Search

This paper reflects on the process of undertaking qualitative research with incarcerated individuals and prison staff in selected Ghana prisons. The challenges encountered during the planning, approval, and fieldwork stages, as well as measures adopted to address these challenges, have been discussed. The paper aims to serve as a guide to novel prison researchers in the sub-Saharan African context, given that the majority of studies on challenges and approaches to conducting prison research have come from jurisdictions outside the region. To this end, given the unique nature of the prison governance system in Ghana and other sub-Saharan African countries, this paper contributes to filling a knowledge gap in qualitative prison research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anthrax is a zoonotic disease that is still regarded as a public health issue in developing nations. This paper aims to discuss the epidemiology of anthrax in Africa, the current outbreaks in Ghana and Nigeria, clinical presentations, diagnosis, and treatment of anthrax, challenges associated with the transmission of the disease to both countries and recommendations to reduce this current outbreak and curb future outbreaks in Africa. Online databases (PubMed, and Google Scholar) and Nigeria Ministry of Agriculture report were used to provide detailed information on the paper. On June 1, 2023, two suspected human cases of anthrax were reported, via a letter sent to all stakeholders in the country, with one death in Binduri District, Upper East region of Ghana. The cases were due to the consumption of dead cattle. Four cattle were reported dead at the time, and eleven suspected human cases were identified through contact tracing. Afterward, on July 17, 2023, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nigeria announced the first case of anthrax disease in Nigeria. The National Veterinary Research Institute confirmed the case from samples collected from a suspected livestock farm in Niger State, Nigeria. No human case has been reported. Short conclusion: Anthrax poses significant challenges to public health and requires cooperation between nations, especially in regions like Ghana and Nigeria, where animal movement and ecological changes can impact disease transmission. Challenges attributed to the spread of anthrax in both countries were discussed, focusing on the role of government and the general public in addressing this public health concern. Given the endemicity of certain transboundary animal diseases such as anthrax in sub-Saharan Africa, the control of animal movement across intra- and international borders in the region needs to be tightened. Regulations governing the transboundary movement of animals should be based on the World Organisation of Animal Health Terrestrial Code and should be strictly enforced to prevent ongoing and future outbreaks in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how the planning system is (not) functioning remains a challenge for many urban planners in the developing world. This paper responds by conducting an analysis of the discourse between national and local planners. It seeks to unfold the challenges of informal settlement planning in Accra, Ghana. Through in-depth interviews, this paper suggests that: (I) Grounding sustainability must be conducted by implementing the plans rather than producing the plans. (II) Empowering local planners should be a primary task to incrementally remedy the challenging planning system in countries like Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanisation is increasingly recognised as one of the pressing global issues. As a result, managing contemporary and future urban processes to produce sustainable outcomes has become a preoccupation of policy analysts, academics, and urban planners. Urbanisation can either produce positive or negative outcomes depending on how authorities and stakeholders at all levels manage it. In African context, several national governments have formulated and implemented National Urban Policies (NUPs) as a way of curbing urban challenges associated with urbanisation. This paper provides a content analysis of Ghana's NUP. The objective of this paper is two-fold: to evaluate the (a) dominant themes that are covered in Ghana's NUP and why the emphasis on those themes; and (b) the extent to which rural–urban migration is factored into the policy document. The latter is more critical because in Africa's context, besides natural population increase and reclassification of rural settlements as urban areas, rural–urban migration is one of the fundamental drivers of urbanisation. Our analyses revealed that the dimension of rural–urban migration is ignored in the policy document. This neglect, we argue, is problematic because rural–urban migration is one of the drivers of urbanisation in Ghana. Policy recommendations, including the need to minimise the push and pull causes of rural–urban migration, the need to give proper meaning to the decentralisation concept, and the need for the government to focus on rural development interventions are proffered to strengthen the overall goal of Ghana's NUP in the context of urbanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's government seeks to apply both "religious soft power" and "economic soft power" to increase its influence in Ghana. Turkey's religious soft power relationship with Ghana is exemplified by Turkey's paying for construction of a new national mosque in the African country, at a cost of USD 10 million. Turkey's economic soft power relationship with Ghana is exemplified by both considerable recent investments and in fast-growing bilateral trade. The overall aim of the government of Turkey is to increase the country's influence in Ghana, part of a wider initiative to expand its regional influence in Africa. Ghana is important to Turkey as it is regarded as a strategically important African country, one of the region's few democracies and an economic success. The paper assesses Turkey's various forms of influence in Ghana and considers what Turkey hopes to achieve in foreign policy terms. The paper is in four sections. The first examines religious soft power and Turkey–Ghana relations, noting that recently they have become closer and more cordial, involving both religious and non-religious aspects. The second section examines Muslims' traditionally marginal political position in Ghana and explains that over time Muslims have become more politically assertive, open to external religious influences, including from Turkey, a country well known to use religious soft power to try to expand its foreign policy influence. The third section assesses recent Ghana-Turkey relations, including the expansion of Turkey's economic soft power, with three examples: the national mosque, encouraging Islamic education, and mutual desire to quell the activities of what the government of Turkey refers to as the "Fethullah Terrorist Organisation". The section also considers the role of Turkey's economic soft power in increasing the country's presence in Ghana. The concluding section argues that the government of Turkey uses several techniques to increase its influence in Ghana, including both religious soft power and economic soft power. The government of Ghana broadly welcomes Turkey's influence from both religious and economic perspectives: from a religious point of view, Turkey's Sunni orthodoxy is seen as very unlikely to stimulate radicalization among Ghana's Muslims, while Turkey's economic presence is welcomed as an important means to help further build Ghana's economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing effective pharmaceutical governance is a challenge for government agencies, private enterprises, and professionals working on the ground, demanding complex ethical decisions from the actors involved, especially in a lower-middle-income country like Ghana. This letter aims to share the author's perspectives and additional considerations on the analyses of the reports in the paper "It is very difficult in this business if you want to have a good conscience": pharmaceutical governance and on-the-ground ethical labor in Ghana by Hampshire et al. The letter's authors discuss the need to advance universal health coverage in Ghana, the everyday ethics, and the disparities between the collective and individual moral consciousness of the participants, as well as other aspects of governance in the pharmaceutical sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the governance of labour standards in the less-studied