Paper on

“CULTURE AND GOVERNANCE”

By Esther Oduraa Ofie-Aboagye

(Dr. Esther Ofie-Aboagye Is the Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies)

(Delivered at a Workshop on the Challenges in the implementation of the Cultural Policy of Ghana this was run by Ma’at Productions in collaboration with the National Commission on Culture)

I would like to express my gratitude to you all for the invitation to join the other stakeholders in a bold exploration on the issues relating to Ghana’s Cultural Policy and its implementation. This paper has been prepared with the issues guiding the organization of this workshop in view as follows:

·         The objective of the meeting is to subject the Cultural Policy and its implementation to a critical review with a view to addressing the challenges.

·         The policy was launched in 2004 and located within the context of the Fourth Republican Constitution. A review has become necessary as is good practice in ensuring a dynamic and responsive framework for forging a Ghana and a Ghanaian identity that function, are sustainable and we can all be proud of.

·         In the synopsis, the key questions that have been identified: what is the state of our being, our national integration and whether Ghanaian-ness is a reality in the face of ethnity; whether we are a democracy; democracy and the rule of law vis-ă-vis present day Ghana and Africa.

·         Even though it is beyond my remit other questions are attractive for my reflection. They include whether there is a need for restructuring the machinery for the management and administration of the cultural policy. Another key area of interest for me is the question on the need for a policy on chieftaincy and the prospects for fusing chieftaincy into our governance and constitutional system.

Specifically, my letter invited me to look at the economic potential of the sector including attention to:

·         Human resource development

·         Entrepreneurship

·         Marketing and packaging

·         Advocacy

·         Funding sources

·         The international and local climate

·         Government’s deliberate policy to support the culture sector

·         Capacity development programs for cultural workers and administrators.

What is government and what are the implications for cultural policy implementation?

For the purposes of this presentation, governance involves processes through which        entities – societies, communities and organizations – steers themselves. It refers to governments’ relationships with the electorate, the public, the consumers of services and non-state actors. The state of governance characterizes the environment in which governments function and to governments’ relationship with stakeholders. In this context therefore, government can be understood as a set of institutions, machinery, a set of institutions and instruments for collective action.

Government can be economic, political or corporate. Economic and corporate governance involves actions to attract investments, improve efficiency and productivity through macroeconomic management, public financial management, banking supervision, financial services regulation and corporate governance.

Political governance includes political pluralism (free existence of several political parties and affiliations), workers unions, fair, open democratic elections, freedom to choose leadership. There are the inter-linking responsibilities of these dimensions of governance. These include the

·         Responsibility of the government machinery to manage and provide an enabling environment for mobilizing, allocating and accounting for national resources in line with national priorities and objectives;

·         Responsibility of the judiciary, statutory bodies, media and civil society to provide checks and balances;

·         Responsibility of the private sector to promote income and employment creation.

Local governance is fundamental to achieving national governance. It is the processes by which communities and people in a defined political locality steer their affairs. It is the joint management of public concerns through partnership by various stakeholders from the private, public, non-governmental and civil society sectors. In all of this, some generic hall marks of governance have been identified. They include;

·         Accountability

·         Transparency

·         Openness

·         Rule of law

·         Equity and Impartiality

·         Democracy

·         Consensus-seeking

·         People-centered policies

·         Responsive performance by the state

·         Continuing review and improvement.

The synopsis raised questions as to the extent to which these characteristics are evident as part of the way of life in Ghana. A considerable part of my comments will relate to local governance because of the nearness of this sphere of governance to communities and the exercise of culture at the local level and the nexus of the unique and multi-dimensional perspectives of our people’s way of life.

The Cultural Policy of 2004

The Cultural policy of Ghana defines culture “as the totality of the way of life evolved by our people through experience and reflection in the attempt to fashion a harmonious co-existence with our environment. This culture is dynamic and gives order and meaning to the social, political, economic, aesthetic and religious practices of our people. Our culture also gives us our distinct identity as a people.”

