Effectiveness of Stakeholder Engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility Projects: The Case of Ghana “Cocoa Roads Projects” by Ghana Cocoa Board

Abstract

Over the years, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by various organisations operating in various sectors of the economy in Ghana has gone a long way to contribute immensely to the development of these communities and the nation at large (Klu, 2017). However, these CSR projects has gained considerable criticism about the effectiveness of CSR practices especially questioning if beneficiaries of CSR projects are also involved in the decision of what corporations do for them as social responsibility engagements (Afreh, 2016). Hence, this study set out to examine the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement in corporate social responsibility projects of the Ghana Cocoa Board with special focus on their “cocoa roads projects. Through qualitative research approach the researcher, purposefully sampled eight 8 stakeholders of Ghana Cocoa Board in category of internal and external stakeholders to participate in the study. The findings revealed that the nature of CSR projects by COCOBOD are in form of educational support; supports of healthcare of beneficiary; improvement of agriculture and infrastructure developments. Also, the findings revealed that whereas stakeholders from COCOBOD suggested that their CSR policies ensures sustainability engagements, the external stakeholders (beneficiaries), believes they are not well engaged in the CSR projects of COCOBOD as they see consultations, engagement and involvements in the decision making of project almost not existence. Hence the challenges found in the study to confront COCOBOD in quest to engage their stakeholders includes absence or wrong representatives, conflict of interest and poor participation in initiatives/decision making. The study therefore concludes that the Ghana Cocoa Board needs to be strategic in the dealing with their various stakeholders especially in choices, designing and implementations of CSR projects they institute for the communities they operates in.