Non-Governmental Organizations as Partners for Sustainable Local Development: Ghana’s Experiences

The call for decentralization further highlighted the significance of non-state actors. This stemmed from the view that the state particularly in the developing world is not well positioned to address the diverse needs of its people. Representing some form of reduced role for the state, this approach provided a significant justification for the involvement of non-state actors. As a key non-state actor, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) have succeeded in creating a niche in local level development. Informed by the principle of altruism, NGOs work closely with the local people to address social and economic development challenges. The growth of the NGO sector over the years and the appeal such non-state actors have received ignite research interest on their impacts in Ghana’s bottom-up approach to development. The chapter highlights the impact of NGOs on local development and factors that constrain their performance at Ghana’s subnational scale.