Resources on NGO Impacts in Ghana

I was recently asked to post about assessing the impact of NGOs in Ghana.  Here are some resources that I found:

Be sure to check out the Institutes, Think Tanks and Reports section of your course guide.  It lists several websites that will have reports from major non-profits in West Africa.

In addition to the general social science article resources (e.g. JSTOR, ProQuest, Google Scholar, etc.) two databases that will have international NGO reports would be:

• Columbia International Affairs Online
• PAIS International

Search these databases for keywords like (NGO or non-governmental organization or intergovernmental organization) and (accountab* or monitor* or evaluat*).  Here are links to two productive searches I ran in Google Scholar's Advanced Search screen:

• allintitle: NGO evaluate OR monitor OR accountability  (in Business or Social Sciences only)
• NGO accountability Ghana (in Social Sciences only)

Here's an example of one item at the top of these search results that you can also find in a similar Tripod search:

• Porter, Gina. NGOs and poverty reduction in a globalizing world: perspectives from Ghana. Progress in Development Studies, 2003, Vol.3(2), p.131-145

For numbers and actual datasets, UNData is a portal into statistics from several big organizations, including UNESCO's Institute for Statistics and the UN's Millenium Development Goals Indicators which are also linked in the Literacy and Education Statistics section of your course guide.

In Tripod Classic, browse the subject headings for Non-governmental Organizations.  You will find several subheadings with promising-looking titles:

-- Africa

-- Africa, Sub-saharan

-- Africa, West

-- Evaluation

-- Ghana

Try also: Economic assistance and the same sub-headings.

Some examples of individual items that I found in this manner:

• Holmén, H. (2010). Snakes in paradise: NGOs and the aid industry in Africa. Sterling, VA: Kumarian Press.
• Johnson, W. R., & Johnson, V. R. (1990). West African governments and volunteer development organizations: Priorities for partnership. Lanham: University Press of America.
• Sandberg, E. N., Columbia University. Institute of African Studies., Bratton, M., Brautigam, D., Jenkins, K., Anang, F. T., Tripp, A. M., Anheier, H. K., & Martin, C. L. (1994). The changing politics of non-governmental organizations and African states. Westport, Ct.: Praeger.
• Yarrow, T. (2011). Development beyond Politics: Aid, Activism and NGOs in Ghana. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.

This is just a smattering of what I noticed in my search results.  Play with these keywords and subject headings in Tripod and the other databases and you will find even more.  Add additional keywords and restrict your publication dates to limit your results if you find it overwhelming.  Hope this helps!