yet rapidly globalising Ghanaian construction sector. While incorporation into international production networks generates several opportunities for workers, the drivers of adverse incorporation originate at multiple levels of analysis. The study offers an investigation into such drivers and their interconnections. Design/methodology/approach: The authors utilise a multi-scalar framework and mixed methods of analysis. Both the qualitative and multi-level quantitative analyses rely on a primary dataset collected among 30 firms and 304 respondents, through semi-structured interviews. Findings: A composite yet unbalanced labour standards governance configuration emerges, where the absence of social governance combined with a weak role of the State leaves labour standards subject to the variegated landscape of firms' embeddedness in the sector. Originality/value: The construction industry is acquiring ever-increasing relevance in the economic trajectory of Ghana as well as that of several other African economies, not least for its large employment generation potential. Research on the governance of labour standards in the sector is, however, largely missing. The authors argue that labour incorporation dynamics represent a complex under-investigated regulatory challenge as well as a policy-making priority. The analysis is one of the first to offer a reconstruction of the governance landscape determining the challenges workers face in the Ghanaian construction sector, from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation in digital services is critical for the inclusiveness of digitalization in smallholder Africa. However, farmers engagement with digitalization services needs further explorations due to limited empirical research on the topic. This paper thus employs a cross-sectional survey of 1565 farmers in Northern Ghana to assess the factors that affect the likelihood of farmers' participation in digital agricultural services. We applied a polynomial regression model to show that gender, affiliations to farmer groups, access to extension services, ability to place phone calls, and ownership/access to mobile phones increase the probability of participation in digital services. Thus, farmer characteristics, digital competencies, and access to digital resources are critical in determining who participates in digitalization, essentially positioning these as critical factors to consider in scaling of digital agriculture services. We further argue that access and impacts of digitalization could be exclusive due to existing equities in the identified fundamental elements for participation, adoption, and use of digitalization. Hence, strategies sensitive to the drivers of engagement, including strengthening farmer associations/groups, increasing access to extension services, building digital skills, and scaling access to digital tools (including mobile phones), are required for inclusiveness, scaling and the long-term sustainability of digitalization for smallholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ghana is a country exceptionally rich in geologic mineral resources with contrasting topographic relief and varied geophysical setting. This paper evaluated the geological and geophysical setting of Ghana with a special focus on the impact of the geologic setting and topography on gravity. Specifically, it assessed how variations in geology, topography, landscapes and the environment control the geophysical parameters and how these vary among the major regions of the country - the Volta Basin, Northern Plains, Ashanti-Kwahu (Kumasi) and Coastal Plains in the Accra surroundings. Previous studies utilizing traditional Geographic Information System (GIS) approaches have documented the geologic evolution of Ghana evolved as a part of the West African Craton. As a contribution to the existing research, this paper presents a regional analysis of Ghana by integrated mapping of geology, geophysics and topography of the country. The technical approach of this research focuses on utilizing the console-based scripting cartographic toolset Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) integrated with QGIS for processing and mapping the datasets: General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO), Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM-2008), gravity grids. The theoretical background is based on the geologic research of West Africa supported by high-resolution data. The paper defines a conceptual cartographic framework for integrated geologic and geophysical visualization in a regionalscale mapping project on Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The governance of pharmaceutical medicines entails complex ethical decisions that should, in theory, be the responsibility of democratically accountable government agencies. However, in many Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), regulatory and health systems constraints mean that many people still lack access to safe, appropriate and affordable medication, posing significant ethical challenges for those working on the "front line". Drawing on 18 months of fieldwork in Ghana, we present three detailed case studies of individuals in this position: an urban retail pharmacist, a rural over-the-counter medicine retailer, and a local inspector. Through these case studies, we consider the significant burden of "ethical labour" borne by those operating "on the ground", who navigate complex moral, legal and business imperatives in real time and with very real consequences for those they serve. The paper ends with a reflection on the tensions between abstract, generalised ethical frameworks based on high-level principles, and a pragmatic, contingent ethics-in-practice that foregrounds immediate individual needs – a tension rooted in the gap between the theory and the reality of pharmaceutical governance that shifts the burden of ethical labour downwards and perpetuates long-term public health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the wardrobe of the first prime minister and president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, to show how he created a set of "suits" or "looks" to mirror his overlapping traditional, modern, pan-African, Ghanaian, and Socialist political identities. It expands research on dandy culture to indicate how an African sensibility, mixed with inspiration from Asia, provided a wider repertoire of looks for postcolonial dressers beyond strictly Western or traditional African options. The paper begins with an overview of early discourse in the Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana) on the pros and cons of wearing cloth wrappers to show Ghanaian elites' longstanding ambivalence toward wearing unsewn garments. While Kwame Nkrumah became famous for intricate kente cloths draped like togas, he also invested in custom-made British suits. In addition, Kwame Nkrumah wore fluttering batakari tops of hand-woven cloth to rouse the country at independence. By the early 1960s, he transitioned to wearing dark long-sleeved suit jackets in a style that came to be known in Ghana as "Zhou Enlai." This research on Nkrumah's fashion legacy shows how a business "suit" can be more than just a Western-style garment. It also complicates discourses surrounding cultural appropriation and intellectual property rights in textiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the issues of linkage development pertaining to the Bui Hydropower Dam.1 Completed in 2013, the 400-megawatt hydropower facility was touted by the government to catalyse Ghana's socio-economic transformation. However, while the Chinese contractor delivered the physical edifice to the Ghanaian government, the dam's material benefits have yet to materialize. The inability to instigate economic linkages from the project has sparked debate in research and policy circles in Ghana. While some scholars reference local factors, others cite external elements, including the demands of Chinese actors and financiers as the cause of the limited economic linkages the dam created in the Ghanaian economy. This paper explores these counterpropositions. Drawing from exploratory mixed-method research, the paper asserts that although linkage creation is mediated by internal and external factors, the former is more salient when it comes to engagement with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic impacts on the environment, land cover and land use change such as urbanisation and deforestation affect rainfall and change riverflow responsiveness and seasonal flows as a result