Why does Northern Ghana stay poor: Lack of Governmental will or lack of capacity?

Abstract

The three Northern Regions have always been considered as the poorest in Ghana. They are covered with savannah grassland and now inhabited by 3.3 million people. Even at independence in 1957, these regions represented a classic case of development disparity when compared to the rest of the country. The colonial government had deemed the regions to be lacking in natural resources and did not feel the need to develop them. They found the northerners to be generally amiable but backward; only useful as soldiers, policemen and labourers in the mines and cocoa farms in the Ashanti and the colony. Today, defined as those who live less than a dollar a day 70 percent in Northern Region, 90 percent in the Upper East and 84 percent in Upper West Region are classified as poor. Alongside their poverty the three regions have hosted 26 ethnic conflicts since 1980. Drawing on findings from the Ghana Living Standard Surveys (GLSS III and IV), figures from Ghana Population and Housing Census 2000, an extensive review of literature, and field research conducted in the area in early 2006, this paper traces the origins of the development deficits from pre-colonial days to Kufuor's government of 2006. The paper poses the question as to whether the lack of human development and endemic poverty in the regions are caused by a lack of capacity of development authorities of unwillingness of the national government to take effective action.