MDG goals
has been the driving force behind government efforts to improve education in Ghana
from the basic to beyond. This is especially so in order to support an economy through
which Ghana can achieve rapid progress in the income status of its citizens.
Formal basic education is considered the major building block for developing
human resources for the country‟s accelerated growth. To address gaps in this sector,
policy issues on poor school enrolment, persistent geographical and gender disparities in
37
access to education, poor or unequal quality of education, including inadequate technical,
vocational and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and training,
have to be vigorously pursued. Building on the benefits of early childhood education to
the basic level, one long-neglected area that the Government particularly focused on was
the area of technical and vocational training and a structured system of apprenticeship for
the youth after completing basic education. This was to ensure that the entire Ghanaian
workforce would reap the benefits of a modern high-productivity technology age. In his
State-of-the-Nation address to Parliament in January 2005, then President J.A. Kuffour
placed as top priority in the nation‟s development agenda “the development of Ghana‟s
human resources” and the promotion of science and technology as critical ingredients for
successful growth into the 21st century world economy. This push to project Ghana into
the technology age is, no doubt, an expensive endeavour which demands the assistance of
development partners like CIDA to support the government‟s new educational
programme.
Key to the achievement of the GPRS was prioritization of education policy
interventions that identified accelerated growth and sustainability with regard to
increasing access to education and training at all levels, and bridging gender gaps in all
geographical districts. Improving the quality of teaching and learning, and increasing
efficiency in delivery of educational services were also identified as areas for concern.
Overall, promoting science and technology education at all levels, with particular
attention to increased participation of girls in these areas, was a focal point for action.
38
Policy related to training, skills and entrepreneurial development for sustained
employment after education was guided by the following priorities:
Training in these areas was to be provided in a gender-responsive and equitable
manner.
Development of these skills and apprenticeships were to provide labour required
by industry in Ghana.
These priorities and strategies had to be formalized and institutionalized through
the promotion and adoption of the National Youth Policy and the enactment of the
Disability Bill.
In order to develop the human resource base of the country through education, under
the GPRS, medium-term measures included improving access to education, reducing
gender disparities in education and improving skills through training. To this end,
enrolment rates have increased countrywide in primary, Junior Secondary and in post-
Junior Secondary educational institutions. This was significantly evidenced in the Gender
Parity Index (GPI) at the national level. Enrolment rates in deprived districts and in the
three northern regions also showed impressive figures, reportedly above the national
growth rate. This has, obviously, been reflected in the rapid expansion of facilities at both
Upper secondary and tertiary institutions.
One of the tasks of the GPRS was overseeing the Education Reform Policy. This
policy sought to address the weaknesses of the existing educational system in order to
make it more responsive to current challenges, specifically, the development and delivery
of education, access to higher education opportunities, ICT and distance learning,
39
professional development of teaching staff, and the management and financing of
education.
Essentially, these reforms were carried out by restructuring the existing Basic
Education System to provide universal compulsory basic education comprising 2 years of
Kindergarten, 6 years of Primary, 3 years of Junior High and then 4 years of Senior High
school. More emphasis was placed on technical, agricultural and vocational education as
credible alternatives for the majority of youth who could not pursue more academic
educational programmes. Community-based apprenticeships and skills training were
formalized to offer opportunities for those who dropped out of school for any reason to
acquire some marketable skills, and institutions that provided education for children with
special needs saw improvements. Additionally, equitable distribution of well-resourced
secondary schools to absorb the majority of students who completed the compulsory
basic education programme was prioritized. To complement all these efforts targeting
students, resources were also devoted to improving teacher education, and development
at all levels of education.
The new Educational Sector Reform Programme, introduced in 2004, aimed at
addressing all these issues, particularly at the basic and secondary school levels. The
strategy was based on the following five main areas:
1. Increasing access to education and training
At the basic level, expanding pre-school access in all basic schools; rehabilitation of
existing and development of new basic school infrastructure, particularly in most
deprived districts; removing barriers to primary school admissions and retention by
40
providing free education for children of poor families, especially girls, through the
implementation of the capitation grant in all public primary schools; instituting and
expanding the school feeding programme to all districts; providing accessibility of school
infrastructure to people with disabilities; and, finally, expanding non-formal education in
partnership with private, community groups and Non-Governmental Organizations
(NGOs).
Further to this, other measures focused on addressing the issue of geographical
disparities in access to quality secondary education, equitable opportunities, and adequate
facilities and infrastructure amongst the districts. By establishing a National Council for
Technical and Vocational Education which endorsed the diversification of vocational and
technical curriculum to include agriculture and business studies, the relevance and
functionality of vocational and technical training to industry was ensured. This paved the
way for private-public partnership in the management of vocational and technical
schools, and promoted entrepreneurship among the youth.
2. Bridging gender gap in access to education
To meet the objectives of MDG for attaining gender equity and access to education, the
Government sought to provide incentives through scholarship schemes to increase the
enrolment, retention and completion of basic education for girls, particularly those in
rural and more deprived areas; and sensitizing parents and communities on the
importance of girls‟ education.
3. Improving the quality of teaching and learning
41
In order to achieve positive outcomes to schooling, one of the identified areas for
attention was the need to improve upon the quality of basic education. The most
important factor to consider is ensuring teacher development by upgrading and equipping
teacher training colleges to turn out well trained and skilful teachers. Also, there was a
need for quality control of education by strengthening the supervision of teachers through
a national education quality assessment programme. No less significant was the need to
focus on teacher retention strategies and geographically equitable deployment,
particularly to the rural areas by providing incentives for teachers in deprived areas.
Ultimately, proper resourcing of teachers by ensuring timely distribution of teaching and
learning materials, teachers would be equipped to improve teaching in all basic schools
and institutions of learning.
4. Improving the quality and efficiency in the delivery of education services:
One of the challenges of teaching in public schools in Ghana is the efficient
production of and access to quality teaching and educational material, and efficiency in
the delivery of education services. Education services include quality educational
planning and management, and efficient strategies for the monitoring, evaluation, and
reporting on education and attendant issues. The promotion of technology development
and an ICT culture for educational research will also enhance and support private sector
participation in production and in initiatives to invest in a modern scientific knowledge
approach to education in Ghana. This will also promote the teaching and learning of
science and technology in schools.
5. Training and Skills Development after Basic Education
42
Due to several reasons, such as poor quality or irrelevance of education received, lack
of academic ability or dropping out, several youth must seek training, retraining, and
skills development outside the formal education system. Lacking the requisite to access
jobs in the labour market, they become vulnerable to exploitation, child labour and
poverty. Others who fall into this category are youth with disabilities.
The new Educational Sector Reform Programme within the GPRS addressed the need
for expanding non-formal education in partnership with private, community groups and
NGOs. Strategies to provide skills and entrepreneurial training in a gender-responsive
and equitable manner, to promote apprenticeship training, and to ensure that skills and
entrepreneurial training correlate with labour as required by industry were defined as
priority concerns with this category of youth. Thus, vocational education was based on a
competency, demand-driven skills training for employment (Growth and Poverty
Reduction Strategy (GPRS), 2005).
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Chapter 3
THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
3.1 An Outline of and Justification for Theoretical Frameworks for the Study of
Ghana - CIDA Development Relations
In this work, I employ an anti-colonial framework to investigate the general
nature of development relations between the North and South, and the nature of
Eurocentric development in Africa, the issue of local ownership of development
programmes and the politics of development aid in Africa.
Though Africa and the Bretton Woods Institutions, specifically, the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund, have shared long historical relations, these relations
cannot be classified as mutually cordial or trusting, as far as African countries are
concerned. The relation-ship has been seen by African countries as exploitative and
unequal and, since the start of the debt crises in the 1980s, has been marked by serious
tensions with one African country after another (Kopiński, 2006).This situation has not
seen any serious improvement, given the very nature of the financial credit or aid
provided by the Bretton Woods Institutions. Access to this aid is contingent on the
borrowing government‟s willingness to implement specific economic policy reforms
demanded by the contract agreement. Even though these are said to be designed to help
the borrowing country to achieve macroeconomic stability and to kick-start
socioeconomic development and reduce poverty, ironically, due to the conditionalities
attached, which require the adoption of reforms in return for loans, the Bretton Woods
Institutions have ended up causing much social damage to helpless African societies,
deepening poverty amongst the masses (Kopiński, 2006; Shah, 2010).
44
In one of its recent reports, Oxfam (2006) summarizes the point of my discussion
very succinctly- “…economic policy conditions undermine national policy-making,
delay aid flows, and often fail to deliver for poor people. If the world is to make poverty
history, this practice must be stopped. Aid must be conditional on being spent
transparently and on reducing poverty and nothing more”.
