Poverty Reduction among the Urban Poor in Accra, Ghana – a Comparative Study of the Roles of Two Community Based Organizations

This case study is on participants’ evaluation of a poverty reduction programme that is under implementation by two Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) within a suburb of Accra, Ghana’s capital city. Specifically, the study focused on assessment of participants’ views on the causes and dimensions of poverty as well as the impacts of certain on-going projects aimed at alleviating of poverty in the community. The study further sought to isolate the factors that explain participants’ satisfaction with these projects and also analyzed their views on future sustainability of the projects. It was realized that respondents’ views on poverty were quite divergent, embodying some of the very well known notions of the concept. Furthermore, socio-economic variables were found to dominate the factors accounting for satisfaction with project execution. Majority of the respondents also expressed confidence on the projects’ future sustainability, even in the absence of governmental and other forms of support.