Abstract:
The goal of all development is to help people attain high quality of life.
People living in rural areas need more attention in the realisation of this goal
because they are more disadvantaged. The socio-economic development
approach, which is the major approach to development and driven by
modernisation, overlooks other important factors of quality of life. From the
literature, integrative quality of life (IQOL) theory addresses these challenges
when adopted in project planning. The purpose of the study was to reflect on the
outcomes of Ghana Baptist Convention’s (GBC) rural projects applying the IQOL
theory. A total of 271 beneficiaries including 32 key informants were randomly
and purposively selected respectively for the study. The findings showed that
income, health, education, fulfilment of basic needs, realisation of life potential,
meaning in life, happiness, satisfaction with life and wellbeing were necessary
and cherished components of quality of life. In all, GBC’s interventions have been
seen as positive by the beneficiaries. They also recommended that these
interventions should be sustained. This study recommends that the measurement
of development outcomes and indicators should shift from the economic growth
approach to the holistic approach. Development interventions should seek to
expand the scope beyond the economic to the other components of well-being and
the churches such as GBC should lead the way.