Clearly, the current manipulation of developing economies constitutes a
perpetuation of post-colonial control of former imperil powers over their now
independent colonies, and this is the background and justification for adopting anti-
colonial theoretical framework for studying the work of CIDA in Ghana in the
educational sector, with particular focus on achieving equity and access to education
within the MDGs for Education.
The history of colonialization dates back to the ethnocentricity and racist
perceptions of Africans by pre-colonial European travelers and, later, religious
missionaries who arrived to Christianize the “uncivilized” peoples. Their contact with the
indigenous peoples and their cultures resulted in Europeans developing the notion that
European culture and way of life was superior to the culture and way of life of those that
they would colonize, thereby negating and devaluing their very essence (Dei, 1996). This
formed the conceptual basis upon which power, prestige, and privilege became
organized, regulated, distributed and rendered meaningful in contemporary society. Thus,
this institutional, systemic racism formed the building blocks for the interlocking system
of colonialism and social oppression, leading to “the racializing of social groups for
differential and unequal treatment” (Dei, 1996, p.25). Dei further explains that these
45
issues of race and social difference are issues of power and equity and, by implication,
marginalization of certain voices and subjugated groups. Kirk (2003) emphasizes the
need for a theoretical discourse to deconstruct power relations and investigate hegemonic
attributes of dominance that perpetuate inequity and privilege one group over another,
resulting in exploitative relations.
In concurrence with the above, this study employs an anti- colonial framework to
debunk the belief that Western Eurocentric culture and way of doing things is superior,
and can be imposed on a developing country, such as Ghana, without recourse to the
local, indigenous environment and situation. The emergence of globalism and a new
world order, represented by restructuring and realignments of capital flow, establishment
of massive communication and information networks and transnationalization of business
and industry, calls for the urgent need for African countries to renegotiate terms of socio-
economic interaction with Western Eurocentric development partners that move away
from the traditional racist-based paradigm of colonial relations (Dei, 1996).
It is posited in this study that it is imperative that any Western effort or agency
seeking to assist Africa to develop must first listen to what the local governments are
doing and to what the indigenous people see as priority for their wellbeing. Only
subsequently can they determine what outside interventions will eventually achieve local
ownership. According to Dei (1996), anything less constitutes a continuation of the
political, economic and ideological status quo of colonial racism, discrimination and
oppression. In this context, this study examined how far CIDA‟s efforts to assist Ghana
takes cognizance of the Ghana government‟s stated priorities and of the need to involve
46
local communities in the implementation of CIDA policies and programmes, as a means
of mitigating the tendency for a post-modernist manifestation of socio-cultural and socio-
economic power differences.
Ultimately, the main justification for employing an anti-colonial framework in
this study is to ascertain that CIDA‟s work in Ghana indeed helps to promote a more
equitable educational system for the wellbeing of all Ghanaian children in a manner
consistent with and complementary to the stated policies and priority areas of concern of
the Ghana government. CIDAs work in Ghana must affirm the cultural and spiritual
identity of the Ghanaian child from the Ghanaian perspective, and not reflect a
Eurocentric approach to finding solutions in an African environment. It is important that
the Ghana Government is not coerced or compelled to pursue projects that do not
address, or that are detrimental to the pursuit and accomplishment of priorities identified
with regard to the MDGs for Education by 2015. These concerns inform the investigation
for evidence of North-South exploitation and the power of knowledge in this study.
3.2 An Anti-Colonial Framework
An anti-colonial framework speaks to the need to fight against the post- and neo-
colonial assumptions of Western countries that Africa, through the various debt
mechanisms and conditionalities, will continue to supply raw material for Western
industries, and will therefore remain economically indentured to the Western
superpowers. Tony Blair‟s Commission for Africa has described conditionality as
“ineffective” and “infringing the sovereignty”, eventually calling for its strong reduction
(Commission for Africa, 2005). The study adopted this framework as a means of
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advocating for replacing the practice of using traditional conditionalities (irrespective of
their rationale) by more effective and realistic measures that need to be negotiated
between the two parties (Western developed lender countries and their institutions, and
poorer developing borrowing countries) for a more just and equitable settlement of debt.
The profound socio-economic crisis that the continent has suffered since the eighties has
clearly demonstrated that the system of conditionality has been catastrophic to African
economies, Ghana‟s included. Employing an anti-colonial theory for this study
challenges the continuing unequal power distribution and addresses the need for
dismantling the structures of domination. Thus, framing education within an anti-colonial
discourse is disruptive to long held preconceptions of the cultural, intellectual, economic,
and political abilities of Africa and Africans (Bhimani, 2011).
It is asserted in this thesis that, employing an anti-colonial framework and
highlighting the postcolonial and neocolonial perspective would succeed in bringing to
the fore pertinent issues that have been largely marginalized. It was hoped in the study
that employing an anti-colonial framework would underscore issues related to how
development aid is initiated and executed by Western donor countries and agencies, as
well as the manner in which conditionalities are negotiated with poorer developing
former colonies. Though this pertains to the broader general socioeconomic discourse,
this study was limited to the field of education, the building block of a successful society
and economic progress. This encompassed all areas of education; curricula and pedagogy
within the school, as well as determining social and mitigating economic factors outside
the school.
48
Framing education within the anti-colonial theory in this study was aimed at
interrogating preconceptions that developing African countries such as Ghana have no
ideas or strategies for solving the manifold socio-economic problems that face them, and
thus need Western donor and development partners to dictate solutions to them (Dei and
Kempf, 2006). Indeed, this theoretical framework was employed to document evidence of
the need for development partners to pursue policies for genuine “reconstructive force for
change and transformation”, in the face of “the harsh realities of the powerless people in
a local or globalized economy, as they continue to co-exist alongside multinational
corporations bent on violating any remaining cultural enclaves for material gains”
(Bhimani, 2011).
Education, in particular, in Ghana has been the site and extension of a post-
colonial legacy which to date continues to pose a challenge to successive Ghanaian
governments. It has been the hope in this study that CIDA‟s work in Ghana will reflect a
departure from this colonialist approach with regard to delivering development aid in
education. With regard to CIDA‟s terms of reference, this study sought to explore
Canada‟s philosophy for development aid for Africa, especially as Canada has no overt
past colonial relationship with Africa in general. The study sought to determine to what
extent, if any, colonial, post-colonial and neo-colonial elements can be found in Canada‟s
present relationship with Ghana, as it seeks to offer development aid assistance in order
for Ghana to achieve the MDGs for Education. Through a close study of the documents
related to CIDA‟s programmes in Ghana, the study sought to determine whether CIDA
reproduces colonial policies or promotes an anti-colonial educational policy in Ghana.
49
It was seen as important that the main elements that characterize Canada‟s
relationship with Ghana reflect a paradigm shift from racist or colonial mentality to a
mentality that demonstrates a sincere desire to focus on achieving and sustaining
education for all children in Ghana, based on the priorities identified by the Government
and by the local communities. In this way, these children will be better equipped to take
advantage of opportunities to participate in the new economic world order, and to reap
the benefits thereof
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Chapter 4
METHODS AND METHODOLOGY FOR DATA COLLECTION AND
ANALYSIS
Focusing on education and development in Ghana, this study sought to investigate
Canada‟s role through the work of CIDA through a spectrum of theoretical lenses. The
main methodological approach to this study was a document study and analysis for the
key terms of reference, specifically, equity and access to educational opportunities in
CIDA documents on operations in Ghana in the field of education. These two markers of
success in the quest for education for all in post-colonial Ghana represent a significant
engagement for the Ghana government and her development partners as the deadline for
the achievement of the MDGs for education draws closer and closer.
Accordingly, the main preoccupation for this study was the desire for all children
in Ghana to have access to educational opportunities, irrespective of social, cultural and
economic background. Equity and access to educational opportunities are defined by
gender, socio-economic factors, cultural awareness, training facilities, and community
participation and local ownership of programmes.
The main method for data collection was a review of CIDA documents, websites,
and publications on education in Ghana. The methodology for analysis was based on a
document analysis of the markers that speak to achieving equity and access to education.
4.1 Research Design
This study was designed to employ a mainly qualitative methodology. It did not
fixate on numeric or quantitative analysis, save to mention facts and figures as reported in
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various projects and evaluative reports. In the determination of whether CIDA
demonstrates a concern for the key concepts of equity and access in its documents on
their operations in the Ghanaian educational field, CIDA documents, reports, and
proposals were examined through the lens of these two concepts. Additionally, CIDA
philosophy and operations were tested for evidence of the main theoretical frameworks
employed for this study - anti racist and anti-colonial leanings. This was measured by
how far CIDA operations converge with the Ghana government‟s identified priorities and
policies in education. As such, a content analysis of CIDA documents was conducted in
comparison with content in the Ghana Government‟s White Paper documents on
education in the same timeframe.