For the implementation of the cultural Policy, I do believe that its implementation would have benefited from articulating clearer roles for Ghana’s governance institutions both at the national and sub-national levels. It would have provided a basis for bold the various arms of the machinery of government, the ministries, departments and agencies, the public services, constitutional commissions and the decentralized agencies to account. It would also have encouraged these institutions to examine their responsibilities to promoting Ghanaian culture and innovations within it, more critically. The governance institutions influence our way of life and the conduct of business and should therefore be assigned critical roles to play in policy implementation. Yet apart from the Chieftaincy institution and the Commission, other institutions just get a passing mention.

In specific relation to the policy, the main objectives are relevant to good governance. For instance, the second is to “ensure the growth and development of our cultural institutions and make them relevant to human development, democratic governance and national integration”.

The Constitution justifies decentralization as a strategy for deepening democracy and citizen’ participation, enhancing responsive development and regional integration. This begins to answer the question in the synopsis whether Ghana is a democracy or is on the path to democracy. The location of policy formulation in central government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and implementation with sub-national structures (district assemblies) and coordination, review and backstopping with regional institutions should be fully taken advantage of by the Cultural Policy.

The specific objectives of the policy have implications for governance. We could cite for instance, objectives 3, 4, 5 and 7, objective 3 indicates “to foster national unity among the diverse ethnic groups of Ghana by promoting cultural interaction and inter-ethnic understanding through programs that create an enabling environment for national development”.

Objectives 4 states as follows: “to make the people of Ghana aware of the contemporary relevance of their cultural resources for human and material development”.

Objective 5 says “to identify and disseminate local knowledge of the environment and support communities to sustain positive traditional concepts and practices to protect nature and bio-diversity for the benefit of the nation”.

Objective 7 outlines “to eliminate through public education and appropriate legislation, cultural practices that lead to the abuse of the rights of the individual on account of ethnic differences, gender, age, religion, physical challenges or economic status”.

Indeed, all the 15 objectives have functions, dimensions and responsibilities that could be assigned to ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and assemblies for the fuller implementation of the policy. However, in section 4 or the implement of the Cultural Policy, only the district assemblies are mentioned as stakeholders. Indeed, primary responsibility is given to the Chiefs and the Commission as implementers.

Clearer obligation should be placed on government structures in the implementation of the Cultural policy particularly, taking into account their legal obligations. For instance, the district assemblies that are mentioned in the list of implementing stakeholders have eighty-six (86) or more functions indicated in the establishing legislative instrument (LI) of each assembly. Some of these functions have a clear bearing of cultural responsibilities, though the words “cultural responsibilities” are not explicitly indicated. The box below indicates some typical provisions in such a LI.

In Section 5.0 on the Approaches, under Section 5.5 issues are raised in relation to the “Establishment of Link-ages with Various Sections of National Development”. The policy says in Sub-section 5.5.1 that “the National Commission on Culture (NCC) shall establish appropriate linkage with other sectors of the economy for the attainment of national cultural goals”. Sub-section 5.5.2 indicates that the NCC will plan, collaborate and coordinate activities with various entities.

Since culture relates to the way of life of a people, and the government institutions refer to the ways in which responsibilities for living and for achieving the objectives of a people are assigned, the policy will be better served if provision is made for mainstreaming culture into the various agencies to achieve the different cultural goals. The Commission can certainly not do it alone yet no onus was place on the agencies to deliver.

In Section 5.6, the policy identifies government subvention, contributions from assemblies and from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) as sources of funding for the promotion and development of the arts and culture. It is not clearer how successful, the Commission and also the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture have been in these regards.

The assemblies in their 88 functions have responsibilities for informal education, the creation and maintenance of libraries, maintenance of parks, gardens, sacred groves and other important elements of culture.

