Social Capital and poverty reduction in Ghana: a spatial analysis of the role of civic participation on the incidence of poverty in Ghana

Poverty level in sub-Saharan African countries such as Ghana remains considerably high despite recent success in reducing it. Policy makers and development practitioners alike are continuously in search for new pathways to achieve the first Sustainable Goal of eliminating poverty. This study explored the role of social capital for reducing rural poverty in Ghana—a sub-Saharan African Country. Specifically, the study sought to assess the effect of civic participation on the odds of suffering poverty in two geographical areas: urban and rural areas. We used data from the 7th round of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS, 7). The study combined multilevel mixed-effect models with treatment models to analyse the data. In general, we found that civic participation reduces the incidence of both absolute and extreme poverty. In the multilelvel mixed-effect logistic model, the study found that attending a town hall meeting, writing a letter to authorities, joining a political rally and political campaign reduce the odds of poverty. Sub-sample analysis using rural and urban areas revealed that the effect of civic participation on poverty only holds in rural areas. The study found that in the rural areas, attending a town hall meeting, writing a letter to an authority, joining a political rally, campaigning for a political party and taking part in demonstrations reduce the incidence of absolute poverty. A robustness check using the nearest matching treatment effect model also confirmed some of these results. The major implications of these findings for policy making are discussed

Keywords: poverty, civic participation, Ghana, social capital, multilevel mixed effect logistic model, treatment effect model