Amos Dangbie Dordah

Value Chain Development and Sustainability of Project Interventions Amos Dangbie Dordah

This book set out to assess the impact of the value chain development approach in development interventions, with specific focus on citrus production in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Though scholars have touted the usefulness of the value chain approach to development intervention, there is little empirical studies on how this approach impacts on the sustainability of development interventions particularly after the project life cycle. Thus, this book reflects the findings of a case study of the ADVANCE Project in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Though other projects have adapted the value chain approach in project implementation, this study was based on the ADVANCE Project because the ADVANCE Project has implemented over forty projects using the value chain approach across the world. Therefore, the ADVANCE Project in Ghana has the benefit of drawing from the successes and challenges of projects implemented in similar environments. Readers of this book will find evidence from the study, which indicated that the ADAVANCE Project have impacted both positively and negatively on the production and income levels of the sampled project beneficiaries. Though the immediate sustainability of the ADVANCE Project interventions can easily be linked to the value chain approach, the research gathered evidence to prove that the approach in itself is incapable of sustaining project interventions after its life cycle unless beneficiaries continually make gains out of those interventions. It is the hope of the authors that the evidence of project challenges and successes contained in this book will serve as lessons and guidelines for both development educators and practitioners whose activities seek to reinforce the usage of the value chain approach in project implementation. This book is organized under four chapters. Chapter one discusses the background to the value chain approach in project intervention, problem statement, the area of focus of the book the significance of the subject matter and scope of the book. The review of related literature, theories and a conceptual framework are captured under chapter two. In chapter three, the book concentrates on description of the methodological approaches to the study. Chapter three also presents a description of the study region. It also outlines the research design, sampling methods, methods of data collection and analysis. Chapter four contains the analysis of data, the discussion of findings, summary of findings, conclusions and recommendations.