4.2 Defining Document Analysis
A document may be broadly defined as anything that bears marks, signs, or
symbols which have meaning or conveys a message to someone. This includes graphics,
text, both primary and secondary (Stovel, 2000). Document analysis is the systematic
examination of any textual document in order to identify, evaluate, and analyze particular
information, or aspect of information. It goes beyond mere summary to providing
analysis of the motivation, intent and purpose of a document within a particular context.
Document analysis provides a useful method for information retrieval and extraction, and
involves content collection and extraction, language review, and classification of
information. According to Weber (1990) analysis of documents involves a close
examination of speech, literature, text, or written documentation to determine specific
emergent themes, and to develop qualitative categories for assessment within the confines
of a particular context (Weber, 1990). Document analysis has been described as a key
52
skill in textual interpretation in qualitative research and is a common technique in
evaluating historical texts (Australian National University, 2009; McNamara, 1998). The
focus of a document analysis is more than descriptive, and involves a critical examination
of the document. Document analysis is useful for gaining insight into a particular issue,
or to identify patterns, trends, and consistency or inconsistencies in textual documents.
Though a research data collection method itself, document analysis is also useful for
providing a preliminary study for interviews, surveys, observations and other data
collection methods (McNamara,1998).
There are some limitations of using document analysis as a data collection method:
Documents or materials may be incomplete or missing
Evaluation of data is restricted to what already exists
The main advantages of using document analysis as a data collection method is that it
requires minimal material resources. It primarily involves time to select and analyze the
relevant documents, depending on the size of the study, the volume of the literature
available on the topic of discussion, and the number of documents to examine.
4.3 Key Issues for Consideration in Document Analysis:
Bélanger (2006) gives an exhaustive list of issues to consider when conducting a
document analysis, outlined below:-
What type of document is it?
What is the source and purpose of the document?
Why was the document written? Was this document meant to be public or
private?
53
What evidence is there within the document that indicates why it was written?
Does it have any particularly unique characteristics?
The time frame the document was written is also important. Is it contemporary to
the events and issues it discusses?
For whom (what audience) was the document written?
Who was the author and what was the author‟s position? Are there any biases or
assumptions that might colour the views of the author(s)? Is there any evidence of
such bias or assumptions in the information presented?
How accurate or reliable is the source of the document and the information
presented?
Is the information relevant to the topic being discussed or analyzed?
Are there any contradictions in the information presented? Or from information
presented in other sources on the same topic?
Where was this document produced? Does the geographical location influence the
content?
Is the document in the original language in which it was produced? Is the
translation authoritative?
This comprehensive list guided the criteria and procedure of this study. In addition to
this, IAR Assess Teaching (2007) and Chism (1999) provided invaluable advice to follow
as procedure to conducting a document analysis. In planning for the analysis they
advocated for a description of the context and a clear identification of the study needs by
specifying the key objectives of the study and developing central questions informed by
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these objectives. Following was the need to identify and state the purpose of the
document analysis.
Document analysis also involves a study of how these themes interrelate, or what is
emphasized, implicitly or overtly. Sometimes, a document analysis is also driven by a
particular theory. Either way, some general rules and considerations guide the
methodology of document analysis. The standard considerations identified by Weber
(1990) include the following:-
The size of data to be analyzed at a time needs to be determined. For example, is
it a line by line, sentence by sentence or paragraph by paragraph analysis? This
must be determined prior to the analysis, and consistency must be pursued.
The categories or units of meaning need to be decided upon and clarified. In so
doing, all examples or identified data must fit into the categories chosen, but must
also be mutually exclusive to avoid ambiguity.
Also to avoid ambiguity, the categories chosen must be defined in precise terms.
Subsequently, all the data to be analyzed will fit exhaustively into one category or
the other
Weber‟s (1990) advice to start by reading all way through prior to specifying rules
was well taken in this study. This is also useful for determining whether, in addition to
being a theory-driven document analysis, there exist any emergent themes. As indicated
above, a document analysis focuses a lot on print literature, which can be quantitatively
analyzed for any biases. It is a useful technique for discovering and describing the focus
of individual, group, institutional, or social attention, as well as allowing inferences to be
55
made which can subsequently be corroborated by using other methods of data collection
(Weber, 1990).
Indeed, it is stressed in this study that employing the methodology of document
analysis facilitated sifting through the many pieces of data from CIDA documents,
including reports and communiqués on their operations in education in Ghana in a
systematic fashion (U.S. GAO, 1996).
4.4 Practical Procedure and Application for Conducting a Content Analysis of CIDA
Documents
As stated, document analysis was useful for examining trends and patterns in
CIDA documents, with respect to determining how far CIDA is assisting Ghana to
achieve equity and access to education, in conformity with the MDGs for Education.
CIDA project mission statements were examined to make inferences about how far their
objectives for operations in Ghana are aligned to the overall development aims and
objectives of the Ghana government, as it seeks to achieve the MDG for Education.
This represented one of the major research questions identified by this study, and formed
the key criterion used at the end of the study to measure CIDA‟s programme
effectiveness in education in Ghana.
The study followed suggestions by Krippendorff (1980), who proposes the
following six areas to be addressed in every content analysis:
1) Which data are analyzed?
2) How are they defined?
3) What is the population from which they are drawn?
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4) What is the context relative to which the data are analyzed?
5) What are the boundaries of the analysis?
6) What is the target of the inferences?
In this study, most of these documents were of primary source from CIDA official
reports and CIDA websites. Being an agency of the Canadian government, the language
of the documents was therefore mostly official language, and the reports objectively
presenting developmental facts. The reports were in general a synopsis of a compilation
larger documents and were crisp and to the point, establishing clearly the general
parameters of the contents of the document (McNamara, 1998).
Data from these CIDA websites and documents, specifically project reports and
summaries on operations in Ghana, were analyzed, with specific focus on education and
issues that relate to availing access to education and providing openings for equity in
opportunities for schooling and education. These are defined mainly by gender and socio-
economic factors within the Ghanaian community, as elaborated in chapter 5, content
analysis of CIDA programmes and documents on education in Ghana: focus on equity
and access. The study also looked closely at the Ghana Government‟s Strategy Document
as the contextual term of reference to correlate CIDA‟s projects and operations, and to
analyze how far equity and access to education is being pursued as demanded by the
MDGs for Education. Due to the constraints of time and volume for this study, the data
analysis was limited to the boundaries of gender and socio-economic factors as they
impinge on education within the timeframe of 2000-2010, and specifically to the
57
consideration of equity and access to schooling and educational opportunities within the
MDGs for Education as the target for reference. These constituted the limits of this study.
IAR Assess Teaching (2007) and Chism (1999) cautioned that due to wide ranges of
literature, it was necessary to clarify goals for the study and narrow the focus. These
research goals determined focus and type of documents to review, as well as how to use
or analyze results. In selecting and compiling only CIDA documents that related to
Ghana, this study analyzed documents which contribute meaningfully to aims and
objectives. The coding process ensured the establishment of clear criteria that concretely
defined the concepts of equity and access, and an anti-colonial thought that the
documents were being evaluating and analyzed for. However, due to the constraints of
time and space, further depth of analysis could have been conducted to broaden the
discussion of the central questions.
The main areas of concern for the analysis of CIDA documents was the fact that,
although there were many documents and reports available for the selected timeframe,
most of what was available online were mainly summaries and lacked the detail needed
for a more in-depth scrutiny of the specificities that were being sought. The hardcopies
were also difficult to access from a distance. However, despite these challenges, there
was sufficient appropriate material to analyze for purposes of this study. More
importantly, both CIDA and Ghana government documents that were available for
content analysis were adequate and matched the definition of the document required for a
credible analysis. Above all, the content of these documents was completely clear and
thus codable to reflect issues of equity and access (U.S. GAO, 1996).
4.5 Coding for Document Analysis
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In qualitative methodology, document analysis can entail categorizing, classifying
and therefore coding any kind of communication content; be it speech, written text,
interviews, or even images. Creating codes for studying the content of communication is
an integral part of the methodology of document analysis. Coding is a widespread
qualitative research practice in the social sciences used in the analysis of recorded
interview transcripts. Stemler (2001) refers to coding as “compressing many words of
text into fewer content categories”, and “applying a „concept dictionary‟ or fixed
vocabulary of terms on the basis of which words are extracted from the textual data for
concording…” In this context, this study made inferences, by systematically identifying
specific characteristics within CIDA texts and documents, to affirm or refute the
existence of evidence and consideration for issues of equity and access to education, as
well as for a meaningful partnership and mutual respect between the CIDA and the
Ghana Government.