of their influence on nonlinear behaviour of the catchments of rivers. Water supply is seriously affected which invariably impacts on domestic activities and agriculture. In some countries river transportation, hydropower, irrigation and fish farming are at risk due to these impacts. Within this paper, a review of existing hydrological and climatic studies in Africa and Ghana in particular is presented. The paper highlights the knowledge gaps identified in the review, such as rainfall-riverflow processes and their controls in the country, estimation of cycles in evapo-transpiration and solar radiation time series, together with the complete characterisation of the temporal and spatial fluctuations within the climate cycles. The establishment of a monograph of catchment response characteristic across the Ghanaian latitudinal gradient and if possible across the tropics is recommended. This could be used for the prediction of hydrologic response of ungauged catchments in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has consistently highlighted the importance of stakeholder engagement in identifying and developing solutions to ethical challenges in genomic research, especially in Africa where such research is relatively new. In this paper, we examine what constitutes good ethical practice in research, from the perspectives of genomic research participants in Uganda. Our study was part of a multi-site qualitative study exploring these issues in Uganda, Ghana and Zambia. We purposively sampled various stakeholders including genomic research participants, researchers, research ethics committee members, policy makers and community members. This paper presents the findings from in-depth interviews with 27 people with diabetes who had participated in a diabetes genomic study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. Manual thematic content analysis was conducted using a framework approach. Findings indicate three key requirements that research participants see as vital for genomic research to be more responsive to research participants' needs and contextual realities: (1) de-emphasising the role of experts and institutions in the consenting process, (2) clarity about the timing and nature of feedback both of findings relevant to the health of individuals and about the broad progress of the study, and (3) more effective support for research participants during and after the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban poverty in both the developed and developing world is often spatially organized with deprivation highly concentrated in segregated areas of cities. With the rapid urbanization and lack of effective urban planning in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa, segregation, economic deprivation and social exclusion are particularly severe challenges. In the United States, almost 30 years of poverty deconcentration policy has had mixed results and offers cautions to other countries looking to confront urban segregation. Accra, the capital city of Ghana, offers an intriguing example of a city with substantial clusters of poverty and slum areas, but also some neighborhoods with high existing levels of economic integration. Drawing on the theoretical and empirical context of poverty deconcentration efforts in the United States, this paper presents a conceptual framework with two alternative pathways for urban development: an inclusionary pathway and an exclusionary pathway. We use this framework to review and critique Ghana's existing urban policy and offer implications for inclusionary urban policy in Accra and other similar cities in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resource curse literature argues that oil production reshapes the fiscal contract between citizens and the state: politicians become less responsive to citizen taxpayers and more likely to use public revenues for their own benefit. This paper examines whether and how bureaucrats influence this breakdown of the fiscal contract. Analysing results of a survey experiment conducted with government employees in Ghana and Uganda, we find that, when primed to think about oil revenue, bureaucrats do not generally express attitudes indicating that they contribute to the resource curse. Although oil revenue does lead some Ghanaian bureaucrats to become less interested in responding to taxpayers, this finding does not operate as predicted, i.e. by bureaucrats expressing greater partiality towards the ruling elite. Instead, we attribute this outcome to 'disgruntled employees' – political outsiders with low salaries – who, unlikely to benefit from oil revenue, become disaffected from citizen service. The results shed new light on processes through which resource extraction changes state institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capacity building programmes for African regulators should link education, training and research with career development in an approach that combines an academic base and experiential learning aligned within a competency framework. A regulatory ecosystem that engages with a broad range of stakeholders will mean that expertise in the ever‐expanding field of regulatory science filters into teaching and research in a symbiotic way. In this way capacity development interventions will be a collaborative approach between the learning context (academic and training institutions) and the performance context (regulatory agencies and industry), which will ultimately best serve the patients. Monitoring and evaluation of capacity development interventions will be essential to show value of investments and ultimately guide continued funding and sustainability. This paper reviews the skills and human capacity gaps, reports on regulatory assessment pathways used in Ghana, South Africa and Zimbabwe and outlines a staged tactical approach for Africa that builds on previous efforts to strengthen African regulatory ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Commercial vehicles were the most likely to make a full stop and stop at the stop bar. • Correlations between roadway infrastructure (e.g. lighting) illustrate countermeasures with more positive safety impacts. • Drivers were much more likely to stop at the stop sign/bar compared to junctions without any additional safety measures. • Driver behavior data helps build a robust road safety database, improve policy, and create innovative informed initiatives. • Stopping behavior likelihoods can avail in selecting tailored solutions and predict the economical effectiveness of them. Ghana exemplifies the contribution of road crashes to mortality and morbidity in Africa, partly due to a growing population and increasing car ownership, where fatalities have increased by 12 to 15 % annually since 2008 (National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), 2017). The study described in this paper focused on understanding driver behavior at unsignalized junctions in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Understanding driver behavior at unsignalized junctions is particularly important since failure to stop or yield can seriously affect vulnerable road users. The study's objectives were to develop relationships between driver behavior and junction characteristics. Understanding the characteristics that lead to determining what factors influence a driver's behavioral response at rural junctions provides information for policy makers to determine the best strategies to address these behaviors. The study evaluated stopping behavior at rural junctions. Driver behavior was extracted from video views of ten junctions in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. A total of 3,420 vehicles were observed across all ten junctions during data collection before any analysis was conducted. The type of stop was selected as a surrogate measure of safety. Logistic regression was used to model stopping behavior at the selected junctions. The analysis showed drivers were more likely to stop when going straight (versus a left turn) and left turning vehicles were more likely to stop than right turning vehicles. Additionally, single unit trucks and tro-tros were more likely to stop than other vehicle types. Drivers were also much more likely to stop when channelization, intersection lighting, or speed humps were present. Drivers at junctions with 4-approaches were also more likely to stop than those with 3 approaches. The results from this research contribute valuable information about what factors contribute to positive safety behaviors at rural junctions. This provides guidance for