| dc.description.abstract | African local governments have an important role to play in Sustainable Energy
Transitions (SET), yet their involvement in sustainable energy planning is severely
inadequate. The main aim of this study was to examine how the role of local governments
can be enhanced in promoting SET in Ghana. Using a mixed-methods design, the research
was conducted in the Wa municipality of Ghana. Key-informant interviews, Focus Group
Discussions (FGDs) and document reviews were the main methods of inquiry. A total of
thirteen institutions, two local communities and seven policy documents were purposively
sampled. Data were analyzed using ATLAS.ti and NetDraw Software. Results show that
local government agencies, NGOs, central government agencies (ministries/departments),
and private sector organisations were the main categories of actors in the municipality.
Central government agencies and NGOs undertake most of the sustainable energy
initiatives with local government agencies playing a facilitative rather than a direct role.
Despite being the most popular in the actor-network, local government agencies’
involvement in sustainable energy planning was low. The inadequacy of local government
involvement in sustainable energy planning was highlighted in policy frameworks, yet the
policy documents fail to explicitly outline strategies for integrating sustainable energies
into local government plans. Consequently, little attention is given to energy issues in the
local government plans. Energy-related projects constituted only 1.3 percent of all the
projects found in the plans, and they were all focused on expanding electricity access
through grid extension. The results also showed that all local government units are faced
with significant logistical deficiencies. The study recommends the integration of
sustainable energy planning into the district medium-term development planning process
and proposes an integrated framework to this effect | en_US |
