II. PPP-Ghana Project Background

1. The People's Participation Programme
2. PPP Pilot Projects
3. The PPP Pilot Project in Ghana
4. History of PPP Group Formation
5. Factors Contributing to the Difficulty of Project Implementation

1. The People's Participation Programme

In 1980, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) established the People's Participation in Rural Development through Promotion of Self-Help Organizations Programme (People's Participation Programme or PPP). The impetus for PPP came from the recommendations of the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (WCARRD) organized by FAO in Rome in 1979.

WCARRD declared that “participation by the people in the institutions and systems which govern their lives is a basic human right and also essential for realignment of political power in favor of disadvantaged groups and for social and economic development.”¹ WCARRD also stated that the lack of people's participation was a major factor in the failure of many past “top-down” rural development projects. WCARRD provided FAO with a mandate to strengthen its involvement in participatory development, which had begun with its Rural Organizations Action Programme and Small Farmers Development Programme started in the mid-1970s.

¹ FAO, The Peasant's Charter: The Declaration of Principles and Programme of Action of WCARRD, Rome, 1981.

² FAO/RAFR, The People's Participation Programme in Africa, Accra, 1988.

2. PPP Pilot Projects

PPP pilot projects are considerably different from FAO's more traditional projects regarding their design, staffing, financing, institutional arrangements, and development methodology. The purpose of each PPP project is to promote the active involvement and organization of the rural poor to facilitate their social and economic development.

PPP's main emphasis is on formation of small, informal, self-reliant groups of the rural poor as part of a longer-term strategy to build institutions serving their interests. These groups allow members to work together on income-generating activities, serve as receiving mechanisms for development services, and provide a voice for members in dealing with local authorities.³

³ FAO, Participation in Practice: Lessons from the FAO People's Participation Programme, Rome, 1990.

Pilot project activities are initially limited to sub-regional action areas (AAs) and later replicated nationally. Project staff at the AA level would include a number of group promoters (GPs) managed by a project coordinator (PC). GPs would assist in group formation and training and link groups to government and NGO services. A coordinating committee at the AA level, including beneficiaries, project staff, and local officials, would aid in project implementation. At the national level, another coordinating committee, including representatives from government ministries, NGOs, and FAO, would monitor project activities in the AAs. Appendix IV includes some of the key elements of the PPP development approach.

While all PPP projects have the same purpose and include the elements of the PPP development approach outlined above, their implementation has differed depending on the particular circumstances of each country. This is especially true of the PPP pilot project in Ghana.

3. The PPP Pilot Project in Ghana

Consultations between FAO and the government of Ghana regarding the People's Participation Program Project in Ghana (PPP-Ghana) began in 1980. By late 1981, the government of the Netherlands had agreed to finance PPP-Ghana. Implementation of the project began in May 1982 with the first meeting of its Task Force (the project's national coordinating committee), but the project did not become fully operational until December 1983. Project activities were implemented in two action areas: the Wenchi AA in Brong Ahafo region and the Begoro AA in Eastern region.

3.1 The Four Phases of PPP-Ghana

FAO originally scheduled PPP-Ghana to last for one phase of three years, ending in May 1985. The project eventually lasted for four phases (Phase I, Phase II, the Transition Phase and Phase III), covering 15 years, and is not scheduled to end until late 1996. FAO was involved in the first three phases only. The fourth phase, called Phase III because of the addition of the Transition Phase, is directly managed and funded by NGOs.

Although FAO planned Phase I to end in May 1985, early delays in initiating activities in the action areas extended the termination date to February 1987. The project's mid-term evaluation workshop in March 1985 recommended a second phase of the project to meet project objectives, and the Dutch government approved financing for Phase II in late 1986.

Phase II of the project, beginning in March 1987, was also scheduled to last for three years. Again, the Phase II mid-term evaluation seminar recommended another phase to continue the project's work. The government of the Netherlands, because of a shift in its funding priorities, decided not to finance a third phase. When Phase II ended in February 1990, curtailed project activities were able to continue during the Transition Phase financed by unspent portions of the Phase II project budget. The Transition Phase lasted from February 1990 until late 1992.

