Policies of Poverty - International policies for poverty reduction in the case of Ghana
Development studies have become increasingly positivistic and a lot of research is solemnly based on empiric analysis. Especially from a perspective of political science a re-orientation at norms and paradigms underlying the development discourse has to be brought forward to fully understand the design of policies and to assess their consequences. International actors, like international financial institutions as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), making policy recommendations to various developing countries based on norms and paradigms that might not have changed as much as the turn towards a focus on policies for poverty reduction since 2000 promised.
To analyse policy recommendations it is promising to focus on a single country case rather than conducting a comparative study, in order to understand the mechanics behind policies of poverty reduction between international actors and national governments. Recommended and implemented policies of poverty reduction in Ghana will be studied in a normative policy analysis to comprehend the development of norms and paradigms on an international level and to set those in relation to alternative policy recommendations and the socioeconomic situation in Ghana. The Republic of Ghana, its policies and the policy recommendations by international actors will be in the centre of the thesis project. Ghana’s long and profound relation with the international financial institutions as well as its title as “star pupil” of these institutions makes this case study promising. It will also be an objective of the project to shed some light on the disparities between the image of Ghana as a “rising star” in Africa and the persistent poverty and socioeconomic problems of the country in the context of norms and paradigms underlying the policies that try to cope with them.