Avoiding the Snares

The failure of a country is not the fault of one incidence or one bad leader. Rather, there are several traps these countries fall into due to a lack of beneficial cooperation. Paul Collier explains in his book The Bottom Billion why countries are trapped in poverty and lack significant growth. His second chapter explains the traps that these countries fall prey to: conflict, natural resources, being landlocked with bad neighbors, and bad governance in a small country. Ghana is not currently ensnared in any of these traps. In this post, I will briefly explore Ghana's history and current conditions to explain why. 

Conflict
According to Collier, causes for a civil war are low-income, a weak state, and dependence on oil and other commodity exports. These all stem from a government not cooperating with other countries or sectors within the country to maintain a strong economic system. Ghana's beneficial trade relations with the US., Britain, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Eastern Europe, China, and Cuba strengthen their economy. The developed economic system will help prevent future conflicts. 

British colonial in the late 1800s occupation introduced Ghanaians fighting for independence against the British crown. After independence was achieved in 1957, Ghana gained self-empowerment and unification. However, instabilities lead to a coup in the 1960s for power by an opposing party in the one-party government. As Collier states, "the experience of having been through a civil war roughly doubles the risk of another conflict". Although this coup was not at the scale of a civil war, other conflicts have occurred concerning party politics. In modern times, there is very little conflict, as the government has settled into democracy.

Bad Governance in a Small Country
In order for Ghana's government to work around its ethnic differences in political parties, they cannot, by law, be ethnic based. This along with a shared cultural heritage make conflicts exceptional. There are Paramount Chiefs, who develop local communities alongside elders, that head 36 Traditional Councils. To combat decentralization, each Paramount Chief has a place in the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs. Urban areas are headed by Metropolitan/District Chief Executives. As for national government representation, each of the 33 constituencies in the region are represented in the legislature of 200 members. This representative democracy, where Ghanaians of all regions cooperate in governance, helps Ghana avoids the trap of bad governance in a small country.

Collier's methods for a country to stay out of the trap is to have a growing, educated, and economically secure population. These people will be beneficial because they have the education and solid economy to attain good jobs, cooperating to form a stronger country. Ghana's population is increasing about 1.8% per year and the 48.7% that attend secondary school is also growing. The IMF and World Bank have cooperated with Ghana to help its economy. The Economic Recovery Program (ERP) in the 1980s was aimed to decrease smuggling of goods, thus encouraging global trade, by decreasing the Cedi's value and increasing producer prices.

Natural Resources
Since Ghana's history as the Gold Coast in the 1400s, major global powers starting with Portugal have been interested in Ghana's valuable resources. Gold, cocoa, bananas, timber, tuna, aluminum, manganese ore, diamonds, bauxite, oil, and hydroelectric power fuel Ghana's economy. Collier explains that political restraints on natural resource trade make the resources a detriment rather than a benefit. Ghana's government has a tradition of supporting the lucrative global trade.
Collier explains that another possible detriment to natural resources is a strong ethnic divide. The most prominent ethnic diversity within Ghana is between the Ewe and Ashanti. There are some ethnic tensions, but no wide-spread conflicts. According to Collier, a democratic government is better for dealing with natural resources when there is a lack of a ethnic diversity and Ghana has been a democracy since its independence.

Landlocked with Bad Neighbors
Ghana is not landlocked, so Collier's trap of being landlocked with bad neighbors does not apply. Direct access to the Atlantic Ocean lead to urban and capital coastal development and strong historic trade ties with the U.S., Britain, Germany, Japan, and Nigeria, Eastern Europe, China, and Cuba. Ghana's three neighbors are Togo, Burkina Faso, and the Ivory Coast. Some refugees from Togo come into Ghana, but they can peacefully find their place in society with work such as in agriculture. Burkina Faso is poor, but had more conflict with Ivory Coast and generally left Ghana alone. The Ivory Coast had some conflict with Ghana over oil field ownership, but Ghana’s government kept Ghanaians calm.

Cooperation within Ghana's regional chiefs, the coastal and rural areas, their economy, along with strong relationships with other global powers is crucial to Ghana's democratic and economic success. When Ghanaians work together and with people of other countries, they can successfully avoid the snares that capture the bottom billion.