Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Raj Singh

Abstract

Even though Ghana’s mining industry has been and continues to be of remarkable benefit to the national economy, environmental pollution continues to plague the industry. The purpose of the qualitative case study was to obtain the perceptions of 9 nongovernmental organization (NGO) stakeholders of the challenges faced by managers in the Ghanaian mining industry tasked with complying with Ghana Environmental Protection Agency (GEPA) regulations. Freeman’s stakeholder theory was the theoretical framework of the study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of Ghanaian and international NGO representatives who sought to work with, or even shame and pressure, mining companies to adhere to Ghanaian and international environmental standards to reduce pollution. The transcriptions were then analyzed using NVivo and coded to generate themes. The research question sought to discover ways that GEPA compliance by the mining sector could be improved. Four major themes emerged from the study: (a) NGO role as advisor limited the ability of NGOs to help mine managers to comply with GEPA; (b) a small, tight-knit community of government officials and senior mine managers created conflicts of interest; (c) investment in mining companies; and (d) actual actions by NGOs. The significance of the study is that it undertook a thorough and broad investigation into the environmental and health impacts of the mining sector on Ghanaian communities. This study has implications for social change by providing insight into the need to adopt best practices to improve GEPA compliance by the mining sector and decrease environmental pollution.

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