Abstract

Economic development in the northern regions of Ghana has lagged the southern and coastal areas of the country. Over the past four decades, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and donor agencies have moved in large numbers to provide key social and economic intervention in areas that have been neglected by traditional central and local government support. This is largely to improve livelihoods and complement the meagre public efforts in the economic development of the north. Despite the huge infl w of donor funds towards reducing poverty and inequality, northern Ghana remains very impoverished. This research presents a political economy view of donor aid and its heterogeneity within a narrow target area of the savannah regions of Ghana. The study draws on survey data from former NGO workers, development experts and community members, and it is supported with archival data and anecdotal evidence. The paper posits that the culture of dependency on donor aid is very much evident in the lives of the beneficiary communities due to existing vulnerabilities. The idea of help for the helpless as advanced by ‘development aid implementors’, work assiduously to sustain their own survival with less accountability and proper evaluation of project aims versus outcomes. We argue that the usual basket case of the north seen as a needy region should be discarded in favour of a more appropriate organically evolved approach of pulling the savannah regions up by their own bootstraps. Complemented by external flaws, this dynamic approach could yield a higher utility and a well-planned revival of northern Ghana.