safety professionals to select solutions and can be a valuable tool to predict the economical effectiveness of solutions to addressing junction safety in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) such as Ghana. The results can also provide insight and recommendations to Ghanaian road safety agencies and launch sustainable efforts to raise community awareness toward decreasing road crash fatalities in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development projects play a crucial role in kickstarting and promoting women's empowerment in agriculture. This paper is a conversation starter on how women can be included in the agenda to mechanise agriculture in Africa. It investigates the potential of empowering women as vital actors in the mechanisation value chain, by analysing the perceptions and experiences of the trained women tractor operators. The findings showed that the involvement of women in mechanisation pushed them beyond their comfort zones and offered them a new self-identity with new opportunities previously reserved for men. It also broadened their social capital through the formation of an association for women operators which ensured their representation at a local and national level. For young women, being an operator is the only alternative they have to one day owning a tractor-for-hiring service business because they do not own land or have capital, which is often a precondition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most powerful cultural transformations of the 20th century has been the dramatic expansion of Christianity outside of Europe. This unique historical process was facilitated by vast Christian missionary efforts. In this paper, we study the economic effects of Christian missions in Ghana. We rely on six distinct identification strategies that exploit exogenous variations in Christian missionary expansion from 1828 to 1932. We find no association between Christian missions, whether Protestant, Catholic, Presbyterian or Methodist, and local economic development, whether during contemporary or colonial times. However, some results suggest that Christian missions might have had a positive effect on human capital formation. There might thus be contexts in which missions promoted human capital accumulation without this necessarily translating into local economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bryophytes of Ghana are under-recorded, but the country has several important and relatively extensive examples of West African forest likely to support an interesting flora. Of these, Atewa Forest was targeted for survey in 2014, resulting in many records, including 58 taxa new to Ghana. This paper reports the results of further fieldwork, both in Atewa and elsewhere, in 2017, and makes some necessary additions and amendments to previously published data. Bryophyte fieldwork was carried out in key forest sites in southern Ghana during November 2017, and was followed by targeted herbarium studies. A new species, Cololejeunea ankasica, is described, and a new site for the rare Ghanaian endemic C. calcarata reported; a further 27 taxa new to Ghana are recorded, and amendments made to previously published information. This study shows that even lowland areas of remaining forest in Ghana are bryologically interesting and that bryophytes are an important but still under-recorded part of Ghana's biodiversity. It also strengthens the case for National Park status for Atewa Forest, which remains the only known site in Ghana for many species characteristic of higher altitude forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In children, acute respiratory distress (ARD) is a clinical presentation requiring emergency management, including mechanical ventilation. Mechanical ventilators are lacking in sub-Saharan Africa. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) is an alternative form of non-invasive respiratory support that has been used in high-income countries for over four decades. Its use in sub-Saharan Africa is, however, limited and often restricted to neonates. Controlled trials in Ghana have shown that the use of CPAP in children younger aged 1-12 months reduces 2-week all-cause mortality from ARD by 60% (RR 0·40, 0·19-0·82; p=0·01). The absolute reduction in mortality of 4% implies one infant life saved for every 25 children treated with CPAP. This paper reviews the findings of the trials in Ghana and contrasts the findings with those of trials in Bangladesh and Malawi. It makes the case that implementation research (rather than more controlled trials) is now needed to support the routine, safe and effective use of CPAP in managing ARD in older infants in district hospitals in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Shaboman' is an ironic self-designated nickname, used by young male band musicians who rush from one gig to another in Accra, Ghana. Being active in diverse musical genres (gospel, highlife, brass, neo-traditional, [afro-]pop), they pursue professional aspirations with dedication, favor wistful romantic love songs, and train girls how to play musical instruments. As these young men present a contrast to dominant narratives on young African men, this paper aims to disrupt and complexify such masternarratives by documenting various facets of masculinities the instrumentalists (aged between 20 and 32) perform in their music practice. In the process, microprocesses of gender production in popular music are traced. Based on extensive ethnographic work in Accra between 2013 and 2018, the analysis draws on two distinct bodies of theoretical work: on cultural performance and performativity of gender in music (Butler; Madison and Hamera 2005; Livermon 2014a, 2014b); and on insights from studies on gender and masculinities in Ghanaian popular music (Asante-Darko and Van der Geest 1983; Adomako Ampofo and Asiedu 2012; Shipley 2013a). Contextualizing the shabomen's staged masculinities among a variety of other manly ideals in Ghanaian popular culture, I highlight how acts of maintaining and subverting gender conventions are intertwined in popular music practice. Furthermore, I depict how gender performances are linked to age group, and to place and belonging at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2012 the government of Ghana added 42 new districts to the country's system of local governance. This paper measures the impact of one new district in terms of private wealth accumulation, access to public services and political engagement. Data analysed comes from a panel survey of residents of the new district capital and two similarly sized villages, one in the new district and one just outside. Proponents of government fragmentation promise personal, public and political gains when government is brought closer to the people. Evidence weighed here suggests that these gains are largely realized by residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blood and blood products save lives and are a part of the WHO Essential Medicines List. Access to safe and quality-assured blood and blood products are essential for health systems strengthening and it is a global concern. Their use is associated with infectious and immunologic risks. At global level, many resolutions have been adopted by the World Health Assembly that urged Member States to ensure regulatory control of access to quality-assured blood and blood products along the entire transfusion chain. The WHO has also developed an action framework to advance universal access to blood. As part of the implementation of these resolutions and guidelines, the WHO Regional Office for Africa and some partners provided support to countries in the region to strengthen their capacity to establish an effective blood regulatory system through organization of regional training workshops on blood regulation, benchmarking of blood regulatory systems, internship at Paul Ehrlich Institut and establishment of the African Blood Regulators Forum. The current status of blood regulation reveals that there are weak transfusion legislation and blood regulatory systems in most African countries, since many national blood transfusion services still rely on self-regulation. However, the national regulatory authorities have reached the maturity level 3 in two countries (Ghana and Tanzania), but only the experience from Ghana has been described in this paper. Like in other low- and middle-income countries, the regulatory systems for associated substances and medical devices including IVDs are not well established in the African region. Misunderstanding