The Water Sector Reform Programs in Ghana, (National Community Water and Sanitation Programme) seek to ensure the sustainable management of these facilities. The implementations of these reforms however, have not been in... [ view full abstract ]
The Water Sector Reform Programs in Ghana, (National Community Water and Sanitation Programme) seek to ensure the sustainable management of these facilities.
The implementations of these reforms however, have not been in accordance with their desired expectations. Implementation has faltered because the reforms conflict with practices emerging from communities implementing these Water Sector Reform Programs.
To resolve the conflicts –that is to reduce the tensions arising from the incompatibility of water policies with emerging local practices; institutional entrepreneurs who seek to reconcile policies with emerging practices emerge. As a result, a process of institutional change takes place
In this paper, we use insights from institutional bricolage and translation to explain the processes of institutional change. Literature on institutional change, recognize that, exogenous and endogenous factors are necessary but not sufficient conditions for initiating change. Problems trigger struggles over institutional change when actors perceive disturbances in the distribution of resources and power. By explicitly specifying the mechanisms to explain this change, this research contributes towards improving on theories of institutional change.
Using six communities in Central, Ashanti and Northern Regions of Ghana an in-depth study is made to explore the processes of institutional change and how that impact on users access to water and sustainability of small town water systems. This paper establishes that actors will embark on the processes of institutional change when policy ideas do not fit with local context. And the problems exposed by exogenous related factors disrupt exiting power relations and distribution of resources.
By this, the study will be contributing to developing a systematic explanation and convincing arguments which enable us understand why actual implementation differ and relevant multisectoral approaches and practices towards improving management of water facilities and resources.
