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Community development (CD) is widely accepted within the mining industry as a major part of the industry's sustainability strategy. Consequently, over the last two decades, community development has gained root in the mining industry, providing a framework for mining company interactions with local communities around the world. Dedicated CD departments stocked with development specialists have since become a common fixture of mining company structures at all levels. This development has naturally triggered an avalanche of scholarly interest in the mining industry CD practices and outcomes. However, current literature on the subject has rarely explored mining companies' discourse on the "community" as is applied within the context of CD practice. Based on Wiering and Arts' three-level analysis of discourse, the paper interrogates the concept of the "community" as is understood and applied within the Ghanaian mining industry, at the ontological, normative, and strategic levels. The paper shows that mining companies hold three simultaneous ontological conceptualizations of the community: communities as victims; as enclaves of poverty; and as owners of social license, each differing slightly in its underlying logic to CD. Of all three conceptualizations, the owners of social license view, which is driven by an instrumentalist logic, dominates CD practice, allowing mining companies to approach CD largely as a risk management tool. At the normative level, companies have advocated "value creation" (for communities). At the strategic level, company–community partnerships have been proposed as the preferred method of accomplishing CD. These views of the community and their accompanying industry practices are dissected and policy proposals suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of new data, this paper uses regression and descriptive approaches to examine Ghana's expenditure inequality from 1991 to 2017. Using household expenditure and several measures for the period under study, the paper observes that the inequality contiues to increase at the national level, mirroring similar trend at the sub-national level. Some administrative regions recorded over 30 percent increase in inequality. The regression-based approach reveals that household and community level characteristics contribute immensely to inequality. Household size, post secondary education, rural location and access to financial institutions are important contributors to the rising phenomenon of inequality. As the deadline of the Sustainable Development Goal approaches, this paper provides insights for policy action to attain the goal of reducing inequality especially in the Ghanaian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peki is an Ewe-speaking community in present-day southeastern Ghana. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this community became a hub for the trade in enslaved people. To take charge of the Atlantic economy, the Peki invited the North German Missionary Society to their community in 1847, intending to use them to gain direct access to European merchants on the coast. They also established a franchise of the influential Dente deity of Krachi at Dzake, one of eight Peki settlements. This paper explores the archaeology of the Dente shrine and its role in the historical memory of the Peki community's entanglements in the Atlantic trade. We employ archaeological, historical, and ethnographic evidence to show how the Peki elites leveraged African indigenous spiritualism to control the post-abolition trade in people. We highlight how contemporary memories of the Atlantic trade in Peki have been constructed through selective processes of remembering and silencing in the face of burgeoning roots and heritage tourism in Ghana. The paper underscores the contradictory roles of an African indigenous religious institution in the complex and syncretic responses to the Atlantic trade in people. It helps us to understand the distinctive power-building strategies that a local community of the West African hinterland adapted to survive in the shadows of expansionist states during the Atlantic trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining is regarded as one of the major economic activities with the ability to contribute to economic development. However, governments, the general public, stakeholder organizations and individuals have been concerned about the environmental and health implications of mining on surrounding communities. This paper investigated the environmental and health impacts of the Kenyasi-Ahafo mining activities on the local population and other nearby areas. The study employed a cross-sectional, observational and community-based study involving 150 respondents from three different communities through questionnaires and interview data collection. The study also made use of secondary data which included data on water quality from 2017 to 2021, air pollution dataset from blasting (August 2021-July 2022), and health facility record dataset from 2018 to 2021. The study revealed that mining activities have resulted in major environmental impacts, including land degradation. In addition, there is pollution which has affected mainly water resources in the municipality. Air and noise pollution were also evident in the area. The combined effects of environmental problems have ended in health implications with an associated high prevalence of diseases such as malaria, respiratory tract infections and skin diseases. The study found the effects of mining on the health of the local population are dependent on their proximity to the actively mined area. It also found that efforts by authorities to manage the mining impact on air, water and land were unsatisfactory. Lead (Pb) concentration in water sources was above the WHO guidelines for drinking water for most communities. About 92% of respondents agree that the mining activities were to blame for the disease prevalent in their area, with only 