Sustainable Evaluation of Factors Affecting Energy-Resource Conflict in the Western Region of Ghana Using Large Group-DEMATEL

As one of the latest in joining the African oil-producing countries, Ghana is facing energy resource associated conflict situations between the people and government, especially in the western region communities of the country, where the oil resources are in mass production. In avoiding open conflict, it is critical to identify and understand the key factors that induce and aggravate such situations. To serve this purpose, the present research first conducts a survey on relevant literature to obtain twenty-five factors for the situation of the Western Region of Ghana and then presents a novel large group-DEMATEL approach to rank these factors considering a large stakeholder engagement in strategic decision making. Applying the proposed approach, the interrelationship among factors are examined, and then the factor system is categorized into the cause-group and effect-group based on assessments of twenty stakeholders from various backgrounds. It is suggested that all the cause-group factors (i.e., key factors) should receive considerable attention, with the highest regarded one being the “increased unemployment” factor. Compared with the traditional DEMATEL, the novel large group-DEMATEL considers large group consensus of decision makers and thus promotes large group satisfaction among people. Therefore, the sustainable evaluation results of twenty-five factors are more reasonable and acceptable using the proposed approach.