This was done through a scrutiny of specific target and thematic concepts, and
how much they permeated the content and text of the various CIDA documents and
websites communicated certain proprieties and philosophies. When these particular and
thematic concepts occurred often, it was empirically assumed that they reflected
important concerns to the operations of CIDA with regard to developing education in
Ghana. This enabled inference and drawing meaningful conclusions at the end of the
process. Though this process could lead to a quantitative content analysis, this study kept
to a purely descriptive analysis by identifying the specific context and concept of two
main words: equity and access as they pertain to education.
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As a basis for this process, and as recommended by Holsti (1969), this
methodology or process of analysis requires a hypothesis from which to evaluate the
textual information. It was the hypothesis of this study that, due to the urgency for
positive change in the pace of progress in the socioeconomic fabric of developing
countries within the member states of the United Nations and its affiliated donor
agencies, there exists a new paradigm for bilateral and multilateral relations amongst
member states. As such, it was the premise in this study that CIDA documents would
demonstrate and reflect this paradigm shift towards more equitable partnerships with
African countries, such as Ghana, and would demonstrate willingness for cooperation
instead of imposing Eurocentric ideas, strategies and projects. Accordingly, it was
expected to see an emphasis on gender and a concern for the resolution of socio-
economic factors that affect equity and access to education in the selected CIDA
documents and reports.
Dermot McKeone (1995) differentiates between prescriptive and open analysis.
He defines a prescriptive analysis as one in which the context is closely confined to a set
of specific messages or subject matter. In this study, a prescriptive analysis was
conducted, due to the fact that the study sought to find specific references to issues of
equity and access to education, as well as expression of partnership and non-colonialist
relations between CIDA and the Ghana Government in CIDA documents and reports.
Conversely, in an open document analysis the dominant messages and subject matter are
identified within the text. As a guide to coding into categories in order to construct and
make valid inferences from the text, Weber (1990) states that consistency is important in
ensuring the reliability of the classification procedure. This guides how “latent meaning”
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or the interpretation of the writer‟s intention from in between the lines is extracted from
the “manifest content” of the text, or what is definitely written in black and white. This
said, the usual procedure was to scrutinize the manifest content available in the actual
text and in its words, phrases and sentences. This study adhered to this, as particular
words or synonyms were identified to categorize codes under the main concepts of
equity, access and non-colonialist partnership.
This leads to the consideration of coding units. Krippendorff (1980) identifies
three main kinds of coding units common to a document analysis. They are sampling
units, context units, and recording units. Sampling units could be syntax related, in units
of words, sentences, or paragraphs, depending on the objectives on the study. Context
units, on the other hand, are less specific in terms of boundaries. In effect, they could be
one or several of the above; sentences, paragraphs or even longer texts such as a mission
statement or a statement of intent. Last, but not the least, recording units deal with the
underlying idea(s) in a text. They are a kind of summary mechanism for categorizing
ideas for analysis.
Because this study was based on analysis of all forms of textual information on
CIDA documentation (including reports, communiqués, or papers), whether electronic
(including web information) or print; the boundaries, though well defined, were at the
same time flexible. Additionally, it was useful to employ the art of focusing on words,
sentences and paragraphs that speak to the concepts of equity, access and an anti-colonial
based partnership, the key concerns in the study. An interpretative summary was
employed to record underlying ideas in a text related and relevant to the discussion of
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equity and access to education in Ghana, and an anti-colonial approach to CIDA
development aid projects and operations.
4.6 Reliability and Validity of Data in Document Analysis Methodology
With respect to reliability of a procedure or methodology, the key consideration,
as Weber (1990) stresses, is the question of consistency. Can the same results and
conclusions be reached when different researchers follow the same process? This calls for
care and clarity in the coding and categorizing process. The words, coding and category
definitions should be accessible to any reader or researcher who decides to understand or
duplicate the procedure for evaluating and analyzing the content of the same textual
information.
All care must be taken to ensure that there are no hidden meanings or ambiguities
in the code, nor any forced categorizations. This clarity can be achieved focusing concern
on two main things – stability in results reflected in the researcher getting the same result
on every try, and reproducibility of results, that is other researchers by following the
same procedure get the same or similar results.
To ensure stable outcomes, the main strategy in this study was to keep the codes
and categories very simple and straightforward; directly related to the key concepts of the
study. To this end, for codes for the category and concept of equity, the investigation
considered words or phrases that contained references to “equality of, or equal
opportunities”, “gender equality or balance”, “gendered participation”, “girl
achievement”, “girl-friendly..”, “education for all”, “removing barriers to..” “…fighting
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discrimination, exclusion or differentials...”, “empowerment of girls and women…”,
“adopting engendered approach to…”, “a gender based approach to…” and so forth.
For coding and categorizing the second concept, access, words or phrases
containing references to “access to education...”, “access to girls”, “girl friendly..”,
“progress”, “youth employment”, “school feeding programmes”, “school attendance”,
“increased enrolment”, “education for all”, “reducing dropout rates”, “training and
employment for girls and women”, “marginalization of girls and women, “locally
relevant educational resources”, “providing basic life skills” etc. were considered as
allusions to the concern for promoting access to educational opportunities.
Finally, with regard to testing the code for an anti-colonial bias or approach in the
texts, vocabulary such as “support, enable, or boost”, “cooperation or assistance”,
“partnership”, “involved”, “bilateral”, “local ownership”, “untied aid”, gain deeper
understanding of..”, “creating awareness for deeper understanding” etc. were placed in
the category for determining whether or not there exists a non-colonialist relationship
between Canada and Ghana in the operation of development aid. To complement the
examination of CIDA documents in this category, the outcomes with the Ghana
Government Poverty Reduction Strategy documents were used for comparison, to discern
parallels in philosophy for the developmental agenda for education in Ghana in the
partnering programmes.
It is asserted by the researcher in this study that the above categories and codes
constitute very explicit recording instructions which can be duplicated and validated for
stable outcomes. As a qualitative methodology, document analysis a very effective data
reduction technique because it allows the researcher to examine a large amount of
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literature by compressing a large volume of words into a few content-based categories
and codes (Stemler, 2001). It is also very appropriate for a descriptive study, such as the
one undertaken here, and lends itself well to a systematic, yet uncomplicated evaluation
for reading meanings in textual representations.
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CHAPTER 5
DOCUMENT ANALYSIS OF CIDA PROGRAMMES AND DOCUMENTS AND
EDUCATION IN GHANA: FOCUS ON EQUITY AND ACCESS
The content of documents related to the following select CIDA Funded Projects on
Education in Ghana were analyzed, to identify focus on equity and access, and the
following facts were gathered:
5.1 The School Feeding Programme in Ghana
Together with the World Food Programme, CIDA contributed $ 2,000,000 to fund the
school feeding project from 2009 to 2012. The Ghana Government initiated the school
feeding programme in 2001 to encourage and increase enrolment into basic school,
especially in poor areas. The school feeding programme also serves as an incentive for
children to maintain regular school attendance and to reduce drop out in primary and
middle school. The programme has contributed to better academic performance, due to
improved concentration. CIDA‟s contribution to this project has ultimately supported the
World Food Programme efforts to promote access to basic education in Ghana, especially
for girls, and generally for children from poor homes. This forms a key component of
CIDA Ghana Country Programme for the 2007-2010 year period, during which Canada
has pledged to contribute $125 million over 5 years.
The general content of this programme shows that, rather than availing money
directly for education, for example in terms of salary, this programme is to support
activities that enable children especially in poor communities to enroll and to stay in
school.
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5.2 Strategic Initiatives for Achieving Gender Equality in Ghana
With a commitment of $ 500,000 till 2010, this initiative was introduced by CIDA in
2008 to address the needs of women and girls in Ghanaian society. A multifaceted
approach was adopted to deal with poverty alleviation, in addition to ensuring access to
education, providing employment opportunities and enhancing policies and laws that
favour women and girls. This multi-pronged approach was intended to result in more
effective and longer lasting changes to the socio-economic conditions in which women
and girls lived, were educated and worked. The main approaches that CIDA employed
under the Strategic Initiatives for Gender Equality Programme (SIGEP) included:
Encouraging greater gender equality by increasing women's access to and
participation in decision-making (Laws and policy).
Improving knowledge of various stakeholders on gender issues (Training and
education).
Supporting and strengthening collaboration among government agencies and civil
society organizations for enhancing gender equality (Laws and policy).
Increasing access to productive resources for women and girls (Training and
education).
The general summary of this programme shows focus on women and girls and effort
to involve civil society. The measures outlined in the programme are to enable Ghana
achieve equity and access in the areas of education, employment and with regard to full
participation in society.
