Regionality: West Africa

Human Development Index: 136th/182

Population: ~24 Million

Land Area: ~240,000 sq. km

Water Coverage: 3.5%

Time Zone: GMT (0)

Capital: Accra

Official Language: English

Major Natural Resources: gold, timber, cocoa, diamond, bauxite, manganese

Borders: Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Togo, Burkina Faso

The word Ghana means Warrior King and was the title accorded to the kings of the medieval West African Ghana Empire. Geographically, the Ghana Empire was approximately 500 miles (800 km) north and west of modern Ghana, and it ruled territories in the area of the Sénégal River and east towards the Niger River, in modern Senegal, Mauritania and Mali.

Ghana was adopted as the legal name for the Gold Coast upon independence on March 6, 1957; however, it was not until July 1, 1960 that Ghana asserted its complete autonomy from Britain and became known as the Republic of Ghana.

- Wikipedia

Like many parts of Africa, Ghana was in fact an area with hundreds (about 250 actually) of different tribes and villages, all with more-or-less different languages and customs. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Western empires (Britain, France, Belgium) dominated Africa and sectioned off land into colonies. This has historically been a huge issue, as native peoples with completely different ways-of-life were grouped together against their wills. Ghana (or the Gold Coast, as it was known in the 1900s) was a British colony, and gained it’s independence in 1957.

Ghana is also in the region of Africa that was heavily impacted by the slave trade. The gulf of Guinea as well as proximity to the Americas made the export of slaves ideal in the 1900′s. In fact, historically about a third of the Ashanti population (a major tribe in Ghana) were slaves.

What’s interesting about Ghana’s economics is the huge gap in wealth between the southern part of the country (where the capital is) and the northern. 80% of population living in the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions are extremely poor (ie. living on under $1.25 a day). This is where most of the development work (including EWB) is going on.

Over the past decade Ghana’s government has been in the process of decentralization. What this means is that instead of the country’s public services (water, health, education, energy) being governed from it’s capital, the power is shifted down to district level governments who better know the needs of their districts… theoretically. In practice though, things (as usual) are not quite clear-cut. Here in Canada different levels of government have defined responsibilities: for example the municipal government in Toronto is responsible for garbage and local police, the Ontario provincial government heads up education and health, and the Canadian federal government does transportation and roads. In Ghana, these roles have not been defined. Also, due to complex political and donor relationships, real decision-making power is not always where it should be.

I’ll be working at the district level of government, in the Northern Region of Ghana.