4.7% disagreeing. Interestingly, the study established that respondents' years of staying in the community influenced their knowledge of the effect of mining on the environment (p = 0.00132). The study recommends a review of the environmental management policy of Kenyasi-Ahafo Mines restoration efforts and intervention measures, which include afforestation, a review of operational procedures and the provision of alternative drinking water quality to the affected communities. The outcomes of this study are useful to relevant stakeholders and local authorities towards initiating plans to ensure that the environmental and health impact of the mining activities is kept to a minimum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in sub-Saharan Africa creates considerable dynamics in rural landscapes. Many studies addressed the adverse effects of mining, but few studies use participatory spatial tools to assess the effects on land use. Hence, this paper takes an actor perspective to analyze how communities in a mixed farming-mining area in Ghana's Eastern Region perceive the spatial dynamics of ASM and its effects on land for farming and food production from past (1986) to present (2018) and toward the future (2035). Participatory maps show how participants visualize the transformation of food-crop areas into small- and large-scale mining, tree crops, and settlement in all the communities between 1986 and 2018 and foresee these trends to continue in the future (2035). Participants also observe how a mosaic landscape shifts toward a segregated landscape, with simultaneous fragmentation of their farming land due to ASM. Further segregation is expected in the future, with attribution to the expansion of settlements being an unexpected outcome. Although participants expect adverse effects on the future availability of food-crop land, no firm conclusions can be drawn about the anticipated effect on food availability. The paper argues that, if responsibly applied and used to reveal community perspectives and concerns about landscape dynamics, participatory mapping can help raise awareness of the need for collective action and contribute to more inclusive landscape governance. These findings contribute to debates on the operationalization of integrated and inclusive landscape approaches and governance, particularly in areas with pervasive impacts of ASM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce environmental degradation and contribute more to wider sustainable development efforts, mining and oil companies in Ghana undertake different projects in affected communities, such as building schools and providing scholarships, as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR). Yet, evidence from recent studies suggests that the outcomes of these practices are mixed in terms of improving the livelihoods of people. This situation raises the question: what account for the disparity between companies' CSR activities and perceptions of affected communities? Drawing upon interview data with stakeholders from the mining and oil sectors of Ghana, the paper explores the perceived factors that undermine the contribution of CSR toward developmental efforts in affected communities. The results show that misplaced priorities and duplication of projects on the part of companies, high expectations from affected communities, and inadequate involvement of beneficiaries are among the factors that undermine CSR in Ghana. These findings contribute to extant literature that underscore the dichotomy between CSR and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potable water is a critical for improved health and for the pursuit of various socio-economic activities. Despite its immense usefulness, rural communities in developing countries such as Ghana lack adequate access to potable water. Rainwater harvesting, which has the potential of providing potable water for rural communities in Ghana and can be undertaken largely with local resources is rarely utilized. The purpose of this paper is to present rainwater harvesting as a sustainable water supply strategy for domestic use and is based on research undertaken in two rural communities in Ghana. The paper identifies opportunities such as affordability and user ownership as well as constraining bottlenecks that include poor roofing materials, lack of appropriate harvesting facilities and housing occupancy status as factors influencing rainwater harvesting practices by rural communities. It then proposes measures to resolve these and other difficulties associated with rainwater harvesting and thereby enhance its potential for sustainable rural water supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted to analyse and estimate household livelihood security in urban slums in the Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana. Two urban slums in the metropolis were selected. Primary data were collected from 152 respondents in the slum communities. Household livelihood security was measured using six security indices. These are economic, educational, food, health, and empowerment security. The study used questionnaires and interviews to gather data. The findings indicate that livelihood insecurity exists at different levels and domains in the study communities. The general household livelihood security index (HLS) of 0.415 indicates that slum communities are insecure. The only domain with HLS index higher than average is education security with an index of 0.523. In terms of health security, the index is 0.433 while the economic security index is 0.313. The empowerment security had the lowest HLS index of 0.268. It is concluded that even though insecurity among slums may seem similar, significant differences exist. It is recommended that for a successful and tangible improvement in the livelihoods of slum dwellers, policy interventions should consider the specific differences that exist among slums and household livelihood, livelihood diversification and geographical location. This will enhance the speedy alleviation