ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is an attempt to analyze and unpack mainstream representations and dominant narratives resulting from the neoliberal development discourse and to imagine alternative approaches. It stimulates debate on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's new architecture of aid and result in improvements in the policy formulation process in aid recipient countries like Ghana. The book interrogates how different groups in civil society are involved and excluded in development policy making, and how such processes of inclusion and exclusion relate to citizenship rights, resource allocation and equity. The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS), initiated in 2001 has been implemented since 2003 as the country's medium-term framework for poverty reduction. The book also discusses the impacts of the implementation of the reform policies and the steady shift from the Washington to the so-called Washington Consensus policies.
