"Now I know the law": Empowerment of mining communities by an environmental non-government organisation (ENGO)

Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) became very prominent after
the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 as vibrant social movements. Since then, ENGOs operating at the local, regional, or global levels have been instrumental in environmental management in both developed and developing countries. This study sought to investigate the
performance of the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM),
a local ENGO, in some selected mining communities in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality, in the Western Region of Ghana. Situated in the intepretivist research philosophy, the
study employed in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and observations to collect
data from some staff of WACAM, community residents and some government agencies.
Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to select 77 respondents for the
study. Data collected was transcribed and manually coded into themes and categories for
analyses. From the perspective of the respondents and participants, the study found that
WACAM performed well in mitigating the environmental ills caused to the mining communities. WACAM employed the use of advocacy and capacity building as the means to
empower poor and vulnerable groups of people and also to influence public decision
making and implementation, to challenge the status quo of social injustices, and to defend
their human rights. It is recommended that local and/or international donor agencies
should sponsor the activities of such ENGOs. Moreover, there should be healthy collaboration between WACAM, government agencies, especially the Environmental Protection
Agency, and local community residents to sustainably manage the exploitation of natural
resources.