of poverty and the creation of wealth by households in slums communities and reduce livelihood insecurities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, the government of Ghana set out to reorganise some administrative regions to ensure balanced development across the country. The reorganisation was informed by spatial extent and concerns about the limited access to government institutions or services, measured by the travel distances between communities or towns and the capital of a region. However, studies have failed to assess the changes in the spatial extent and the travel distances from human settlements to the regional capitals in the newly created regions as well as the distribution of public services. As such, the motivation for this study. The data were gathered using an interview guide and from the Mapcruzin open-source database whereas the analysis was done using ArcMap, Geographical Information Systems, descriptive statistics, paired sample t-tests, and thematic analysis. The results indicate that the reorganisation significantly decreased the average travel distances in all the regions of interest, and the same was observed at the district and municipality levels, which suggests a general improvement in accessibility to services and institutions. However, the average travel distance rose for a few affected districts and municipalities. To achieve balanced development, the government must improve the transportation network to facilitate better access to public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of informal sector activities (ISA) in reducing poverty among women in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) cannot be over emphasised. However, in LMICs including Ghana, little mixed-methods evidence exists about the prospects of ISA in improving the wellbeing of women across different spatial dimensions. Drawing on the feminist theory with mixed-methods evidence, this study explores the role of ISA in improving the welfare of women who are engaged in informal activities in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana. This knowledge-base is critical in contributing partly to the realisation of the UN poverty-related sustainable development goals. This study involved 356 spatially diverse women recruited from six communities in the Kumasi Metropolis using diverse sampling techniques. We found that the socio-economic welfare of the participants has significantly improved after entering into ISA. These improvements manifested in areas such as income, contribution to household expenditure, decision making at home, community participation, nutrition of family, access to education of wards, acquisition of assets and quality housing. The nature of the urban space had a weak influence on the manifestation of improvements. Findings of this study have, thus, demonstrated the potential of ISA in improving the socio-economic wellbeing of women in the informal sector in Ghana. Policy recommendations that aimed at strengthening ISA among women in Ghana have been offered for the attention of policy actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mosquito community dynamics is affected by several factors including land use types, physico-chemical parameters and heavy metal content of breeding sites. Although critical for effective vector control and disease prevention, information about the effect of anthropized landscapes and concomitant environmental parameters on mosquito community structure is limited. This study assessed the mosquito community structure in two anthropogenically-modified landscapes (auto-mechanic industrial and residential) in Ghana and the factors influencing them. Mosquito larvae sampled from the study area were enumerated and reared to the adult stage. Physico-chemical characteristics and heavy metal concentrations of water samples from the breeding sites were also determined. Nonmetric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) ordinations, permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) and redundancy analysis (RDA) were conducted to determine the pattern and variability of species composition and environmental factors that influence mosquito species distribution. Six mosquito species (Anopheles gambiae sensu lato, Anopheles funestus, Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus, Culex decens and Mansonia sp.) were sampled from the residential area, while the same species except An. funestus and Mansonia sp. were found in the industrial area. The industrial area supported significantly higher mosquito numbers. Salinity, pH, Cu, Fe, Zn, Pb, electrical conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, turbidity, and temperature of the breeding water related positively with Cx. quinquefaciatus, Cx decens and Mansonia sp. and negatively with Ae. aegypti, An. funestus and An. gambiae s. l. The study revealed the importance of landscape modification and environmental factors on mosquito community structure and the need to employ strategies aimed at eliminating man-made mosquito breeding sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and Medium Forest Enterprises are considered promoters of local development and growth due to their contributions to over 50% of forest-based employment in some countries like Brazil, Uganda, and India. Despite the many potentials of these enterprises, their operations go unchecked, which poses a serious threat to the sustainability of tropical forests. This study highlights the characteristics of SMFEs and the impact of SMFEs on sustainable forest management in Ghana from a survey of 80 randomly sampled enterprises in seven communities in the Amenfi West Municipality in Ghana. Data was gathered using structured questionnaires and key informant interviews and analyzed with statistical tools in SPSS version 25. The findings show that 71.25% of the SMFEs are not registered with the appropriate authorities like the Registrar General's department and the Municipal Assemblies. In addition, 55 (68.8%) of these enterprises