Apart from population size, issues of history, culture, economic activity are all determining factors in creating a viable district. The preceding presentation on chieftaincy and culture raised several critical insights. Because chiefs are an embodiment of our culture, clarifying the relationship between governance institutions and the chieftaincy institution will greatly facilitate mainstreaming cultural sensitivity. The ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD)) has developed a draft policy for managing the relationship between the traditional authorities and assemblies which considers the following key areas:

a.       Protocol at the local level and issues of precedence

b.      Representation of Traditional Authorities on MMDAs

c.       Relations between Traditional Authorities, Unit Committees and Local Government Sub-Structures

d.      Platforms of Engagement Between Local Authorities (Assemblies) and Traditional Authorities

e.       Infrastructure Management, Monitoring and Evaluation

f.       Peace-Building, Security and Conflict Prevention

g.      Natural Resource Management

h.      Internal Revenue Mobilizations

i.        Human Rights Observance and Reduction of the Practice and Impacts of Negative   Socio-Cultural Practices.

j.        Capacity Building and Knowledge for Traditional Authorities.

All these areas are clarified giving roles to traditional authorities and making regular consultation and specify platforms obligatory for assemblies. The critical role identified for traditional authorities in constituting the appointed memberships of assemblies is indicative of the need to find people who are sensitive custodians to the culture in governance.

In Reviewing the Cultural Policy’s Provisions for Implementation

The considerations for addressing the challenges of implementing the Cultural {policy are forward-looking. If the Cultural policy is going to remain as it is created, then greater awareness of the document must be created and expectations outlined for them. But it is important that this review, reconsiders the implementation framework and other elements of the policy.

It must be made worth the while of governance institutions to be interested in it, for these institutions to regard culture as a viable contributor to their functioning and well-being. Can this position on culture be used to exact their collaboration? I therefore intend, as proposed by my terms of reference, to look at the economic potential of culture for governance in relation to the areas that were identified.

Culture’s potential for contributing to human resource development:

The nation’s commitment to its human resources and social development agenda should resonate with government institutions at all levels. There are a lot of important values and practices that characterize us as Ghanaian traditional values constitute the content of several civic education, citizenship and leadership programs. Management and leadership training programs in the public and private sectors now include sessions on ethics, transparency, accountability and empowerment. However, the material, case studies, films, symbols, problems, games and other learning /teaching resources that are used to promote experiential learning are often based on western management models (which over the past two decades, have drawn heavily on Asian practices).

Therefore, the positive aspects of Ghanaian culture and the Ghanaian’s conceptualization of these values can be used to underpin administrative, management and leadership training for various categories of public servants, NGO staff wanting to develop responsive programs and youth leadership programs.

Culture’s potential for fostering entrepreneurship:

Creating an entrepreneurial orientation in Ghana is critical to our development and our rich and diverse collective culture presents enormous prospects for Ghanaians to be creative. Entrepreneurship involves identifying particular needs with the resources that are available and meeting these needs an innovative way. Ghanaian communities have their peculiar ways of life that are attractive, consolidate wisdom and provide viable alternatives on life. The government machinery – at local and national levels – should be able to provide a framework that motivates Ghanaians to project food items, cosmetic products and traditional medicine (alternative medicine); replicates the historic ways of life, preserves artifacts, architecture and structures; and maximizes the potential of our tourist attractions but adapt these to patrons would expect.

District assemblies as part of their responsibilities for local economic development must be encouraged to foster small and informal sector actors who will create in- comes and employment by using the strong and attractive aspects of the cultural features in their localities. What advocacy has there been for affirmative action to promote enterprises that add value to indigenous products? (The assemblies must also seek and provide support from the specialized support agencies (public and private) that support small enterprises in the areas of management and skills training, marketing, credit and other support) for the small business associations and economic groupings in their localities and generally, create a win-win situation.

Culture’s potential for marketing and packaging:

The unique features of our culture provide prospects for an innovative approach to marketing and packaging Ghana. A recent poster presentation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) used Adinkra symbols to advantage. The extensive use of kente fabrics outside this country as a symbol of “African” pride almost demonstrates an opportunity lost. Our fertility dolls, different types of woven fabrics, and combining these with technologies available for information dissemination could put Ghana to an advantage and replace the overemphasis on foreign, western imagery and tools. Again, efforts to innovate and generate ideas for marketing and packaging Ghana and Ghanaian goods should be initiated at the national, regional (inter and intra) and district levels. A decentralized approach with enthusiasm and competition could stimulate creativity and pride in Ghanaian culture.       