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5.3 Promoting African Grassroots Economic Security through Education and Skills
(PAGES)
This is an Africa-wide programme, undertaken by CIDA and Plan International
Canada, with a total budget of $ 15,743,875 for the period 2010 to 2016. Ghana was
allocated 15.2% of this funding for improving access of girls and marginalized children
to quality basic education, and for providing opportunities for vocational and
entrepreneurial skills of Ghanaian women, youth and general populace living in poverty
through improved access to microfinance and productive assets, to enable them to engage
in sustainable livelihoods and thereby break the vicious cycle of intergenerational effects
of household poverty.
The programme identifies several areas for implementation of economic security
through education and skills. It seeks to improve health through the provision of basic
drinking water, a measure that also frees women and children from water-fetching duties.
Through local NGOs, cottage industries and handicraft making as well as vocational
training is provided for the youth and women. Small and medium sized businesses are
enabled to support this effort. Ultimately, the main focus is strengthening basic education
and ensuring that the children complete primary and middle school. As such, some
attention is given to education facilities and teacher training, as well as school
administration and management, and educational policy formulation and implementation.
It can be seen in this project that CIDA is not afraid to work with other NGO who are
in the grassroots community. It is also discernable that straightening diverse skills such as
entrepreneurship ultimately can change women and girls‟ status.
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5.4 Ghana Programme Support Unit (PSU) - Bridging Phase
The Programme Support Unit (PSU) runs from 2010 to 2013, at a value of
$3,000,000 CIDA contribution. The main thrust of the PSU is to ensure the effectiveness
of CIDA‟s assistance to Ghana‟s developmental programmes in four main areas, namely,
programme and project planning support and accompanying professional services; actual
programme delivery and implementation; administrative support; and logistical services.
Education and gender equality form part of the PSU‟s objectives. Through the PSU,
CIDA aims at improving field data collection, as well as the planning, implementation
and monitoring of projects and programmes. More importantly, CIDA aims to gain a
deeper understanding and wider knowledge of the Ghana Government‟s priorities and
developmental challenges in order to help Ghana to coordinate and harmonize donor
activities and approaches for effective and sustained development.
As can be observed, apart from developmental programmes that CIDA funds alone,
the organization also engages in joint collaborative developmental efforts with Ghana and
other international agencies.
This program shows a strategy of putting resources to enhance project management
rather than merely complain and criticize, as did donors in the past.
5.5 The Word on Development from Ghana
This project began in 2010 and ends in 2012, costing $126,796. CIDA provides
65%, and Ghana avails 35% of the total cost. This is geared more towards benefitting
Canada in terms of offering Canadian youth the opportunity to increase their awareness
and understanding of international and developmental issues by engaging them in CIDA
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programmes and projects addressing such issues in Ghana. The selected youth spend
some time in Ghana where they are exposed to CIDA development efforts towards
achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Subsequently, they produce and publish
material in various media on international development issues. Of the total amount
budgeted for this project, 65% goes to the promotion of such awareness efforts. In this
respect, CIDA aims to educate these youth in order for them to educate other youth back
in Canada. Of particular interest to the present discussion is the fact that 20% of the
resources in this programme goes into vocational training for Ghanaian youth also.
Donors seeing aid receipient countries as having something to offer, as reflected in this
programme, is a key change in the development aid sector.
5.6 Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE) - Programme
The CODE programme runs between 2007 and 2012, with a total budget of
$10,065,800 shared amongst ten different countries. Ghana has been allocated 10.9% of
the total project amount. Of that allocation, 87% is earmarked for improving the quality
of basic education and its management, and for ensuring quality literacy and other
educational programmes. Teachers and other educational workers are trained and
equipped for the task of improving schools, as well as providing books and other
educational resources that are locally relevant and suitable. The remaining 13% of
Ghana‟s allocation is devoted to the development of educational networks and the
promotion of development awareness in Canada. This includes creating awareness of
developmental issues in education among Canadian youth and general public through
fora, such as the Canadian Global Campaign for Education, aimed at marshaling support
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for the Education for All initiative in developing countries, to ensure that all children
receive universal basic education. The focus on awareness in Canada is a very noticeable
aspect in this programme
5.7 CIDA Institutional Support for UNESCO Institute for Statistics
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization‟s (UNESCO)
Institute of Statistics (UIS) is located in Canada, in Montréal, Québec. CIDA committed
to contributing $1,000,000 between 2009 and 2013, to support UNESCO efforts to
strengthen basic education and achieve the Millennium Development Goals and
Education for All targets. Of this amount, 75% was allocated to conducting educational
research, and 25% for enhancing educational policy and administrative management of
schooling. The UIS is the official source of targets of the MDGs and EFA Monitoring
Reports. It also oversees the compilation of the most comprehensive database on
education-related statistics for the United Nations.
5.8 Play to Learn Program
This programme, which is run by the Right to Play International, in collaboration
with CIDA across four countries in West and Francophone Africa, for the period 2007-
2013, is designed to help improve the lives of disadvantaged children and youth. CIDA
contributes $19,980,000, 25% of which is allocated to Ghana. Of the amount allocated to
Ghana, 60% goes to strengthen basic education through providing basic life skills for
youth. The programme employs the medium of sport and play to impart important skills
in the areas of health, leadership and civics.
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Once again, partnership and focus on life skills which improve health and impact
education are observed in the short summary.
5.9 Canadian Teachers' Federation - Program 2005-2011
The Canadian Teachers‟ Federation‟s programme through volunteering and peer
coaching bases its activities in developing countries on the objectives of the EFA
initiative. Their programme aims to enhance professional development of teachers,
gender equality in the teaching profession, the quality of teaching materials, efforts for
HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in schools, and developing national leadership and
management in education. In Canada, the programme focuses on raising awareness of
development issues in education in Canadian schools. CIDA contributed $12,085,516 for
the Canadian Teachers‟ Federation‟s programme, covering almost 20 developing
countries. Ghana was allocated 10% of that amount.
The involvement of ordinary Canadians in programmes observed here is an important
departure from days when donors thought aid programme planning and implementation
was a speciality of technocrats.
5.10 Poverty Reduction Strategy - Budget Support
As it strives to beat the 2015 deadline for the MDGs, 35% of Ghana‟s population is
still below the poverty line. For this reason, the Ghana Government has established the
Poverty Reduction Strategy as its development framework to link the MDGs to national
planning and budgeting. In a country-donor partnership with the Government of Ghana,
Canada, the U.K., Switzerland, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, the E. U., the
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African Development Bank, and the World Bank, together offered a total contribution of
$93,000,000 as general budgetary support for the period 2003-2010.
The main aims of CIDA‟s efforts in this strategy were to strengthen public financial
management through improved budgeting, timely conducting, submitting and reporting
of internal and external audits by government ministries and agencies, and to strengthen
the passing and implementing of new public procurement and external audit legislation.
Positive results were observed as poverty fell from about 52% during 1991-1992 to 28%
in 2005-2006, and fell lower still by 2009, although there were geographic disparities to
be addressed. Additionally, in the area of education, enrolment figures soared, as
educational grants that had before targeted only students in poorer communities were
now extended to all students attending public basic education kindergartens, primary, and
junior secondary schools.
The linkage made between poverty reduction and good and transparent programme
management , and availing funding to support this and working in collaboration with the
Ghana Government are important characteristics immediately observable here.
5.11 Strategic Interventions for Gender Equality Project (SIGEP) and the Alliance
for African Women Initiative (AFAWI)
SIGEP is a new CIDA initiative in collaboration with the Ghana Government and
local NGOs in Ghana. It focuses on addressing gaps between policy and implementation
in the effort to create access for women and girls to enable them to take advantage of
productive resources available. The aim is to improve their lives socially and
economically.
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It is a documented fact that girls in Ghana have less access to schooling, struggle
more than boys to remain in school, and face more challenges in their efforts to achieve
high academic results (Akyeampong et al, 2007). Several socioeconomic factors and
cultural practices contribute to girls‟ high schooling dropout rates. Some have theorized
that girls‟ dropout rate is related to the attainment of puberty and to the associated
complexities that girls have to endure at that age. UNICEF reports have related African
girls‟ dropout of schooling during puberty to a lack of access to girl-friendly
sanitary facilities in school.
To address this challenge, the Alliance for African Women Initiative (AFAWI)
support from CIDA was utilized to embark on a programme in three schools in three
districts, namely Kintampo, Bole and Bolgatanga. The programme provides girls with
feminine products. It also provides both boys and girls with guidance about puberty, their
bodies and their health. Through the S.I.G.E.P., Canada supports the Ghana Government
and A.F.A.W.I. with resources to empower girls and women in Ghana, who make up the
poorest and most vulnerable in society. The aim of the programme is to overcome
existing barriers to gender equality, enhancing social-economic and political status. The
goal of this intervention is to fight the persistent discrimination, exclusion and inequality
between women and men at all levels of life.
