Hardi
Yakubu
Vice President (Research & Strategy), NERA
0243931165, mhardiagain@gmail.com
Ghana’s development
trajectory has shown a great deal of overconcentration of development projects
in the urban areas. To be sure, this in itself is not a bad practice. However,
it becomes worrying when that is done to the neglect of the rural areas {what
Lipton (1977) referred to as Urban Bias}. Unfortunately, this has been the case
over the decades. Although Ghana, like most of Africa, is fast urbanizing, most
of its population still lives in the rural areas. In all the censuses conducted
in Ghana, as reported by the Ghana Statistical Service (2013), rural Ghana has
always harboured majority of the population, except in 2010; in 1960, the rural
population was 76.9%; 71.1% in 1970; 68% in 1984 and 56.2% in 2000. One would
think that development will be distributed proportionate to population such that
the rural people who are more will receive more development. However, in all
cases, the reverse is rather true. The rural people receive less investment in
development than the urban areas, their social amenities are either lacking or
pathetically deplorable and their economy is least developed.
Low
Investment in Rural Ghana
One of the reasons for
the lack of development in the rural areas is that there has consistently been
low investment in such areas. Capital investments in the form of building of
social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals as well as industrial
infrastructure such as good roads, electricity and others are skewed towards
the urban areas. Low investment in the rural areas is not only limited to the
public sector as private sector investments are also lacking. As a consequence,
most rural areas have very deplorable infrastructure; their kids sit on the
floor to study under trees and their communities are cut off when the rains
come down heavily. This trend of low investment in rural areas is largely reflected
in the lack or inadequacy of social amenities in those areas.
Social
Amenities are Lacking or Inadequate in Rural Ghana
Accessibility to social
amenities is very limited in rural Ghana. Several communities lack access to
potable drinking water. As a consequence, many rural folk continue to die from
preventable diseases contracted from the consumption of water from rivers,
lakes, lagoons, etc. Also in limited supply are educational facilities.
Unfortunately, where those facilities exist and there is access to education,
quality remains an issue. This is because most of the quality teachers and
teaching and learning materials are concentrated in the urban areas. As a
result, most of the people who are able to pass through SHS to the tertiary
institutions tend to be urban dwellers as Professor Akilagpa Sawyerr (2003) has
found. The situation is not different with regard to health facilities. Indeed,
health facilities are just as limited as educational facilities, if not
actually more. According to the GLSS 6, only 24.9% of the rural communities
have clinics or health posts while only 3% have hospitals. The resultant long
queues and the specter of pregnant women being carried on bicycles or motorbikes
are thus inevitable. As if to add salt to injury, the situation is compounded
by the refusal of health care professionals to accept postings to the rural
areas as a result of which only 9.7% of rural communities have nurses while
only 1% have doctors (GLSS 6).
The
Rural Economy has only Enjoyed Lip Service in Abundance
It
is important to analyze the rural economy as it fits into the urban bias
syndrome. In most African countries, large sections of the population are
involved in agriculture for livelihood. This is essentially a rule in Africa
and Ghana is no exception to it. The Ghana Statistical Service (2010) reports
that 56% of Ghanaians are involved in agriculture whilst the rural economy in
Ghana is dominated largely by agriculture. Here again, one would have expected
that more attention would be given to agriculture because it is the sector that
employs majority of Ghanaians. But then again, the reverse is the case. The
sector has suffered abominable neglect for several decades. The only thing the
agric sector has enjoyed in abundance is lip service. Consequently, the sector
is resigned to peasantry characterized by lack of infrastructure, inadequate
marketing facilities, low technology and low output. This is evidenced by the
diminishing share of agriculture to GDP from 42% in 2005 to 22% in 2013 (GLSS 6).
It is not surprising then that the majority of the 6.8 million Ghanaians who
are described as poor by the GLSS 6 are rural farmers.
Missing
Opportunities?
It is instructive to
note that by neglecting agriculture, Ghana is missing several opportunities.
First, there is evidence of the inherent capacity of agriculture, more than any
other sector, to lift people out of poverty (UNU-WIDER 2009, NewAfrican, 2014).
This means that the opportunity to create better livelihoods for majority of
Ghanaians will continue to elude the country. Second, a robust agricultural
based economy has always been touted as the solution to our import-dominated,
food insufficient, low industrial economy. Perhaps, as Professor Asamoah (2001)
suspects, our leaders have not realized that an agricultural depeasantization
is the solution to our economic woes. As to when they will come to this
realization, if at all they would, one cannot predict. It goes without saying
however that the continuous neglect of Ghana's agricultural sector means the
opportunity for economic take-off will continue to be missed. Last but not
least, we will continue to grapple with rural urban migration and its attendant
problems. For it is the undeveloped nature of the rural areas that provides the
push factors for rural-urban drift to thrive (Abotchie, 2012).
Conclusion
The development of
Ghana appears to be biased towards the urban areas. This is evident in low
investment in rural areas, inadequate and deplorable social amenities and
neglect of the rural economy. However, the continuous neglect of the rural
areas certainly means missing the opportunity to ensure comprehensive
development of the country. If Ghana is to be developed, the rural areas cannot
be left behind.
REFERENCES
Abotchie, Chris (2012).
Urban Sociology Lectures. Accra. Hans Publications.
Asamoah, A. K. (2001). Depeasantization
of Africa’s Rural Economy: The Ghanaian Experience. Accra. Charities Aid
Foundation.
Ghana Statistical
Service (2014). Ghana Living Standards Survey 6 (GLSS 6): Community
Facilities. Accra. Ghana Statistical Service.
Ghana Statistical
Service (2014). Ghana Living Standards Survey Round 6 (GLSS 6): Poverty
Profile in Ghana (2005 -2013). Accra. Ghana Statistical Service
Ghana Statistical
Service. (2013). 2010 Population and Housing Census: National Analytical
Report. Accra. Ghana Statistical Service
Page, J. (2011). Should
Africa Industrialize? Helsinki. UNU - WIDER
Sawyerr, A. (2004). Challenges
Facing African Universities: Selected Issues. African Studies Review Vol. 47, No. 1, 1-59
No comments:
Post a Comment