Advocacy and culture’s potential                                   

The relationship between advocacy and culture has multiple dimensions. Advocacy of culture: There is considerable advocacy required to promote what is positive in our culture to Ghanaians. The current socio-economic environment is heavily biased towards imports from other cultures in the areas of food, clothing, values, priorities, literature and entertainment. A sustained campaign is required, again at all levels of governance institutions should be required to use, affirm and commit to local foods, local products, local ceramics and textiles in the conduct of public business. Their achievements should be reported on or communicated to the NCC / MCC at regular intervals. The MCC / NCC should acknowledge publicly through honouring events, awards and other means, the achievement of these parties. All of the governance institutions are impacted upon by the socio-cultural environment in which they function and they must be encouraged to identify and assess the positive and negative implications for their effectiveness.

On the other hand, there must be arrangement for ongoing research into modernizing and re-packaging cultural aspects of our lives. It is in this regard that relevant research institutions should be encouraged to consider ways in which the essential and desirable features of cultural dress, behavior and other ways can be presented in an attractive way to young people.

Advocacy against culture: on the other hand, within the context of currently predominant development paradigms of promoting social development and advocacy for better observance of human rights, culture has been extensively vilified. For instance, gender-base violence, discrimination and ethnocentrism in the workplace and in society have sometimes been attributed to culture. Quite often, remarks are made to the effect that negative values such as bribery and corruption, lack of attention to detail, procrastination, disregard of time, mediocrity and stereotyping are also cultural. There are surely positive models in our culture that can be found that speak against these practices. They must be found and championed in the fight against these negative tendencies (Gyawu atiko adinkra symbol).

Using culturally acceptable methods of advocacy: on occasion, the way advocacy has been undertaken and the values and standards that have been propagated, have put the custodians of our culture off. This is evident in the experiences with gender equality, the campaign against gender-based violence, child care and health care. However, experience shows that these campaigns succeed when they are aligned with traditional values and illustrated with historical examples. Therefore, we need to explore what is culturally acceptable by way of models and strategies for advocacy and modify the proposals from abroad to fit into our socio-cultural contexts.

Funding sources for culture’s potential: it is not clear how successful the proposed provisions in the policy for funding have been. What is appears to be is that such sources as proportions of the Common Fund and district assembly contributions may not have been regular or large enough to undertake the enormous assignment. Cultural undertakings themselves have probably not broken even or paid for their deep, requiring subventions, subsidies and contributions from various sources. Ghanaians have also not acquired the practice of endowments or leaving legacies to cultural programmes in their wills.

Therefore, advocacy of culture, related activities and monuments must be vigorously pursued from economic, social, health and religious perspectives. In other parts of the world, there are monasteries and similar institutions offering retreat services; the rise of medical and eco-tourism amongst others. What peculiar niche or advantage do our cultural resources have? What kind of specialized quality are we offering to the world: Is it the organic value of our produce, the nearness to nature or an opportunity to return to the basics of life?

A strategic plan to consider how to maximize the economic potentials of our cultural strengths and competitive advantages in urgently required. Such a plan would also consider how to plug the leakages where people have taken advantage of our cultural festivals, stolen our indigenous knowledge and birthright must be identified and considered.

International and local climate. Whether this was the climate of governance and development practice or some other climatic dimension was kindly left to my interpretation. In relation to the physical climate, the present environmental conditions and issues of climate change demand increasingly urgent attention. The changes in other parts of the world do have implications for us in Ghana. For instance, the earthquakes and tsunamis in other parts of the world have attracted contributions to alleviate the plights of the affected. However, there is considerable wealth In our cultural practices that protected us from environmental hazards in the past. For instance, taboos, proverbs and cultural practices have protected groves, water bodies, vegetation and animals in the past. How useful are these for our current times? Can we re-apply them, educated our children and commit governance organizations to support environmental projects that champion this wisdom? Can we get district assemblies to draw on the cultural practices of the locality to positively promote their responsibilities of environmental sustainability?

