Disputation: Thomas Buabeng

Thomas Buabeng will on the 5th of March 2010 present his doctoral thesis for the PhD degree at University of Bergen with the thesis: " Implementation of public policy at local level in Ghana: the experience of Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS)”

 
SUMMARY
Taken inspiration from the MPhil thesis coupled with my previous work experience in pro-poor related projects motivated choice of the subject of this PHD thesis “Implementation of Public Policy at the Local Level in Ghana: The Experience of Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS)”. The arguments presented in the thesis are based on the conclusion that poverty reduction policies and programmes in Ghana have not achieved as much as intended by their design, at least not in terms of geographical coverage. The question this thesis sought to answer is “Why is it that various parts of the country have over the years continued to respond differently to pro-poor interventions?”. 

I argue that such variations may be explained individually or in combinations by four factors namely, implementation structure, resources, politics, and local factors. The study concludes that while differences in the implementation structure and levels of resources may be responsible for variations in the levels of effectiveness in the implementation of the GPRS in the northern part of Ghana, resources is the single most important factor responsible for the difference in the implementation effectiveness in the districts in southern Ghana. I am also of the view that the role of donors, NGO and civil society, private organizations, as well as local culture should be well studied and understood to inform the formulation and implementation of social policies that are meant to directly influence the lifestyle, attitude, and socio-economic wellbeing of people. This is because these factors that have not been properly addressed in the literature play crucial roles in whether public policies in developing societies may be implemented effectively or not

The opponents will be:

1.Opponent: Professor Merilee S. Grindle, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge

2. Opponent: Professor Steve Tonah, Department of Sociology, University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, Ghana

The third member of the committee is:
Associate Professor Steinar Askvik, Department of Administration and Organizational Theory, University of Bergen

The disputation is led by Vice-Dean, Professor Anne Lise Fimreite