A tripartite review mission, consisting of FAO and the governments of Ghana and the Netherlands, conducted in April and May 1990, recommended that FAO end its involvement in the project and that total responsibility be turned over to the two implementing NGOs. Thereafter, FAO limited its involvement in the Transition Phase to obtaining funding for the project's fourth phase. By mid-1992, two Dutch donors had agreed to finance Phase III of PPP-Ghana.

For a variety of reasons, Phase III began at different times in the two action areas (September 1992, in the Begoro AA and January 1993, in the Wenchi AA). Since the inception of this fourth phase, PPP-Ghana is in effect two separate projects. Each AA is being exclusively administered by its local NGO and funded directly by a Dutch donor NGO. With the beginning of Phase III, FAO's official role in PPP-Ghana ended. Phase III is scheduled to last for four years, ending in late 1996. Phase III is expected to be the last phase of the PPP pilot project in Ghana.

Table 1. Four Phases of PPP-Ghana.

Phases		Stating Date	Ending Date
Begoro AA
	Phase I	May 1982	February 1987
	Phase II	March 1987	February 1990
	Transition Phase	March 1990	August 1992
	Phase III	September 1992	expected August 1996
Wenchi AA
	Phase I	May 1982	February 1987
	Phase II	March 1987	February 1990
	Transition Phase	March 1990	December 1992
	Phase III	January 1993	expected December 1996

3.2 PPP-Ghana Action Areas

The Phase I Plan of Operations established criteria for selecting project action areas. FAO intended these criteria to identify AAs that would improve the project's ability to reach its objectives and serve as an example for replicating the PPP development approach to other areas of Ghana. FAO officials and project staff remarked, however, that the AA selection process also included political considerations. Ultimately, the two AAs selected were in the Wenchi district and the Begoro subdistrict of the Fanteakwa district.

The Wenchi district is in the center of the Brong Ahafo region of Western Ghana. It is located in the transition zone between moist forest to the south and interior savanna to the north. At the beginning of project implementation, the population of the district was about 150,000. The majority of the population live in villages of fewer than 500 people and belong to one of five indigenous ethnic groups. Only the town of Wenchi has a population of greater than 5,000 inhabitants. The Catholic Diocese of Sunyani has a very strong presence in Wenchi.

Most of the people of the district live by agriculture, with maize, yam, cassava, pepper, tomatoes, and garden-eggs as the most important crops. Although land is not particularly scarce, most farmers are poor. Typical farms range in size from one half to five acres, and farmers use only family labor and traditional agricultural practices. Educational, health, and agricultural extension services are limited in the district.

The Begoro sub-district is located next to Lake Volta in the Eastern region. Ecologically, the AA is situated on a plateau in the moist forest zone. According to the 1984 census, the sub-district had a population of about 75,000. Begoro is the only town in the sub-district and had over 11,000 inhabitants in the early 1980s. The rest of the population is scattered in small villages and settlements. The Presbyterian Church of Ghana has been a significant institution in the subdistrict for over 100 years.

In contrast to Wenchi AA, recent settlers from the Krobo ethnic group, who moved to the area in the past two decades, make up a significant portion of the population. With no traditional land rights and with a scarcity of agricultural land in the sub-district, these settlers must farm on a shareholder basis, giving one half of their production to the land owner. The most important crops grown in the AA are cassava, maize, cocoyam, plantain, and tomatoes. As in Wenchi AA, the amount of family labor available and traditional agricultural practices limit agricultural production.

4. History of PPP Group Formation

In both action areas, project staff promoted the formation of PPP groups throughout Phase I and into the first year of Phase II. At this point, project staff, the Project Review Committee (the successor to the Task Force), and FAO agreed to stop forming new PPP groups so that project staff could concentrate on consolidating existing groups. Therefore, very few new PPP groups were formed during the last two years of Phase II and the Transition Phase.

The group formation process began in the Begoro action area in late 1983. The number of groups steadily increased throughout Phase I to a total of 121 groups. At the beginning of Phase II, the Presbyterian Church of Ghana replaced the entire project staff in the action area. Only limited information about Phase I groups was passed on to the staff of Phase II, which made it difficult for the new GPs to contact the Phase I groups. Making this situation worse, many Phase I groups had defaulted on their loans and therefore did not want to meet with the new project staff.

