Developing Effective Communication Strategies For Implementation Of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) In Ghana: A Case Study Of The 2019 Cse Controversy

Abstract

This study examines the critical role of strategic communication in implementing socially sensitive public policy, using the abrupt withdrawal of Ghana’s 2019 Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) curriculum as a key case study. The dissertation argues that the abrupt withdrawal of the policy was not because of flaws in the content, but rather due to the breakdown in strategic communication between the implementers and recipients, that is the state and its citizens. Through qualitative analysis including interviews with policymakers, religious leaders, parents and teachers, as well as media reports and official documents, the study discuss the cause of this communication challenge. The insights show a clear disparity between the government’s strategy and the opposition’s campaign. The state and its partners adopted a reactive, technocratic approach, which depended on a “deficit model” that intended to correct public “misinformation” with factual, evidence-based dissemination using formal channels, whereas the opposition effectively rolled out a culturally evocative, grassroots campaign. The opponents framed the curriculum as a foreign-imposed threat to Ghanaian parental authority and religious morality, using high-trust channels like pulpits, local radio and social media. Whereas the state communicated in terms of public health metrics, the public engaged through a framework of cultural and moral values, resulting in a disconnect. The analysis integrates these failures into a framework for effective communication, positing that communication is not a subordinate support activity but a fundamental process for building social legitimacy of culturally contested social policies. This shifts the paradigm from top-down information sharing to a collaborative social legitimation through the involvement of stakeholders in policy design from the outset, through the translating of technical objectives into shared-value frames, leveraging trusted community figures, and prebunking misinformation with swift response protocols. Finally, the study concludes that the technical soundness of a policy is inadequate for its adoption. Effective implementation in Ghana’s pluralistic society requires a culturally grounded and socially relevant communication strategy that treats the public not as passive recipients of information but as partners in legitimization. The research provides both a theoretical contribution to policy implementation and crisis communication literature, as well as a practical approach for policymakers and agencies to manage similar socio-cultural contexts.