A critical ethnography of gender (in)equality, NGO practices and neoliberal entanglements in Ghana

Abstract

International and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become part of a complex combination of factors that add nuance to processes of exploitation and inequality in society. This thesis examines Ghanaian NGO ‘development’ discourses that prioritize “women’s empowerment” and scruitinizes the ways in which “an exploitable subject” is generated for, and maintained, by NGOs’ as they formulate and implement projects. To accomplish this, I investigate one international ‘development’ NGO in Ghana (Grameen Foundation) and its local implementing partners, and a major Ghanaian national advocacy NGO called Abantu for Development. The projects of these two organizations aim to “empower” women and address gender inequality, and are funded by donors in the United States and Western Europe. I draw on the activities of these two organizations to explore three key issues in this study: 1) the operational workings of NGOs in Ghana; 2) the experiences of women ‘beneficiaries’ of projects led by international NGOs; and 3) the forms of exploitations and exclusions that occur as NGOs implement projects. In exploring these issues, I adopt a multi-directional ethnographic approach (“up” the workings of the NGOs and interviews with women ‘beneficiaries’) to reveal the specific ways that “exploitable subjects,” created by the dispossessions of capitalist and neoliberalist policies, are sought out for NGO projects, and further exploited through NGO activities. Using this approach, I construct ethnographies by talking to people on the job, by participating in the NGOs’ activities, and by documenting the experiences of the women ‘beneficiaries.’ My findings indicate that while some women benefit from NGO projects, international gender equality projects in Ghana exclude local women in deliberations about their needs, and end up – for the most part – exacerbating inequalities experienced by so-called ‘beneficiaries' and further deepening local women’s ‘exploitable subject’ positions. This study contributes to existing literature on African feminism by critically analyzing the often-unexamined implementations and impacts of gender equality projects led by international organizations and their local counterparts. Through this, I ultimately reveal the specific discourses and practices that combine in NGOing to structure ‘exploitable subject’ positions for rural Ghanian women today.