Unit Committees and Participation in Community Development: Does Spatial Location Matter?

The unit committee in Ghana’s local government is believed to facilitate participatory development. After decades of practice, there is little research on the unit committee’s role in participatory development. This paper contributes to this research gap by drawing on the experiences of participants sampled from the Kumasi Metropolitan and Ahafo Ano South-west districts. The paper argues that the unit committee–participatory development interface is spatially differentiated. While unit committees promoted instrumental participation in urban localities, their counterparts promoted transformative participation in rural communities. The findings suggest a rethink of the role of sub-district structures to reflect spatial characteristics of their localities.