by different stakeholders, lack of legislation that provides legal basis, weak capacity and insufficiency of resources are main challenges facing countries to establish an effective national blood regulatory system. To address these challenges, strong advocacy with governments and collaboration with partners are needed to strengthen national blood regulatory systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most countries in Africa have revised the planning laws they inherited from their colonial experience, research shows that the attitudes and practices of politicians and planning professionals still reflect and are deeply embedded in colonial logic and rationalities of urban spatial organization and management. However, we do not yet fully understand how post-colonial African leaders justify and elicit public support for their continued utilization of colonial approaches in their contemporary engagements with their own people. This paper contributes to the limited research on the processes and politics of legitimizing colonial urban spatial organization and management in post-colonial African cities. The paper draws on Van Leeuwen's (2007) symbolic legitimation framework to explore and critique the parallels between how colonial and post-colonial authorities weaponize aesthetic, hygienic, and morality concerns to give false clarity to evictions as inevitable or natural solutions to the congestion, crime, filth, and other socio-environmental problems they associate with the activities of lower-class urban dwellers (particularly those living in informal settlements). A key finding of this paper that bears watching is the phenomenon of 'voluntary demolition'– an emerging approach to containing lower-class urbanites where state officials violently displace notable informal settlements or activities, without any prior warnings, to set as a precedent and invoke fear, intimidate, and force the residents of other informal communities to 'self-evict'. The paper offers lessons for moving research, policy, action, and investment toward building just, equitable, and sustainable cities in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in geography and allied disciplines on gendered experiences in Africa have struggled to comprehend the nuances that make up young men's lifeworlds. Influenced by theoretical orientations in urban studies, which demonstrate how music offers a way to explore social dynamics in Africa, we examine the thoughts, actions, and experiences of male youth in Ghana using Guru's popular song "Boys abrƐ [Boys are tired]." Drawing on interviews and focus groups with young people in Accra, the empirical findings and analysis illustrate how the phrase "boys are tired," and the dispositions it evokes, provides a subversive critique of and protest against the precariousness of contemporary Ghanaian urbanism. Problematically, "Boys are tired" also encourages the (re)calibration of gender relations on patriarchal terms. These insights extend debates around geographies of children and youth and gender relations in two novel ways. First, the vernacular of "tiredness" generates fresh theoretical perspectives on a wider set of questions about youth agency and contemporary gender relations, namely, how young people are implicated in the reproduction of patriarchy. Through doing so, we identify a set of troubling gender relations unfolding in Accra that are conceptualised as "retaliatory patriarchy" which has three constituent elements: entitlement, resentment, and obliviousness. Second, the paper detects reasons why young men in Accra are reluctant to support feminist action and suggests how to counter this trend. These findings support wider efforts, within and beyond the discipline, to better conceptualise and prevent the perpetuation of inequity and oppression along gendered lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite numerous structural and non-structural measures to curb the problem, flood disasters have become a recurring theme globally. Reducing vulnerability to flooding requires a constant reassessment of flood hazard areas since their spatial extent keeps changing. This paper sought to map flood hazards in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis (STM) of Ghana. STM experiences frequent flooding incidents, rapid urbanization, and massive encroachment of lands, partly due to a booming petroleum industry. However, an empirical spatial assessment of its flood hotspots is non-existent. We applied a multi-criteria analysis (specifically the Analytical Hierarchy Process [AHP]) to address this issue by processing causative flood parameters derived from remotely sensed images using a geographical information system. The principal results show that about 12% and 24% of STM lands are in very high and high flood zones, respectively. The rest of the land is in moderate (24.6%), low (24.3%), and very low (15%) flood zones. Areas along the lower portions of STM are identified as most susceptible to inundation. A computed consistency ratio of 0.03 is indicative of the efficiency of the study's model. These findings provide relevant stakeholders with an extensive understanding of the different flood zones for effective flood planning and prevention in STM. • This study attempts to map flood-endangered zones in a famous coastal city in Ghana. • Eight causative flood parameters were selected for the study. • Parameter weights were derived using multi-criteria analysis (specifically AHP). • The study area is classified into five distinct flood-prone zones. • Very high and high flood zones occupied 12% and 24% of the study area, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Africa, the effects of informal e-waste recycling on the environment are escalating. It is regularly transported from developed to developing nations, where it is disassembled informally in search of precious metals, thus increasing human exposure to harmful compounds. Africa has a serious problem with e-waste, as there are significant facilities in Ghana and Nigeria where imported e-waste is unsafely dismantled. however, because they are in high demand and less expensive than new ones, old electronic and electrical items are imported in large quantities, just like in many developing nations. After that, these objects are frequently scavenged to recover important metals through heating, burning, incubation in acids, and other techniques. Serious health hazards are associated with these activities for workers and individuals close to recycling plants. At e-waste sites in Africa, there have been documented instances of elevated concentrations of hazardous elements, persistent organic pollutants, and heavy metals in dust, soils, and vegetation, including plants consumed as food. Individuals who handle and dispose of e-waste are exposed to highly hazardous chemical substances. This paper examines heavy metal risks around e-waste sites and comparable municipal dumpsites in major African cities. Elevated concentrations of these heavy metals metal in downstream aquatic and marine habitats have resulted in additional environmental impacts. These effects have been associated with unfavourable outcomes in marine ecosystems, such as reduced fish stocks characterized by smaller sizes, increased susceptibility to illness, and decreased population densities. The evidence from the examined studies shows how much e-waste affects human health and the environment in Africa. Sub-Saharan African nations require a regulatory framework that includes specialized laws, facilities, and procedures for the safe recycling and disposal of e-waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the policy responses of Ghana's government with a focus on three areas: health, economic, and social. Ghana had made several policy interventions in these three areas. The study highlighted the adoption of the 3T-approach in health, CAP-20 in economics, and free water and subsidized electricity for citizens as social interventions. The study concludes that the measures undertaken by the Government of Ghana have yielded significant results even though some challenges with delivery mechanisms are identified. The available statistics as of October 25, 2020 on the COVID-19 situation in Ghana further affirm the gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genomic research and biobanking present several ethical, social and cultural challenges, particularly when conducted in settings with limited scientific research capacity. One of these challenges is determining the model of consent that should support the