Protecting Community Rights in Ghana's Lithium Sector

This policy brief examines governance challenges in Ghana's expanding mining sector, through a case study of the Ewoyaa Lithium Project. Drawing on primary data from 12 semi-structured interviews and 3 focus group discussions conducted in 2024, alongside document analysis, significant failures in protecting community rights and livelihoods have been identified. The findings reveal three critical issues: (1) systematic non-enforcement of mining legislations and policies, (2) unfair compensation schemes enabled by legal ambiguities, and (3) community dispossession (ie the act of taking property, land, or natural resources away from a community or group of people) through legislative gaps between lease issuance and parliamentary ratification. The research demonstrates how these issues are enabled by governance shortcomings, thereby disproportionately benefiting mining companies whilst damaging local communities' economic stability. These shortcomings can be mitigated via the following policy recommendations contained in this Policy Brief.