Implementation of environmental sanitation policies : assessing the role of local actors in Ghana

The implementation of Environmental Sanitation Policies [ESP] to achieve sanitation goals has been a daunting task for many developing countries. Many research outcomes identified implementation challenges ranging from institutional bottlenecks, finance, and technology to regulation and law enforcement. However, research on actor's relations and how these relations influence the implementation of the ESP at the local level can be described as scanty but emerging. Though public management theories like Public-Private-Partnerships [PPP], decentralization and participation are thought to be effective management tools for public policy implementation; little attention has been given to the relations of actors within the process of their application in ESP implementation. This research argues that actors are the fulcrum around which all the factors that affect implementation evolve; therefore their relations and interactions exerts a significant influence on policy output and outcome. Drawing on empirical examination in three local government areas in the Greater Accra region of Ghana, this study investigated the kind of relation that exists between actors in the implementation of ESP at the local level, the issues affecting actors' relations and how these relations influence policy outcomes. The study adopts a qualitative research methodology to investigate the phenomena. The study was conducted adopting semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions; documentary reviews; and participant observations as the key data collection Instruments to document actors' relations, issues affecting actors' relations and the impact of relations on ESP implementation at the local level. A purposive sampling technic was employed to sample local level actors from wide range of actors who are directly involved in the implementation of the Environmental Sanitation Policy of Ghana. The study establishes that the relations between actors at the local level are largely chaotic and uncoordinated. It further identified issues affecting actor's relations under four themes namely Institutional, Economic, Political and Socio-culture. These issues largely defined the kind of relations that exist between actors at the local level. The findings of the study conclude that actor relations play a central role in ESP Implementing in Ghana. The study contributes to theory by unearthing critical but less researched area of actors' relations in public management theories and also to practice of policy implementation by identifying critical contextual factors that impedes public policy implementation in developing countries.