Developing Countries’ Underdeveloped Institutional Settings: Can the Evidence-based Policy Approach be an Effective Tool in the Effort at Reducing Poverty? A Study of the MASLOC Program of Ghana

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue II, February 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Developing Countries’ Underdeveloped Institutional Settings: Can the Evidence-based Policy Approach be an Effective Tool in the Effort at Reducing Poverty? A Study of the MASLOC Program of Ghana

 Charles Amoyea Atogenzoya
Department of Building Technology and Estate Management, Dr. Hilla Limann Technical University

Abstract: With numerous socio-economic problems competing for the world’s limited resources which are continuously dwindling in supply, there has been a long-running debate among academics, policy makers, and international development partners on the subject of how to improve policy success rates with our limited resources. Responding to this call, evidence-based policy (EBP) making and implementation has been recommended as one of the ways of improving policy success. Confident in the approach as an effective policy development tool, donor and development agencies are prescribing the EBP for the design and implementation of developmental policies in developing countries (due to its relative success in developed countries). The author presents a case study examining the impact of institutional deficiencies on the effectiveness of EBP in ensuring successful policy implementations. The case chosen is whether there is sufficient evidence to show that the not-so-much impressive results of the MASLOC program of Ghana can be attributed to institutional constraints? Using a qualitative research design based on mainly secondary data triangulated with interviews, the author shows that the institutional setting in developing countries can have a very significant influence on the level of success that EBP can have on policymaking and implementation.

Keywords: institutional environments, evidence-based policy, policy success, microfinance and small loans, developing countries.

I. INTRODUCTION

Poverty eradication has been one of the topmost development issues in the world (but most especially in developing countries) over the past decades. Recognizing the link between poverty and other social problems such as armed robbery, teenage pregnancies, streetism, etc. poverty eradication or reduction has been at the heart of the development agenda of various governments, local and international NGO’s, and other international development agencies. Ghana, a developing country, has had her own share of the poverty canker. As a result, successive governments over the years have rolled out various poverty intervention programs all in an effort to support the global fight against poverty. In the interest of space, some of such programs worth mentioning include: the School Feeding Program; the Rollback Malaria Program; the Livelihood

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