sharing of human biological samples and data in the context of international collaborative research. In this paper, we report on the views of key research stakeholders in Ghana on what should count as good ethical practice when seeking consent for genomic research and biobanking in Africa. This study was part of a multi-country qualitative case study conducted in three African countries: Ghana, Uganda and Zambia under the auspices of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa initiative (H3Africa). Our study suggests that while participants are willing to give consent for their samples and associated data to be used for future research purposes, they expect to receive feedback about the progress of the research and about the kinds of research being undertaken on their samples and data. These expectations need to be anticipated and discussed during the consent process which should be seen as part of an ongoing communication process throughout the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do public procurement practices influence effective public financial management (PFM) in Africa? Notwithstanding the several public procurement reforms to improve PFM in Africa, outcomes have not been sustainable. Prior studies have failed to explain this phenomenon. With a descriptive case study design based on comprehensive datasets, this paper explains this situation with three key factors underlying the public procurement environment in three African countries: Ethiopia, Central African Republic, and Ghana. From the agency theory lenses, these factors affect the agency cost in public administrative systems necessary for addressing the agency problems in public procurement management towards desired PFM outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a two-year dataset (2016–17) from 17 one-minute rain gauges located in the moist forest region of Ghana, the performance of Integrated Multisatellite Retrievals for GPM, version 6b (IMERG), is evaluated based on a subdaily time scale, down to the level of the underlying passive microwave (PMW) and infrared (IR) sources. Additionally, the spaceborne cloud product Cloud Property Dataset Using SEVIRI, edition 2 (CLAAS-2), available every 15 min, is used to link IMERG rainfall to cloud-top properties. Several important issues are identified: 1) IMERG's proneness to low-intensity false alarms, accounting for more than a fifth of total rainfall; 2) IMERG's overestimation of the rainfall amount from frequently occurring weak convective events, while that of relatively rare but strong mesoscale convective systems is underestimated, resulting in an error compensation; and 3) a decrease of skill during the little dry season in July and August, known to feature enhanced low-level cloudiness and warm rain. These findings are related to 1) a general oversensitivity for clouds with low ice and liquid water path and a particular oversensitivity for low cloud optical thickness, a problem which is slightly reduced for direct PMW overpasses; 2) a pronounced negative bias for high rain intensities, strongest when IR data are included; and 3) a large fraction of missed events linked with rainfall out of warm clouds, which are inherently misinterpreted by IMERG and its sources. This paper emphasizes the potential of validating spaceborne rainfall products with high-resolution rain gauges on a subdaily time scale, particularly for the understudied West African region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for more mental health research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LAMICs) has been repeatedly acknowledged. Yet there has been limited focus on how this goal can be achieved optimally. This paper makes the case for orienting mental health research efforts in developing countries within a strategic planning approach at a national level that recognizes the practical constraints of low resource environments, as well as methodological constraints created by factors such as low literacy levels, and the use of multiple languages. A case study of Ghana is used to illustrate how such a strategic planning model could be developed. This proposed approach should be of interest to other LAMICS in need of locally generated mental health research to inform clinical practice, mental illness prevention initiatives, and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Ghana, men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately affected by HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a biomedical intervention that reduces the risk of HIV infection but is not currently available in Ghana. This paper explores knowledge and acceptability of HIV PrEP among Ghanaian MSM. Qualitative content analysis was conducted on 22 focus group discussions (N = 137) conducted between March and June 2012 in Accra, Kumasi, and Manya Krobo. Overall, participants reported low knowledge of PrEP. However, once information about PrEP was provided, there was high acceptability. The primary reason for acceptability was that PrEP provided an extra level of protection against HIV. Acceptability of PrEP was conditioned on it having minimal side effects, being affordable and efficient in preventing HIV infection. No acceptability of PrEP was attributed to limited knowledge of side effects and perceived lack of effectiveness. The reasons provided to utilize PrEP and condoms were that condoms protect against other STIs, and sexual partner factors. This is the first known study to explore PrEP knowledge and acceptability among Ghanaian MSM. It is important that key stakeholders preemptively address potential barriers to PrEP acceptability, uptake, and adherence, especially among MSM, once PrEP becomes available in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a key component of efforts to improve sexual and reproductive outcomes for young people. While many governments have established policies and curricula for CSE, there are no quantitative measures of the quality of their implementation in schools. We describe the construction of a school-level index to measure CSE implementation quality using data from Peru, Guatemala, Kenya and Ghana for validation. The composite index represents seven key components of a successful programme: range of topics, values imparted, teaching methods, teacher training, resources available, monitoring and evaluation, and the school environment. These components are combined into two sub-indices (curriculum content and implementation context), which together provide a summary index of implementation quality. We present scores for the seven components, the two sub-indices and the summary index for each country. Ghana scored highest on the summary index, while Guatemala scored lowest, but country rankings varied within the different components. The paper discusses the implications of the findings for improving school-based CSE in these countries. An assessment of the validity and reliability of the index indicates it can be used in other settings and could be a useful tool for educationalists, researchers and programme implementers to measure CSE implementation quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper examines the institutional obstacles in Ghana. • Examine the transitional path of serial entrepreneurs after business failure. • Informal and formal entrepreneurship in Africa are examined. • Government policy and changes in government in Ghana are examined. • Entrepreneurial development in Ghana is examined. This study builds on prior scholarly works on institutions and entrepreneurship by examining the process of transitions and institutional obstacles that force serial entrepreneurs' shift to operate in the formal or informal sector after entrepreneurial business failures. Using insights from 32 serial entrepreneurs in Ghana, a framework was developed and utilized to explicate how the pull and push motivations for the transition into or persisting with formality or informality after business failure unfolds over time. Our analysis sheds light on the processes and effects of the motivations on the persistently high level of entrepreneurial activities in the informal sector for many emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global risks of zoonotic disease are high on policy agendas. Increasingly, Africa is seen as a ‘hotspot’, with likely disease spillovers from animals to humans. This paper explores the social dynamics of disease exposure, demonstrating how risks are not generalised, but are related to occupation, gender, class and other dimensions of social difference. Through