have a direct dependency on the forest for raw materials with 21.8% of this number claiming to have obtained the needed permits/licenses to harvest the raw materials they need from the forests. For 91.25% of the enterprises, factors such as resource availability and profits drive their activities and 8.75% are driven by access to labor and job creation. The analysis showed that belonging to an association is a significant determinant of business registration at p = 0.001. Forest policies must seek to promote sustainable management of forest resources by enforcing registration and permit laws. SMFEs must be consistently monitored and supervised to ensure that their activities are guided by policy and their compliance rewarded through capacity building and government support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural communities in Ghana are deprived of basic social amenities, infrastructure and livelihood skills. The absence of these amenities and skills has widened inequality between rural and urban spaces in the country. The situation is worse in the northern part compared to the southern part of Ghana. The government and its development partners have made efforts to bridge this inequality and to make the development of rural communities sustainable. In this study, we explored the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in sustaining rural livelihoods in Upper West Region (UWR) of Ghana. Three basic questions that motivated the study are: what are the various interventions of NGOs in rural communities in the UWR?; how is sustainability built in the overall intervention programmes of the NGOs?; and what challenges do rural NGOs face in their operations? We purposively selected five NGOs operating in the region for the study. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select 194 respondents made up of beneficiaries and officials of the NGOs. The results from the study have shown that intervention programmes have contributed positively in improving economic, health, sanitation, social and political lives of beneficiaries in the studied communities. The study, however, found that there were no systems in place to sustain some interventions once programmes implementation periods are over. The low sustainability of the NGO intervention programmes was attributed to the many challenges they face. Prominent among them were cultural believes and practices, inadequate funding and logistical constraints. Recommendations are made to help NGOs and various stakeholders in rural development to sustain projects in order to achieve desired poverty reduction in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To determine the levels of knowledge, awareness and perception of malaria, and to determine the infection status among asymptomatic adults in selected districts. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study recruited 849 participants from seven districts in the malaria meso-endemic forest zone of Ghana. Questionnaires were administered to elicit responses from asymptomatic adults on malaria awareness, knowledge and insecticide-treated net (ITN) usage. Capillary blood samples were taken from study subjects for malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) and microscopy. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse quantitative and qualitative data. Results: Ninety-eight percent of participants were aware of malaria, 94.0% owned ITNs but only 35.5% consistently used them. Also, 56.7% correctly associated malaria with mosquitoes and 54.5% identified stagnant water as the breeding site. Twelve percent (12.2%) and 13.1% of the subjects tested positive for malaria via RDT and microscopy, respectively. Of the 111 confirmed malaria cases, 107 had Plasmodium falciparum infections, two had Plasmodium ovale infections and there were two Plasmodium falciparum–Plasmodium ovale mixed infections. Conclusion: Awareness and knowledge of malaria was satisfactory but this did not translate into mosquito avoidance behaviour due to deep-seated perceptions and myths. With the prevalence of asymptomatic parasitaemia observed, this reservoir of infection could be dislodged with appropriate health education targeted at women in the rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the impact of farmers' egocentric information network on technical efficiency and its distribution in the network, using observational data of 600 farmers from northern Ghana. We exploit community detection algorithms to endogenously identify homogeneous network communities with known structures to account for spatial heterogeneity, in a spatial stochastic frontier model that controls for social selection bias. The empirical results reveal that at the global network level, farmers' technical efficiency strongly correlate with that of farmers in their egocentric networks. Our findings also show that farmers who are technically less efficient tend to depend on the more efficient farmers in their networks to improve efficiency. We further find that estimating spatial dependence of technical efficiency without accounting for spatial heterogeneity can lead to underestimation of technical efficiency of high (efficiency score >0.6) performing farmers, while overestimating that of medium (efficiency scores between 0.36–0.5) and low (efficiency scores between 0.1–0.35) performing farmers. The findings suggest that identifying central farmers in egocentric networks and improving their technical knowledge in a farmer-to-farmer extension organization, can contribute to improving the productivity of many farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We relied on local knowledge of fishers in five coastal communities in Ghana to investigate ecological factors that affect fishing for elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) and the changes in the abundance of sharks and rays from 1980 to 2020. We gathered data using participant observation, interviews, focus group discussions, and participatory rural appraisal techniques. The results