This creative and novel intervention for gender balance has helped to improve access
to education for girls and to keep them in school. The project resulted in a 43.2% increase
in school attendance for girls, a 27.2% increase in performance for these girls, and a
significant enhancement of understanding of personal hygiene and reproductive health-
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information. Overall, the girls in question became more comfortable and more confident
with regard to participation in classroom activities. Awareness activities involved
promoting open discussion on pertinent social issues by both girls and boys. This
engendered approach, thus, successfully engaged both males and females in issues to do
with achieving gender equality.
As part of this project, guidance counseling was programmed for over 600 school
girls and, at a correctional facility, girls were provided vocation training in rehabilitated
surroundings, thus giving them hope for the future. The fact that SIGEP has ensured that
girls and boys have same and equal opportunities for education is important because
education enables both men and women to know and claim their rights and to realize
their potential economically, politically and socially. Education has been widely
acknowledged throughout the world as the single most powerful and effective way of
lifting people out of poverty.
Indeed, the Strategic Interventions for Gender Equality Project (SIGEP) has
transformed Ghanaian women‟s lives by promoting their role in union leadership and in
post-harvest management in several local communities. Women‟s and girls‟ lives have
also been transformed with regard to their role in developing local action committees, in
organizing agriculture and income generating activities, and through business start-ups
for women. CIDA‟s Strategic Initiatives for Gender Equality Project (SIGEP) has, thus,
contributed to Ghana‟s gender-based poverty reduction efforts and strategic initiatives to
promote equality between women and men, empowering women through agriculture for
food security, and through provision of water and sanitation.
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To answer the questions that were posed at the beginning of the study, it can be said that
the document analysis shows that:
There clearly exists a trend that represents a new paradigm for bilateral and
multilateral relations with respect to CIDA‟s relationship with Ghana.
Canada‟s and Ghana‟s aims and objectives do converge, most probably enhanced
by the international movement for change, accompanied by global outrage in
developed and developing countries when Bretton institutions hold meetings, for
example the famous Seattle demonstrations that plagued the World Trade
Organization meeting in 1999, changing that have led to some light however
feeble with regard to treating and financing the poor.
Both Canada and Ghana aim to achieve the MDGs for Education by 2015
Both CIDA and Ghana articulate their goals clearly
The success of programmes is demonstrated by the fact that so far the
documentation shows that the programmes are on track.
The documents show evidence of collaboration with regard to project planning
without showing evidence of project imposition.
In some cases Canada has contributed to strategies that already exist
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Chapter 6
DISCUSSION
6.1 A Data Analysis of Documentation Related To CIDA Operations in Education In
Ghana
In this section, the dissertation examines the following questions:
How far does CIDA collaborate with the Government of Ghana to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals for Education?
To what extent does CIDA policies and programmes articulate and work to
achieve equity and access in education in Ghana?
What is the rate of success of CIDA‟s policies and programmes, measured by
their own standards in their stated aims and objectives, and measured by the
standards of the Ghana Government, and by UN Millennium Development Goals
Agencies?
As noted, an important focus in this study was to determine whether there are explicit
considerations and objectives for promoting equity and access to education in CIDA
documents and programmes for developing education in Ghana, and if CIDA‟s aid
strategies in the area of education in Ghana were developed in close partnership with the
Ghana Government, in keeping with Ghana‟s stated priorities for development in the
education sector. Focus was also on whether these priorities have been set to align
themselves with the achievement of the MDGs for Education in preparation for 2015
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6.2 Three Main Categories of Interest: Findings on CIDA Operations in Education in
Ghana
As previously identified under the Methods section, the three main concept
categories examined in this study were equity, access, and the indications of an anti-
colonialist based partnership. The words and vocabulary chosen for coding these
categories were identified and the documents scrutinized for vocabulary and concepts
reflecting equity, access, and anti-colonialism.
The analysis of the documents showed that CIDA accurately identifies Ghana‟s
most pertinent challenges as a vulnerability to “the ongoing effects of the global
economic crisis”, which has led to the notable impoverishment of women, farmers, and
rural dwellers. Thus, it came as no surprise that the highlights of accomplishment in the
report were in the area of Food Security, as well as issues pertaining to Children and
Youth. It is under CIDA‟s focus of providing for Children and Youth that education (the
focus of this study) falls. These two main areas of focus tied in comfortably with the
Ghana Governments two-phased strategy for 2001-2009, namely the Ghana Poverty
Reduction Strategy (GPRS I) and the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II).
These two developmental documents, though similar, differ in intent, focus and policy
content. Both, however, address education as a means to achieving their objectives.
At this juncture, the study discussed what the coding reveals within the various CIDA
documents studied in general. The following observations were made in the following
areas:
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6.3 CIDA and Policies for Equity
CIDA unequivocally identifies inequality between men and women as a key
development challenge, a clear statement of their concern for equity issues pursuit of
development. A deep consideration for gender equity is woven throughout the various
CIDA documents and permeates all of their programmes in Ghana. There have been
numerous initiatives, programmes and strategies spanning, not only education, but
employment, agriculture and law which address the practical short and long-term needs
of women and children. The CIDA Strategic Initiatives for Gender Equality Program
(SIGEP), developed in 2008 collaboratively with the Government of Ghana, aims to
empower women with economic tools to improve their lives. Interventions to encourage
greater equality between women and men are multipronged; to increase female
participation in decision-making, creating further awareness of gender issues at all levels
of the society; to support government and civil collaborations to advance gender equality
and, ultimately, to allow equal opportunities for women and girls to access productive
resources in all sectors of the economy. Needless to say, preliminary review indicates that
target language for equity coding is predominant in CIDA reports.
6.4 CIDA and Programmes for Access in Education
In an effort to promote access to education, in 2007 CIDA began targeting areas
in the country, particularly the rural areas and the Northern part of Ghana, which have
low school enrolment, irregular school attendance, and high school dropout rates.
Through the World Food Programme, CIDA supports the School Feeding Program in
Ghana to ensure that school children, particularly girls, attend school, thus increasing
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enrolment and attendance rates, and decreasing drop-out rates. This is a clear
demonstration of concern for promoting access to education.
The 2009 CIDA report focused on another intervention called Promoting African
Grassroots Economic Security through Education and Skills (PAGES), which addresses
issues of access of girls, women and youth to basic education and to sustainable
livelihoods. As the main thrust was to increase access of girls and marginalized children
to basic education, and access of women and youth to vocational and entrepreneurial
skills and finance, the text abounds with code language pointing to access and
opportunity.
6.5 CIDA from an Anti- Colonial Perspective
A general look at CIDA documents from 2000 to 2010 show that the relationship
between Canada and Ghana has remained stable. There is a clear statement of satisfaction
with the flourishing of democracy and related political values shared by Canada, such as
freedom of speech and a vibrant press, as well as the development of an active civil
society. This has led to the Canadian Government‟s deep interest in the development of
Ghana and an increased commitment to build stronger bilateral ties. CIDA documents are
littered with the word “cooperation” in describing its present relationship with Ghana.
Evidence of Canada‟s interest in promoting mutual understanding between the two
countries can be seen in the rise in the numbers of Canadian volunteers who go to work
or to study in Ghana.
Generally speaking, a close examination of CIDA documents revealed very
carefully worded expression of intent and operations. There is little in the documents to
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demonstrate or to support the view that Canada, in its developmental aid agenda or in its
relationship with Ghana, displays any colonialist tendencies. In reference to Ghana,
CIDA describes its aid as “development assistance”, and states that this assistance has
become more “demand-driven and budgetary support”. In CIDA‟s 2010 report on Ghana,
emphasis is placed on “enabling the Government of Ghana to be more accountable for
services to its own citizens, to take decisions and to manage its affairs”. The document
describes CIDA‟s strategy as “highly engaged in policy dialogue with the recipient
government on key issues of poverty reduction, economic and public sector reform,
gender equality and governance”.
Elsewhere in the 2009 document, CIDA seeks to reiterate this by stating: “In
addition, Canada, along with other donors, will contribute to the Government of Ghana's
objective of…” CIDA is careful to state that its programmes build on efforts already
being undertaken by the Government of Ghana, and that it supports the Government of
Ghana in “playing a lead role in the design, development, and implementation” of her
national development agenda. The 2008 CIDA report on Ghana describes Ghana as
having “demonstrated strong ownership of the development agenda”, calling the
Government of Ghana‟s policies to strengthen Ghanaian ownership and leadership of
development cooperation “bold”.
The 2009-2010 CIDA report on Ghana states very clearly that CIDA‟s
programme in Ghana “aligns” with the country‟s national development plan. Key projects
are described as “community-driven initiatives”, and the document is liberally spiced
with phrases such as “provide support”, “provide (technical and financial) assistance”,
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“strengthen…”, “invest in…” etc. in description of CIDA‟s operative strategy in Ghana.
