Abstract
Local governance historically revolved around chiefs. However, colonialism witnessed the transfer of the powers and functions of chiefs to local government authorities. Current local government legislations failed to provide the needed formalised process of collaboration between the two actors resulting in conflict and tensions between them. This notwithstanding, chiefs have exhibited their preparedness to collaborate with developmental partners including local government authorities. The study examined the processes and activities that chiefs and local government authorities collaborated for the purpose of community development. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select forty-nine participants from New Juaben, Ghana. Multiple qualitative methods including participant observation, in-depth and key informant interviews were used to collect data. The study revealed that chiefs and local government authorities collaborated on an ad hoc basis in organising communal labour and sanitation, disaster management, revenue mobilisation and crime prevention. Though chiefs and local government authorities collaborated in diverse activities, the process of collaboration was not formalised. Chiefs are however needed in local governance to aid in the materialisation of the objectives of community development. The study recommends for the formalisation of the process of collaboration between the two actors to enable the former play active roles in local government.
 Keywords: Collaboration, Local Government Authorities, Chiefs, Community Development
Highlights
Chieftaincy and local government structures are very instrumental as far as sustainable development is concerned
The collaboration between chiefs and local government authorities is pivoted on the notion by the citizens that the latter has contributions to make in the fight against poverty and deprivations (Asamoah, 2012)
Despite their indispensability in the materialisation of the objectives of decentralisation, there is no formalised process of collaboration between chiefs and local government authorities
Summary
Chieftaincy and local government structures are very instrumental as far as sustainable development is concerned. In Ghana, the indispensability of the chieftaincy institution, culminated in their conscription into the colonial administration (Brempong, 2007; Blanton, Mason & Brain, 2001; Rathbone, 2000) Chiefs during this era constituted Native Authorities and were saddled with the mobilisation of revenue, maintenance of law and order, ensuring good sanitation and healthy practices in their communities (Brempong, 2007; Sharma, 2003; Rathbone, 2000). Perceived as an undemocratic institution, the mission of the postindependence political elite was to remove all forms of colonial vestiges from state institutions and transform the chieftaincy institution in line with the wave of transformations in the colony (Brempong, 2007; Rathbone, 2000)
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