Empowering Small Businesses in a Pandemic: Governance of Cross-sector Responses

Governance of cross-sector partnerships involving the public and private sector actors has been explored in literature. However, little is known about a complicated governance arrangement involving multiple actors including informal sector players and market women in response to a pandemic to achieve an unprecedented outcome. The study focused on the implications of standards and regulations imposed by government and its agencies on small and female-owned enterprises producing PPEs in a partnership arrangement to address the Covid-19 pandemic in Ghana. Following the analysis of data collected qualitatively from 38 participants to explore the phenomenon, the findings suggest that business associations can play a vital role to support and empower small businesses in complicated governance arrangements in a time of crisis. The study recommends that government agencies should be creative in the enforcement of standards and regulations to empower small businesses taking initiatives to respond to a pandemic while sustaining their livelihoods.