By providing technical and financial assistance to the governments it is helping to
improve health and education services that benefit children and youth. This is a very
positive indication of CIDA‟s supportive position, and its consideration of not dictating
to Ghana what it should do with aid. Additionally, there is a clear articulation of the fact
that this work is part of Canada‟s contribution to assist Ghana to reach the MDGs.
Sensitivity to the country‟s actual needs is an underlying factor to the most recent (2010)
report on Ghana, namely, increasing economic growth, accelerating human resource
development and improving good governance and civic responsibility.
However, there was one section of CIDA‟s 2009 report on Ghana that did not fit
the image projected thus far. CIDA reports that, as part of its Aid Effectiveness Agenda,
Canada decided to focus the majority of its bilateral aid to a pool of select countries, “on
the basis of real need, a capacity to make beneficial use of the aid offered, and ability to
align national policy with those of Canadian foreign policy priorities” (italics mine).
Though the report immediately justified this clause by stating that this would enable the
Canadian government to make international assistance more focused, effective and
accountable, according to the anti-colonial lens of this study, the provision reflects a
colonialist perspective to aid development, and a show of imperialist power relations.
CIDA has found several ways to foster cooperation for mutual understanding
between Ghanaian and Canadian publics on broad issues of education and development.
Data analysis was, among others, undertaken on documentation that relates to the Word
on Development from Ghana project. This is designed to increase awareness,
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understanding, and engagement of Canadian youth in international development issues
and programmes related to Canadian development efforts related to the MDGs in Ghana.
Data analysis was also performed on the CODE Program, started in 2007, with the aim of
raising the awareness of Canadians about development issues in education. The CODE
Program also aims at improving publishing and distribution of, and improving access to
reading and to other supplementary study material, ensuring they are culturally and
linguistically relevant to local environment of Ghanaian children. This is crucial to the
effort to move away from the post-colonial practice of using imported, culturally and
geographically irrelevant material for teaching and learning in Ghanaian schools.
Similarly, the coding structure outlined above was applied to the Canadian
Teachers' Federation (CTF) programme, established in 2005, which aims at influencing
national education plans to achieve the targets of Education for All initiative. Like the
CODE, there is also provision within the programme to raise awareness of Canadian
youth on development issues in education. All these programmes highlighted cooperation
and understanding as the fundamental basis of their operation, demonstrating a high
regard by CIDA for mutual understanding and respect in Ghana-Canada relations. In
conclusion, the carefully worded CIDA documents suggest a keen awareness for the very
concerns the study raises for the development of education in Ghana; namely a concern
for the promotion of equity and access, with emphasis on gender and socio-economic
emancipation and, secondly, the concern that development aid is not used in a forced,
prescriptive colonialist manner to dictate what Ghana‟s development agenda should be.
Among the many conclusions were the following:
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Indeed, CIDA programmes and operations in education in Ghana have a clear
focus on issues relating to equity and access to education, and complement
governmental efforts to achieve the Millennium Development.
CIDA does take into consideration and does meet the needs of Ghana.
CIDA‟s aims and objectives do converge with Ghana‟s aims and objectives.
In the documents analyzed there was no overt colonial/neo-colonial intent, most
probably due to absence of an overt Canada – Ghana colonial past.
There was an identifiable focus in CIDA‟s documentation of the desire to help
attain access and equality for girls in education in Ghana.
While Canada did not directly inject itself in funding education in Ghana, which
is the obligation of the Ghana Government, it provided funding for associated
programmes that lead to empowerment and to reduction of barriers that hold back
girls and women on the African continent, lessening their chances of access and
equal opportunity in the area of education.
Limitations include the fact that CIDA cannot control all factors that impact a
country‟s progress, for example the weather or historical disparities that may lead
some to have much less access, however, as observed, CIDA has learned to
collaborate with Governments, with other aid agencies and particularly with local
agencies in Canada and in receiving countries, to ensure that the aid packages
reach the grassroots.
While skeptical that CIDA‟s new practice of focusing on a small pool of
approximately 20 countries worldwide is akin to a colonial practice of choosing
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losers and winners, Ghana, which is one of the 7 select Sub-Saharan African
countries has been lucky and can match forward with assurance from CIDA at
least in the coming few years.
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Chapter 7
CONCLUSION
This study set out seeking answers to three main questions: Does CIDA care about
issues of equity and access as they seek to improve education in Ghana? Do they do it in
a manner that complements the efforts of the Ghana Government, or do they seek to
impose their own Eurocentric priorities on Ghana? To what extent are they successful in
their work in helping Ghana achieve the MDGs for Education? At the close of the
discussion, the following issues are raised:
What is the importance of this study?
Why does this study matter?
How do I evaluate my engagement with a multi-theory framework?
What gaps did I observe in the study?
Recommendations for further study?
7.1 The Importance of This Study in the Literature
Throughout the literature review, it became increasingly clear that much of the
responsibility for the roots of Africa‟s present social, economic, and political woes lies on
the shoulders of imperialist, capitalist interests of the Anglo European world. It has
served their economic interests to see Africa remain in a vicious cycle of endemic socio-
economic underdevelopment (Bourdieu, 1998; AFRODAD, 2002; Shah, 2010).
Within the limitations of this study has, for the most part, CIDA operations have
been viewed favourably. In reality, there is no direct contribution to the actual
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educational system of Ghana. However, from the document analysis of its
activities, it is apparent the CIDA is engaged in serious para-educational work in that
country, and can be commended for this effort. Much consideration and work has been
evidenced concerning gender equity for women and girls; from creating awareness of the
lack of gender equality that persists in Ghanaian society, down to teacher training
activities for classrooms and curriculum to be made more gender accessible. CIDA‟s
contribution to social factors that mitigate and impact the ability of Ghanaian children to
enrol and complete schooling cannot be understated.
Some of these programmes include providing potable water in the communities in
order for children to be in school instead of walk long distances in search of water. Other
projects of significance provide women, the mothers, with training and microfinance in
order for them to cater for their children so that the youth do not have to engage in petty
economic activities to supplement the family income. Further to this, the inclusion of
women in participatory and community affairs enhances their ability to achieve self-
emancipation, and therefore civic advocacy and social rights (Akyeampong et al., 2007).
All these measures, though not directly under the umbrella of education, do, in like
manner, work to create a stable and favourable environment for education to flourish. It is
only within such an enabling environment that the questions of equity and access to
education for all Ghanaian children can be addressed.
7.2 Why This Study Matters
As a Ghanaian teacher who has taught in international education for over twenty
years, the past eleven of those years in Ghana, there have been plausible reasons for
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asking all the questions the study has sought to address. There have been many
opportunities to see the disparity in experiences international school students received,
the opportunities open to them, for them at local and those compare their counterparts in
the public system were receiving in local authority schools. The fleets of expensive cross-
country cars of international agencies attest to their presence in the country, but one may
ask, “what is all the noise these NGO‟s and international agencies are making about, and
what really are they doing to improve education for poor disadvantaged Ghanaian
children, as some profess to be their mission?”
As a native African, it has been refreshing conducting this study and writing this
dissertation. Indeed, with an academic interest in anti-colonial thought and the politics of
resistance to power and hegemony, this study has almost been a catharsis, and a grand
opportunity to express ideas that have been in mind for years. Having interacted with
mind-agitating questions such as, “why, in light of the abundant natural resources, can the
African continent not escape the bonds of poverty and lack of growth and economic
development?, and after having revisited the history of the continent‟s past, one comes to
know that it is much more complicated than many think or comprehend. Thereby, it is
satisfying to experience a freeing (in part) of some of the conflict in emotions that these
intellectual agitations have produced. Some, though not all the answers have been
provided, and the quest continues….for as long as one lives.
Finally, this study matters because it was an authentic quest to remain true to self
and to obligation as an African educationist and intellectual, to scrutinize and interrogate
the efficacy and relevance of the operations of international agencies in Ghana. Dei
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(2011) has articulated the need to interrogate the colonial euro-modernity project,
reiterating that African academics, politicians, media and governments must not fall into
the danger of being political accomplices of neo-colonialism. Each party needs to play
their role well to ensure that Africa gets its money‟s worth for resources that are extracted
out of the country to enrich Western developed countries, and to enable it gets the best
deal, in a “win-win” manner out of all negotiations with multilateral donor agencies and
Western developmental partners.
7.3 Engaging with An Anti-Colonial Theoretical Framework
Evaluating the relevance and salience of the framework employed had
implications for the findings of the study. The study is imbued with a degree of politics.
Anti-colonial studies deal with hegemony and a critique of Eurocentricity and are,
therefore, socially and academically political.