case studies of Lassa Fever in Sierra Leone, Henipah virus in Ghana, Rift Valley Fever in Kenya and Trypanosomiasis in Zimbabwe, the paper proposes a social difference space–time framework to assist the understanding of and response to zoonotic diseases within a ‘One Health’ approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: The introduction of the national health insurance scheme (NHIS) in Ghana in 2003 significantly contributed to improved health services utilization and health outcomes. However, stagnating active membership, reports of poor quality health care rendered to NHIS-insured clients and cost escalations have raised concerns on the operational and financial sustainability of the scheme. This paper reviewed peer reviewed articles and grey literature on the sustainability challenges and prospects of the NHIS in Ghana. Methods: Electronic search was done for literature published between 2003–2016 on the NHIS and its sustainability in Ghana. A total of 66 publications relevant to health insurance in Ghana and other developing countries were retrieved from Cochrane, PubMed, ScienceDirect and Googlescholar for initial screening. Out of this number, 31 eligible peer reviewed articles were selected for final review based on specific relevance to the Ghanaian context. Results: Ability of the NHIS to continue its operations in Ghana is threatened financially and operationally by factors such as: cost escalation, possible political interference, inadequate technical capacity, spatial distribution of health facilities and health workers, inadequate monitoring mechanisms, broad benefits package, large exemption groups, inadequate client education, and limited community engagement. Moreover, poor quality care in NHIS-accredited health facilities potentially reduces clients’ trust in the scheme and consequently decreases (re)enrolment rates. These sustainability challenges were reviewed and discussed in this paper. Conclusions: The NHIS continues to play a critical role towards attaining universal health coverage in Ghana albeit confronted by challenges that could potentially collapse the scheme. Averting this possible predicament will largely depend on concerted efforts of key stakeholders such as health insurance managers, service providers, insurance subscribers, policy makers and political actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Ghana Health Service in collaboration with partner institutions implemented a five-year primary health systems strengthening program known as the Ghana Essential Health Intervention Program (GEHIP). GEHIP was a plausibility trial implemented in an impoverished region of northern Ghana around the World Health Organizations (WHO) six pillars combined with community engagement, leadership development and grassroots political support, the program organized a program of training and action focused on strategies for saving newborn lives and community-engaged emergency referral services. This paper analyzes the effect of the GEHIP program on child survival. Methods: Birth history data assembled from baseline and endline surveys are used to assess the hazard of child mortality in GEHIP treatment and comparison areas prior to and after the start of treatment. Difference-in-differences (DiD) methods are used to compare mortality change over time among children exposed to GEHIP relative to children in the comparison area over the same time period. Models test the hypothesis that a package of systems strengthening activities improved childhood survival. Models adjusted for the potentially confounding effects of baseline differentials, secular mortality trends, household characteristics such as relative wealth and parental educational attainment, and geographic accessibility of clinical care. Results: The GEHIP combination of health systems strengthening activities reduced neonatal mortality by approximately one half (HR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.28,0.98, p = 0.045). There was a null incremental effect of GEHIP on mortality of post-neonate infants (from 1 to 12 months old) (HR = 0.72; 95% CI = 0.30,1.79; p = 0.480) and post-infants (from 1 year to 5 years old) -(HR = 1.02; 95% CI = 0.55–1.90; p = 0.940). Age-specific analyses show that impact was concentrated among neonates. However, effect ratios for post-infancy were inefficiently assessed owing to extensive survival history censoring for the later months of childhood. Children were observed only rarely for periods over 40 months of age. Conclusion: GEHIP results show that a comprehensive approach to newborn care is feasible, if care is augmented by community-based nurses. It supports the assertion that if appropriate mechanisms are put in place to enable the various pillars of the health system as espoused by WHO in rural impoverished settings where childhood mortality is high, it could lead to accelerated reductions in mortality thereby increasing survival of children. Policy implications of the pronounced neonatal effect of GEHIP merit national review for possible scale-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ghana has made significant stride towards universal health coverage (UHC) by implementing the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2003. This paper investigates the progress of UHC indicators in Ghana from 1995 to 2015 and makes future predictions up to 2030 to assess the probability of achieving UHC targets. National representative surveys of Ghana were used to assess health service coverage and financial risk protection. The analyses estimated the coverage of 13 prevention and four treatment service indicators at the national level and across wealth quintiles. In addition, we calculated catastrophic health payments and impoverishment to assess financial hardship and used a Bayesian regression model to estimate trends and future projections as well as the probabilities of achieving UHC targets by 2030. Wealth-based inequalities and regional disparities were also assessed. At the national level, 14 out of the 17 health service indicators are projected to reach the target of 80% coverage by 2030. Across wealth quintiles, inequalities were observed amongst most indicators with richer groups obtaining more coverage than their poorer counterparts. Subnational analysis revealed while all regions will achieve the 80% coverage target with high probabilities for the prevention services, the same cannot be applied to the treatment services. In 2015, the proportion of households that suffered catastrophic health payments and impoverishment at a threshold of 25% non-food expenditure were 1.9% (95%CrI: 0.9–3.5) and 0.4% (95%CrI: 0.2–0.8), respectively. These are projected to reduce to 0.4% (95% CrI: 0.1–1.3) and 0.2% (0.0–0.5) respectively by 2030. Inequality measures and subnational assessment revealed that catastrophic expenditure experienced by wealth quintiles and regions are not equal. Significant improvements were seen in both health service coverage and financial risk protection over the years. However, inequalities across wealth quintiles and regions continue to be cause of concerns. Further efforts are needed to narrow these gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful implementation of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programmes in schools depends on the development and implementation of strong policy in support of CSE. This paper offers a comparative analysis of the policy environment governing school-based CSE in four low- and middle-income countries at different stages of programme implementation: Ghana, Peru, Kenya and Guatemala. Based on an analysis of current policy and legal frameworks, key informant interviews and recent regional reviews, the analysis focuses on seven policy-related levers that contribute to successful school-based sexuality education programmes. The levers cover policy development trends; current policy and legal frameworks for sexuality education; international commitments affecting CSE policies; the various actors involved in shaping CSE; and the partnerships and coalitions of actors that influence CSE policy. Our analysis shows that all four countries benefit from a policy environment that, if properly leveraged, could lead to a stronger implementation of CSE in schools. However, each faces several key challenges that must be addressed to ensure the health and wellbeing of their young people. Latin American and African countries show notable differences in the development and evolution of their CSE policy environments, providing valuable insights for programme