The Global South

The Global South continues to experience rapid urbanization as well as the growth of urban poverty. Across much of the Global South these forces have led to the concentration of social ills and poor health conditions in low-income urban neighborhoods. This is especially the case in sub-Saharan Africa, and Accra, Ghana, is a prime example. Yet research in sub-Saharan African cities such as Accra has not focused on neighborhood contexts per se. Neighborhood contexts and collective efficacy influence health and wellbeing, and they are relevant for community-based programs. The current project utilizes the analytic framework from US-based “neighborhood-effect” research and examines collective efficacy in Accra’s poor communities. We rely on commonalities between poor urban neighborhoods in the Global South and the Global North as justification for the cross-cultural applicability of the neighborhood-effect framework. Multilevel models show that (1) collective efficacy is reliably measured at the neighborhood level, (2) collective efficacy varies systematically across Accra’s low-income neighborhoods, and (3) neighborhood ethnic diversity is inversely related to collective efficacy. Findings demonstrate the cross-cultural applicability of US-based neighborhood-effect research as well as the relevance of collective efficacy in Accra. The results are discussed in terms of implications for future research and communitybased programs in Global South cities.