Marriage of the Unwilling? The Paradox of Local Government and NGO Relations in Ghana

The extant literature on the relations between government and NGOs is limited in two respects-dominant focus on relations between central government and NGOs and a limited discussion of typologies of relations in countries in Africa. This study seeks to make a modest contribution to addressing these limitations by studying the relations between local government and NGOs in Ghana. This paper proposes a four-dimensional framework for analysing the relations between local government and NGOs in Ghana. It reports that the relations are varied, complex and multi-dimensional and characterised by superficial and suspicious cordiality; tokenistic and cosmetic collaboration; friendly-foe relation; and convenient and cautious partnerships.