AI-enabled qualitative analysis: sand mining in Ghana

According to the PLOS ONE study, published August 13, 2026, researchers conducted 32 key informant interviews and FGDs in two Ghanaian districts to analyse attitudes toward sand-mining regulation (PLOS ONE).

• 32 interviews and multiple FGDs were completed between March 3, 2021 and May 20, 2021, with follow-up interviews from January 10 to January 21, 2022, according to the PLOS ONE paper.
• The PLOS ONE study reports that over 80% of sand mining in Ghana is illegal, a figure cited in the paper’s introduction and literature review (Asare et al., 2026).
• The research area yields an estimated 4.55 million cubic metres of sand annually from the two districts, as reported in the PLOS ONE methods section.
• Regulatory bottlenecks identified in the PLOS ONE paper include understaffing, outdated sanctioning (for example the GHS 200 fine noted in 2021), and fragmented agency coordination.

The PLOS ONE study analysed actors’ attitudes toward sand-mining law application by combining 32 purposive key informant interviews, two focus group discussions per site, and documentary review, as described in Asare et al., 2026.

According to the PLOS ONE paper, data collection ran from March 3, 2021 to May 20, 2021 with additional follow-up interviews from January 10 to January 21, 2022, and the authors used NVivo 12 for thematic content analysis.

According to the PLOS ONE results, the authors identified 57 themes and reported that license, compensation, complaint channels, and stakeholder participation rules are poorly enforced; the authors explicitly linked enforcement gaps to staffing shortages, outdated systems, rent-seeking, and political patronage.

Direct quotations from the PLOS ONE study illustrate perceptions in the field: a landowner said, "Most landowners believe that while the lands belong to them, regulatory agencies accrue gains from sand mining" (Landowner in Gomoa Buduatta, 2021), an EPA official stated, "The sanction for sand mining offenses... is GHS 200 ($20)" (Key informant, 2021), and a MINCOM official described a "blame game" among agencies (MINCOM, 2021).

Researchers should treat Ghana’s sand-mining governance as a polycentric system where legal texts, local chiefs, contractors, and state regulators interact, as framed by the PLOS ONE authors referencing Ostrom (2010).

According to the PLOS ONE study, enforcement deficits are driven by understaffing and weak inter-agency coordination; researchers designing comparative governance studies should therefore gather documents, interview regulators, and map actor networks to capture these dynamics.

According to Asare et al., 2026, low fines and bureaucratic licensing processes distort incentives; policy analysts should quantify sanction levels and processing times as part of any reform evaluation.

The PLOS ONE study (Asare et al., 2026) documents enforcement, coordination, and compensation gaps that sustain illegal sand mining in Ghana and provides concrete policy recommendations such as consolidating laws and resourcing regulators.

AI-enabled qualitative analysis shortens the time from field transcripts to policy-ready evidence by automating transcription, thematic coding, and cross-segment frequency analysis while keeping verbatim quotes and audit trails.

If you run interviews or FGDs and need reproducible thematic analysis tied to direct quotes and segments, Try Evidano for free.