One cannot honestly discuss Africa and its development without touching on
equity and access issues and anti-colonialism is closely related themes to any global
discussion of Africa. This is because this theories always problematizes socio-political
and socio-economic inequities in North-South relations. Additionally, it allows for a
structured discussion on the intersectionality of race, gender, and class (Dei and Kempf,
2006). Also, employing this theory offered the opportunity for a deeper understanding of
the macro-political processes that have shaped the African socio-economic and socio-
political landscape, which, in turn, has enabled a comprehensive background to the
peculiar current socio-economic situation in Africa and how this impacts education on the
continent (Dei and Kempf, 2006).
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I would agree with Dei (2005, in Dei and Johal; Dei, 2006), who refutes the
argument that trivialises anti-racism and anti-colonialism and reduces it to a mere politics
of colour. This study shows that it is much more complex than that, particularly as an
academic and theoretical discourse. As a theoretical framework, anti-colonialism has
enabled the evoking of a whole body of historical knowledge and the reliving of a
historical specific experience- that of the colonisation of Africa by the west for economic
gain, and the subsequent impoverishment of the African native. Additionally, it has
provided a platform for the critique of the socio-political movement and socio-economic
operations of the Bretton Woods institutions and their motives in Africa. It has given
voice to the opinions of many African scholars, and articulated their desire to see more
indigenous representation in the development agenda of Western countries in Africa (Dei
and Asgharzadeh, 2001). Furthermore, the anti-colonial lens has amplified the need for
Western donor partners to work with the African governments, and not impose a
Eurocentric view of developmental priorities on African governments. This only ends up
destabilizing those governments, as they cannot meet the expectations of the local
populace and, therefore ultimately, destabilize fledging democracies and societies in
Africa.
An anti-colonial framework has provided a lens with which to raise and discuss
several issues relating to equity, the production of inequity and inequality, and how it
continues to exist (Dei and Asgharzadeh, 2001). I speak not only of the divide between
European conquest and continuing hegemony, but also within national boundaries in
Africa, and the divide between the rich/poor, rural/urban, male/female, ethnic/tribal etc.,
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which have affected equity and access to education, and therefore opportunities for a
better future. In adopting an anti-colonial framework, it has been possible to theorize
colonial, post-colonial and neo-colonial relations that have impacted Africa and Ghana,
as well as the implications of resistance to the imposition of a neo-colonial socio-
political, socio-economic agenda on Africa and its governments. It is important to
recognize and to acknowledge that colonialism did not end with the independence of
African countries from former colonial masters. These imperialist powers have devised a
new post-colonial system of power relations in which the imposition of ideas, values,
systems of education and public administration, the establishment of unjust economic
trade relations, exclusion and marginalization of Africa from participation in global
wealth, and the heaviness of the economic oppression of practically unpayable debts.
The time has come to engage in a critical discussion of aid effectiveness in Africa
and why, after decades of western European impositions of various structural adjustment
programmes, all have failed. The question needs to be asked and answers found as to why
African countries continue to be at an economic disadvantage as the time for achieving
the MDGs comes to a close (2015), and why many African countries will not attain those
goals. These larger issues of exclusion from a political world economy and globalism that
seems to be working only for the rich, developed world are worrisome and pertinent
issues that an anti-colonial discursive framework engages with, advocating for this
system to be subverted in favour of a more equitable world system. Anti-racist and anti-
colonial theories enabled putting Africa into perspective, to acknowledge Africa as a
“self-entity” and a salient identity in the world economy. The study engaged in the
90
discussion of the power relations in which Africa finds herself socio-economically due to
self-interest as an African scholar. In the spirit of the call for Education For All and the
achievement of the MDGs for Education, it is my hope to see the children of Africa
emancipated from poverty and ignorance. As an African educationist, it is my dream to
see every child, especially the “girl child” in school, educated, socially liberated and
economically independent. All children deserve to achieve their potential and to fulfil
their dreams, not only those in the Western European world.
Thus, an anti-colonial theoretical framework has allowed the viewing of aid
effectiveness from an African perspective, as well as the recalling of historical facts of
colonization, post-colonialism, and neo-colonialism from a native perspective. I call into
question the greed of neoliberal capitalist countries and agencies pursuing an agenda to
destroy any collective structures that stand in the way of their scramble for the wealth of
Africa, a phenomenon Pierre Bourdieu (1998) discusses so succinctly. This, through the
clever mechanism of economically debilitating conditionalities, is what has held the
African continent bound, disabled, and impoverished, while rich Western countries get
richer and richer, pretending to wonder why Africa has got poorer and unable to solve her
problems, despite her rich natural resources.
7.4 Directions for Future Study
For extension studies to supplement the findings and scope of this study, and
which would certainly contribute another dimension to the body of knowledge herein,
would be the investigation into the implications of spirituality and holistic education on
equity and access to education in Ghana. This is because it is time that the development
91
of Africa was based on the cultural and indigenous knowledges and resources from
within Africa. Many decades of trying to depend on economic factors alone to push
forward the development of Africa have not yielded success because they were all
Eurocentric (Dei, 2011). Should any African scholar seek to take up this challenge as a
sequel to this study, I would recommend an investigation into how education in Ghana
can be de-colonized by paying close attention to the spirituality, indigeneity and
indigenous knowledge, and the cultural wealth of the Ghanaian people and their
environment.
Further to this, in the review of literature for this study, I came across two
interesting concepts in the context of an anti-colonial framework discussed by Coloma
(2009); “palimpsest and catachresis”, as he elaborates how education has both served the
interests of a continued oppression through imperialist and colonial mechanisms, and at
the same time provided a space for resistance to it. Palimpsest, Coloma (2009) refers to
histories and cultures that have been written over and erased by colonialism and yet
contain remnants of the past, and are useful for tracing legacies and continuities of
colonialism and contemporary anti-colonial resistance. Catachresis, on the other hand,
alludes to the difficulty of postcolonial inquiry and activism from within the confines of a
self-conscious awareness of its intimacy with the very institutional structures and belief
systems it seeks to critically interrogate and resist.
Though I found that these two concepts could provide another focus and
perspective to exploring the post- and anti- colonial issues of development aid, I could
not pursue this theoretical route, due to limitations of time and space. I encourage anyone
92
with the academic curiosity it requires to take these two concepts and test them against
the challenge of education in Africa in a neo-liberalized and globalized twenty-first
century. Indeed, in his book “Postcolonial Challenges in Education” Coloma challenges
scholars and academicians to such a resistance.
7.5 In conclusion
Education of the masses has proven one sure way to build upon the effort of
stepping out of the dark vortex of poverty, lack of development and the strangling debt
Africa finds itself in. However, as John Dewey continually stressed in his life time, it
must be an education that is accessible, relevant and for Africa, development-oriented
and suited to the peculiar circumstances of the African socio-economic, historical and
cultural context and situation. Though I use CIDA and its operation and activities for
development aid as a basis for my study, the ensuing questions for discussion and the
underlying concerns for equity and access, as well as the thrust for commitment to an
anti-colonial perspective to aid development by donor partners and Western multilateral
agencies, when dealing with Africa, applies to all other development partners who claim
a space in Ghana‟s (and by implication Africa‟s) developmental agenda.
To this end, the question of the authentification of self-identity and the conception
of a collective African self-identity as a continent, and the significance of such an identity
in enabling Africa to participate in the new world order and to be part of the fraternity of
socioeconomic, political and industrial growth and progress, this thesis does not advocate
for Africa to sell her soul, and exchange it for more eurocentricity than is already present.
The self-identity referred to is the spirituality and indigeniety of the African continent as
93
it seeks to embrace and to become a part of world trade, to improve upon her social and
political institutions, and to position herself for the economical emancipation of the
countless Africans that continue to live in poverty, social disenfranchisement and lack of
opportunity.
As I conclude this study, I acknowledge that I do not and cannot know it all. I am
very conscious of the fact that so much more can be done to make this study more
comprehensive and exhaustive. However, within the limits of a one year MA study,
having in mind all the timelines and deadlines that go with it, bringing my thoughts to an
end, and having made further recommendation for others to pick up from where this
study left off, I end with hope…Hope that the transformative enquiry and critical work
began in the academy will translate to an escalation of socio-political action; hope in the
power of ideas to catch fire and bring transformative positive change into our
communities, nations and the twenty-first century world; hope that as we humbly seek
deeper ways of knowing, and engage with the entrenchment of established socio-political
and socio-economic hegemonies that continue their strangling hold on African economies
and resources, Africa will find allies in their world, who, for the sake of intellectual
honesty and strong moral sense of justice, will join the move to open genuine doors of
inclusion into the world economy to Africa and Africans.
94
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