The proliferation of diaspora-funded community development projects in sub-Saharan Africa presents a significant shift in development finance, creating parallel structures to formal local government. This analysis examines the implications of this trend for governance accountability in a specific regional context. This policy analysis article investigates how financial inflows from migrant associations reconfigure relationships of accountability between citizens, traditional authorities, and elected local government bodies. It aims to identify the resultant accountability mechanisms and assess their implications for inclusive local governance. The analysis employs a qualitative case study design, drawing on documentary analysis of project records, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders including diaspora group leaders, local assembly members, and project beneficiaries, and non-participant observation of community meetings. Diaspora funding creates a distinct, project-based accountability loop that bypasses formal local government structures, directly linking donors to traditional leaders and project implementation committees. A dominant theme was the conditional nature of this accountability, with continued funding tied to strict adherence to donor stipulations, leading to a notable diminution of the local assembly's perceived legitimacy in approximately 60% of the studied communities. While filling critical infrastructure gaps, diaspora-funded projects can inadvertently weaken vertical accountability to elected local governments by establishing competing, non-transparent channels of resource allocation and community oversight. Policy interventions should formalise collaboration between diaspora groups and district assemblies through mandatory integration of projects into medium-term development plans. Furthermore, capacity building for local governments is required to manage these partnerships and ensure transparency in diaspora-funded initiatives. diaspora finance, local governance, accountability, community development, Ghana, transnationalism This article provides a novel analysis of the 'diaspora accountability loop' as a distinct policy mechanism that recalibrates local power dynamics, offering new evidence on the conditional and exclusive nature of project-based accountability.
Mensah et al. (Tue,) studied this question.