Benedict Arko
The impact of local economic development strategies in Ghana
Though cities and regions around the world have embarked on local economic development strategies as far back as the eighteenth century, the assessment of the impact of such strategies have been insufficient. As many developing countries embrace this practice in response to the failure of top-down development approaches among other reasons, the need suffices for such assessments. I use a realist theory-driven evaluation approach to assess the impact of the International Labour Organization’s Ghana Decent Work Programme which was implemented in two pilot districts in southern Ghana from 2003 to 2005. I prioritize not just on determining outcomes, but also the mechanisms triggered by the Programme which led to such outcomes and the contexts that aided such mechanisms to produce such outcomes. I investigate these Context Mechanism Outcome Configurations at the levels of the individual beneficiaries, the Small Business Associations, the institutions and the local economy having as a contextual background the national and international economic situations.