Beyond Technical Defects: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Systemic Causes of Building Collapse in Ghana
Abstract
Building collapse remains a recurring safety failure in Ghana, yet the relative weight of its causes is contested, with technical defects and institutional weaknesses each cited as primary. This study aimed to identify and rank the major causes of building collapse in Ghana. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was adopted, combining a PRISMA-guided systematic review of ten studies, a questionnaire survey of 114 construction professionals in Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast, and 13 semi-structured expert interviews. Survey items were ranked using the Relative Importance Index (RII), and interview data were analysed thematically and integrated with the survey results through a joint display. The review identified six categories of causes: poor construction practices, design and engineering errors, regulatory failures, maintenance neglect, environmental factors and socio-economic pressures. In the survey, weak enforcement of building codes was the highest-ranked single cause (RII = 0.939), followed by cost-cutting pressure, rapid urbanisation, soil instability and flooding (RII = 0.918–0.926). Environmental and socio-economic items (mean RII = 0.924) and institutional items (0.806) were rated above technical items (0.750), although corruption and informal-sector dominance were rated close to the technical items. The hypothesis that causes in all categories would be endorsed was supported, while the expectation that institutional causes would outrank technical causes was supported only in part. Interviewees described collapse as a systemic failure in which weak enforcement, fragmented accountability and neglected factors such as drainage, survey accuracy and maintenance allow technical defects to be built and to go undetected. The study concludes that technical defects are the proximate causes of collapse, but their persistence is best explained by institutional and economic conditions. Prevention should therefore strengthen regulatory capacity, maintenance oversight and accountability alongside technical quality control. The exploratory sample and perception-based data limit generalisation.