Contending Discourses on ‘Partnership’. A Comparative Analysis of the Rural Water and Sanitation Sector in Ghana

Today, ‘partnership’ is one of the most popular words in the ‘development dictionary’. The original meaning, carved out of the ideology of alternative development – partnership as an act of solidarity – has been hijacked by a new rationale: revisionist neo-liberalism. Here, ‘partnership’ acts as a means for efficiency. With the two models operating side-by-side in reality, the line between them becomes easily blurred. It is the aim of this essay to shed some light on these recent confusions. This will be done by examining the two models of ‘partnership’, based on the example of the rural water and sanitation sector in the Bolgatanga District of Northern Ghana. From the point of view of a local NGO, RuralAid, three main questions will be tackled: First, what are the main differences between the two concepts of ‘partnership’? Secondly, do the models in this example actually fulfil the necessary conditions for ‘partnership’? And finally, what consequences does their approach have for the sustainable delivery of water and sanitation to the rural areas of Ghana? Based on the findings it will be argued that the new model, ‘partnership’ as a means for efficiency, does not fulfil the necessary criteria underlying the concept and furthermore that the model is not conducive to the sustainable delivery of water and sanitation services because of its inherent economistic rationale.