The politics of retirement income security policy in Ghana: Historical trajectories and transformative capabilities

Abstract

The study of pensions, retirement or old age income support policies in the developing world has been
relegated to the background largely because such programs are limited in scope and cover only a small
fraction of the population, mostly formal labour market employees. However because pension policies
address issue relating to income security at the latter stages of life, it is crucial that we understand how
they were developed over time by policy makers while paying special attention to the domestic political
factors that shaped their decisions. This paper analyses the development and transformation of
retirement income policy in Ghana. Contrary to the conventional wisdom in which social security
policies were framed as by-products of development and industrialization, this paper argues that formal
retirement income policies in Ghana have often been designed to promote socio-economic and political
development in various ways Beyond the exigency of retirement income security, the paper shows that
while old age income support policies, which focused mostly in the formal labour market were used to
encourage, promote labour productivity in the colonial service, the postcolonial trajectories of such
policies emphasized capital accumulation and mobilization of political support.