Mr. Asaah Mohammed holds an MPhil. in Social Work from the University of Ghana. He also holds a BA. in Integrated Development Studies from the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale, Ghana.

PHD TOPIC: LOCAL COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PROJECTS IN OIL AFFECTED COMMUNITIES ALONG THE WESTERN COAST OF GHANA.

Since the commercial discovery and production of oil in Ghana, several concerns have been raised about the potential impact on the livelihoods, environment and health of coastal communities along the Western coast. Subsequently, oil companies as well as government have been called upon to provide social development projects such as alternative livelihoods and environmental protection to the affected or likely to be affected communities. It has however been noticed that in many oil producing countries especially, in developing countries the planning, designing and implementation of social development and mitigation projects are often done exclusively without or with minimal local communities participation. Paradoxically, local oil affected communities in most countries are still wallowing in extreme poverty despite several corporate and government social investments in development projects. The fundamental questions of how to enhance effective communities’ participation and increase communities’ benefit of social investment projects is still a myriad. Coming from the critical theoretical perspective, the following decisive questions are worth examining; to what extent are local oil affected communities participating in the design and implementation of social investment projects?, what socio-economic and political factors determines people participation in the decision making regarding social investment?, what are the constraining factors for effective local community participation and what legislative and institutional mechanism exist to enhance local communities participation in social investment decision making? It is therefore for the purpose of providing scientific information to close these knowledge gaps that this research is important. My research will apply the mixed methods approach in the design and analysis of results.