Expanding Member-Based Organisation (MBO) participation in waste governance: a community-based waste management approach in Ghana

Abstract

Waste management in many urban areas of developing countries continues to fall short, with significant health and environmental consequences. Community-based governance approaches have emerged as alternatives, with Member-Based Organisations (MBOs) increasingly filling gaps left by formal institutions. While existing scholarship has focused on waste-picker associations, the governance contributions of other MBOs, such as trade and industry groups, remain largely undocumented. This study investigates how woodworkers’ associations in Sokoban Wood Village, Ghana, participate in waste governance and the barriers they face in sustaining these activities. Using a qualitative case study design, data were collected through 20 in-depth interviews with association members. Participants were purposively selected, while focus group discussion with five association leaders provided additional insights. The findings reveal that the associations enact four governance practices: organising collective clean-up exercises, delivering waste education, soliciting external help, and mobilising funds internally. Their effectiveness is constrained by financial insufficiency, limited institutional support, inadequate equipment, and declining member trust, all rooted in local government's failure to recognise these associations as legitimate governance partners. The study extends the MBO literature by revealing that organisations not primarily focused on waste managment can nevertheless assume meaningful governance roles when formal institutions are weak. It further broadens existing knowledge of community governance by highlighting a wider range of actors involved in urban waste management. This has important implications for designing more inclusive urban waste governance policies in Sub-Saharan Africa.