This situation forced the new group promoters to start the group formation process over again at the beginning of Phase II. During the first half of Phase II, the new project staff helped establish 115 new groups and identified 11 functioning Phase I groups. Combined, these groups make a total of 126 Phase II groups.

Of the 126 Phase II PPP groups, only 66 continued into the Transition Phase. During the Transition Phase, only one new PPP group formed, making a total of 67 Transition Phase groups. Therefore, during the project's first, second, and transition phases, project staff helped form a total of 237 PPP groups in the action area. Because of their steady turnover, only a fraction of these groups was active at any particular time.

As in Begoro, group formation began in Wenchi AA in late 1983. Semi-annual reports, written by the national project coordinator and based on information submitted by the GPs working in the AA, show a steady increase in the number of groups that existed during the first half of Phase I (to 111 groups by August 1985). When the Task Force appointed a new AA project coordinator in March 1986, however, he could only identify 30 PPP groups, all of which were classified as “dormant.” Eventually, at least 26 of the 111 Phase I groups continued into the second phase.

Therefore, as in Begoro AA, the group formation process began anew with the appointment of the new action area PC. Project staff helped form as many as 97 new Phase II PPP groups during the second half of Phase I and into the first year of Phase II. Combined with the 26 groups that continued from Phase I, these were the 123 groups that existed during the second phase of the project.

Only 68 of these Phase II PPP groups continued into the Transition Phase. Three new groups formed, making a total of 71 groups that existed during the Transition Phase. Therefore, project staff in Wenchi AA facilitated the formation of a maximum of 211 PPP groups during the first, second, and transition phases of PPP-Ghana. This figure of 211 groups formed is a maximum, since poor records make it possible that more than 26 of the original 111 Phase I groups continued into Phase II, meaning that fewer than 97 new groups were formed during Phase II.

Table 2. Potentially Viable PPP-Groups, PPP-Ghana.

Action Area/Phase		Groups from previous phase	New Groups	Total Groups in Phase
Begoro AA
	Phase I	0	121	121
	Phase II	11	115	126
	Transition Phase	66	1	67
	AA Total		237
Wenchi AA
	Phase I	0	111	111
	Phase II	26	97	123
	Transition Phase	68	3	71
	AA Total		211
PPP-Ghana
	Phase I	0	232	232
	Phase II	37	212	249
	Transition Phase	134	4	138
	Project Total		448

Table 2 shows the number of PPP groups that existed during the first, second, and transition phases of PPP-Ghana. A total of 448 PPP groups were formed in the two action areas during these phases. While PPP-Ghana proved successful at forming self-help groups, various factors constrained the implementation of the project throughout its first three phases.

5. Factors Contributing to the Difficulty of Project Implementation

The 1980s, and the early 1980s in particular, were a very difficult period in Ghana's history (see Appendix V). Economically, the period was characterized by high rates of inflation, scarcity of basic goods, under-funded governmental and non-governmental organizations, limited and unreliable transportation and communication services, and the negative impact of structural adjustment policies at the grassroots level. Numerous attempted coups and major political changes made by the PNDC created an environment of political instability. All of these factors created conditions particularly unfavorable to implementing new development projects. The failure of various rural development projects initiated in this period confirms these difficult conditions.

It was during this period that FAO introduced its People's Participation Programme into Ghana. For FAO, PPP's participatory development approach was innovative at all levels of implementation: community, NGO, Government of Ghana, and FAO in Accra and Rome. Supervision of PPP-Ghana was more limited than typical FAO projects that generally have permanent senior resident experts. FAO supervised PPP-Ghana primarily through brief, annual backstopping visits by FAO staff and consultants and through bimonthly visits by a junior FAO Associate Professional Officer based in Accra. In addition, the funding available to the project was relatively limited. The Dutch government and FAO expended roughly $ 720,000 over ten years to manage this innovative pilot project.

These factors contributed to a variety of problems in the early implementation of the project. FAO officials and project staff attempted to correct these problems, but the damage done by these early mistakes often limited the project's success throughout its lifetime. To its credit, FAO used many of the lessons learned from these early mistakes to develop manuals on participatory development and improve the work of its other PPP pilot projects.