Confrontation, co‐operation or co‐optation: NGOs and the Ghanaian state during structural adjustment

Abstract

This article examines relations between non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) and African states, with particular reference to Ghana, during a period of structural adjustment and neo‐liberal hegemony in Africa. The growing number of NGOs in Africa, and the concomitant shift in international aid away from African states toward NGOs, places these new institutional actors at the heart of debates concerning democratisation, civil society, economic liberalisation, the role of state, and the nature of nation‐state sovereignty in an era of a World Bank/IMF condominium in Africa. Building on the work of Fowler and others, the article examines NGO‐state relations in Ghana in detail. It argues that NGOs fit in perfectly with the neo‐liberal agenda for Africa. With the state under attack from above and below, a new struggle for resources and power is being waged between NGOs and many African states, with, as the case study of Ghana shows, the outcome, in this transitory period, far from certain.