development and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Global Strategy to Eliminate Lymphatic Filiariasis (GFELF) through Mass Drug Administration (MDA) has been implemented in Ghana since the year 2000 and transmission has been interrupted in 76 of 98 endemic districts. To improve the MDA in the remaining districts with microfilaria (MF) prevalence above the 1% threshold for the interruption of transmission, there is a need to identify and implement appropriate quality improvement (QI) strategies. This paper describes the use of intervention mapping to select QI strategies to improve an existing evidence-based MDA program in Northern Ghana. Methods: Due to the complexities associated with implementing evidence-based programs (EBP) such as the lymphatic filariasis MDA and variability in the context, an initial assessment to identify implementation bottlenecks associated with the quality of implementation of lymphatic filariasis MDA in the Bole District of Ghana was conducted using a mixed methods approach. Based on the findings of the initial assessment, a context specific QI strategy was designed and operationalized using intervention mapping strategy in terms of seven domains: actor, the action, action targets, temporality, dose, implementation outcomes addressed, and theoretical justification. Results: The initial needs assessment shows that the persistent transmission of lymphatic filariasis in the Bole District is characterized by high levels of refusal to ingest the drug, high levels of reported adverse drug reactions, low MDA coverage at community level, poor adherence to the MDA protocol and non-participants’ responsiveness. Conclusion: This study has shown that it is feasible to develop a context specific QI strategy for an existing evidence-based intervention based on an initial needs assessment through stakeholder participation using the IM approach. However, working (towards) QI requires more time than is usually available in public health service. Sufficient theoretical knowledge of implementation research and experience with technical IM experts must be available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing global demand for diverse biomass-based products such as food, feed and fuel can transform African agriculture from a food-supplying to a biomass-supplying and processing sector in the growing international bioeconomy. This study addresses the requisite policy and institutional environment needed to foster the development of a competitive and sustainable bioeconomy in Africa. The paper uses the case of cassava in Ghana for an empirical case study. The novel concept of biomass-based value webs, that is, interlinked agricultural value chains, is combined with Porter’s Diamond model to analyse the extent to which Ghana is positioned to develop a competitive cassava value web. Empirical data collection involved mapping the physical biomass flows, applying the ‘Net-Map’ tool to identify all the actors in the emerging value web and their linkages, as well as in-depth interviews with the identified actors. The study finds that despite the huge opportunities for cassava biomass in Ghana, there are coordination problems between farmers, processors and industrial end-users. This has hindered the potential for increased cassava production, processing and utilisation. There is also generally a lack of private sector initiatives in the development of new cassava based products. Accordingly, industrial end-users tend to depend on imported alternatives. Unsuccessful government initiatives and the absence of legislation such as a composite flour policy or a biofuel blend policy have also been major contributing factors to the unrealised industrial potential of cassava in Ghana. The findings therefore suggest that competitive cassava utilisation in the emerging bioeconomy hinges on stronger institutional linkages between value web actors and government support mainly in the form of local content policies that encourage the use of cassava based products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past four decades, there has been an increase in the occurrence of zoonotic diseases. Some outbreaks have been devastating because of the inability of individuals and health workers to identify the diseases early. Generally, most zoonotic diseases are heralded by a fever. While fevers are common, they are often the symptoms of different diseases. This paper explores how a population at potential risk of zoonotic diseases identify fevers, and what treatments they seek when they develop fevers. The data are from focus group discussions and a survey of three communities in the Brong Ahafo, Volta and Greater Accra regions in Ghana. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics while the qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that the perceived causes of fever differ from the traditional biomedical view. While orthodox treatment was the preferred choice for most participants, rural dwellers utilised traditional medicine more than their urban counterparts. Though there is no record of bat-borne zoonotic disease in Ghana, our findings could be used as a proxy to indicate how populations at risk of exposure might respond in the event of a spillover event from a zoonosis. We recommend that educational campaigns on zoonotic diseases should target rural dwellers, especially farmers, who may be most at risk of zoonoses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the connections of agricultural productivity, access to credit and farm size in Africa using Ghana as a case study. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs mixed methods – quantitative and qualitative strategies for data collection and analyses. The hierarchical competitive model was used for the quantitative analyses supplemented with qualitative analyses using key informant interviews, focus group discussions and household case studies. Findings – The results show that there is significant relationship between credit from formal and informal sources and agricultural productivity. Thus access to formal and informal credit increases farm household agricultural productivity by about 0.10 (p=0.05) and 0.45 (p < 0.01), respectively. The quadratic terms of formal and informal credit as well as farm size were found to significantly influence agricultural productivity. The implication of this is that the relationships between formal credit, informal credit and farm size on one hand and agricultural productivity on the other are non-linear in nature. The interactions of formal credit with informal credit; informal credit with farm size; and formal and informal credit with farm size have significant relationships with agricultural productivity. The amount of remittance received by farm households has negative and insignificant influence on agricultural productivity. Market access is also an insignificant determinant of agricultural productivity in Ghana. Originality/value – This paper provides new insights on whether the scale of production (farm size as proxy) and access to financial services (credit as a proxy) matter in promoting agricultural productivity in Africa using Ghana as a case study. Thus the paper is of relevance to policy-makers and practitioners in Africa and Ghana in particular who are seeking to make informed policy decisions on effectively incorporating credit provision into the agricultural transformation agenda of the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explore and discuss the high levels of poverty and grave inequalities accentuated in most natural resource endowed communities in the newly discovered oil find in Ghana. The paper contends that while natural resources can contribute to economic growth, employment, and fiscal revenue, if mismanaged or shared unfairly and unequally, it could deepen poverty and further widen the inequality gap. It further argues that countries with weak institutions often struggle to handle the potentially destructive force of inequality resulting in widespread corruption as various actors try to capture the wealth generated by natural resources. While this work acknowledges that governance of natural resources in a manner that ensures equity in most African societies is almost utopian, it also contends that a better understanding of the phenomenon and consequences of inequality by politicians and policy makers coupled with new and better approaches would be a major contributor to the fight against the potentially destructive social problem of inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]