In relation to the international and local development climate, there are trends and practices that are emergent but resonate with the values and practices that are Ghanaian cultures hold dear. For instance institutional, organizational and development best practices (such as communication, team work, social cohesion, mobilization, bottom-up planning, consultation, leadership by example, holding property in trust in the public interest, sustaining social capital, clan mechanisms of accountability and ensuring social protection) all have parallels in Ghanaian culture. Why can we not promote these as best practices as our contribution?

Government’s conscious policy to support the culture sector:

Earlier portions of this paper suggested that beyond building linkages to implement the policy, efforts should be made at mainstreaming culture into governance institutions.

Champions of culture should be fostered amongst the key leadership of governance institutions to complement the efforts of our traditional authorities. Cultural-sensitivity should be promoted through government policy not a one-off periodic concession or token gesture but a conscious way of life, with a view to maximizing what is good and strong about the Ghanaian. There are key questions that need to be addressed to consciously pursue the cultural policy and cultural-sensitivity in governance institutions. For instance:

·         What conscious efforts have been made to find champions of culture amongst parliamentarians, captains of industry, educationists, health practitioners and other national leaders? For instance, can we cite people like Ephraim Amu, Dr. Oku Ampofo, Bishop Sarpong, Kofi Atubam and their parties who sought to find, adapt and promote what was admirable in our culture to shape various aspects of governance, today?

·         What efforts have there been to educate parliamentarians, ministers, chief executives, chief directors and senior public servants on the national cultural policy?

·         What efforts have there been to identify Ghanaian culture-oriented targets and interventions by governance institutions?

·         Are there dedicated budgetary allocations to support initiatives that highlight or prioritizes positive cultural values?

·         Do organizations have cultural policies for instance regarding the use of local fabrics for curtains, table covers, pictures, art work, food served for refreshments, entertainment at public events, corporate social responsibility?

·         Does the NCC / MCC have the capacity to undertake cultural education, advocacy, collation, analysis and dissemination of information institutions and practices?

·         Are there dedicated cultural officers in public institutions to nurture and take responsibility for the day to-day pursuit of cultural targets and intentions?

·         What is the state of collaboration with institutions what common objectives such as the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE)

·         Have there been evaluations of previous efforts at fostering cultural sensitivity and pride (such as in the “National Integration” efforts undertaken)? What lessons have been learnt?

·         What efforts at recognizing and rewarding governance institutions that have taken cultural concepts, made it their most and promoted modern trends with them?

Capacity development programmes for cultural corkers and administrators

In support of the mainstreaming effort advocated in the previous discussion, it is important to ensure sufficient capacity amongst cultural workers on one hand and administrators on the other. It is also realized that at present, staff of the NCC / MCC are concentrated in their sector but not available across the public sector and in governance institutions.

Therefore, it is important to take steps to build the capacities of cultural officers to undertake outreach activities. They will require training in understanding governance issues in Ghana, the public administration system, facilitation techniques, social accounting and development issues generally.

The commission / Ministry should develop an annual programme with governance institutions to assess the impact of the country’s socio-cultural practices and trends on governance in the country. Some of the issues that would come up would be the extent to which the Ghanaian’s beliefs, values, practices and attitudes carried into the workplace climates and contexts; beliefs about traditional leadership and the implications for administrations and management in the workplace.

Conclusion

Culture has contributed to governance patterns and effectiveness in many parts of the world. This is evident in the extent to which the cultural contexts of Asian and other countries have shaped management and administrative culture and practices, notions of patriotism, aspirations, achievements and living standards. The diversity and heterogeneity of cultures of the various groups in Ghana should be a source of strength rather than a deterrent to finding valuable resources that would contribute to building social capital for governing ourselves.