revealed fisher's understanding of six main ecological conditions, which have been applied over the years to improve fishing and maximize fisher catch: season and weather conditions, lunar phase, bait type, presence of seabirds and fish movement, the color of seawater, and sea current. Most elasmobranch species were abundant in 1980 but became severely depleted as of 2020, except Blue Shark (Prionace glauca) and Devil rays (Mobula spp.), shared by the fishers. We found fishers' local ecological knowledge consistent with scholarly knowledge and call for its inclusion in research, decision-making, and management interventions by biologists and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks what the practice of walking might reveal about archival research in postcolonial contexts. Through an exploration of walking in its many iterations in the city of Tamale, Northern Ghana—including seeking directions to state archives, talking with others while walking toward archives, and observing the exchange of archival data within communities as citizens walk—I explore the relationship between Tamale's colonial, state, indigenous and community-led archival spheres. As a sensory, relational, and embodied practice, walking affords unique insights into different experiences of and relationships to archives. Walks toward state archives reveal sensorial histories of colonial power enacted through space for Tamale's Dagbamba and Hausa residents, while also highlighting the foreign research networks who continue to draw upon this archival material. At the same time, documents within state archives—including maps and files—provide new possibilities for "virtual walks" through the colonial city, revealing insights into the positioning of both state and indigenous archives as they relate to the colonial production of space. Ethnographic reflections on walks to indigenous areas of the city in search of postcolonial archives afford insights into other archival spaces that are firmly situated within sites of resistance to colonial urban planning schemes. Walking lends new insights into the ways that archives are accessed and circulated outside of the state, as archival cassette recordings were made by Dagbamba recordists as they walked through indigenous neighborhoods during the postcolonial period. Subsequently, these recordings have been digitized and are now circulated between community members via mobile phones as they walk through their neighborhoods each day. Walking thus provides a framework for thinking across archival spaces in postcolonial contexts, encouraging dialogue between these seemingly unrelated archival spheres and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livelihood sustainability has been a major concern for many developing economies across the globe. In Ghana, studies have identified climate change as one constraining player that trigger sustainable livelihood. In the Wa West District of Ghana, studies have paid much efforts on climate change and its perceived effects on livelihood with little attention on climate variability which is a yearly phenomenon. The study aimed to investigate climate variability and rural livelihood sustainability using communities along the Black Volta River in the Wa West District in the Upper West Region as units of analysis. The study employed cross-sectional survey using a mixed method approach to investigate the phenomenon. Purposive and simple random sampling methods were used to select the communities and household heads for the study respectively. Questionnaires and interviews were used as data collections tools and questionnaires were administered to 163 household heads. Descriptive and thematic analytical approaches were employed. The result of the study revealed that respondents of the four communities were engaged in primary (crop farming, animal rearing, shea butter processing and Pito brewing) and secondary livelihood activities (dry season gardening, weaving of birds/fishing nets and hair dressing). Evidently, the study found that short, unstable, drought spelt, warm/extreme weather have affected respondents livelihood especially the primary livelihood strategies. In addition, respondents observed drought, flood, poverty/famine, pest and disease, poor crop yield and bush fires as major climate variability-induced shocks and stresses they experienced over the last one decade. Importantly, the study found that respondents have employed cultivation of short duration crop varieties, shifting of planting dates when bad season is suspected and addition of alternative livelihood as response strategies to climate variability. The practical and policy considerations of the study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the influence of cultural notions of masculinity and its enactments on husband-to-wife abuse in Ghana from a discursive psychological perspective. Two focus group discussions and four in-depth personal interviews were conducted with 16 perpetrators (husbands) from rural and urban Ghana. Participants' discursive accounts revealed that social anxieties of husbands, their fear of being perceived by others as weak or emasculated, and their disappointment with unfulfilled notions of masculine sovereignty influence conjugal violence. Perpetrators constructed a wife's expression of dissent to her husband's wishes and commands as an encroachment on masculine spaces, a gender-norm violation, or as providing a public challenge to male identity and thus violence could be used as an obligatory passage to manhood. Perpetrators also mobilized shifting and ambivalent discourses that draw upon culturally familiar notions of maleness to both resist and authorize a patriarchal privilege in marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Barekese Reservoir is a facility for reserving water for treatment and subsequent consumption by the populace of the Kumasi conurbation and its environs. The reservoir provides over 80% of the total public water supply to the Kumasi locale and is plagued by persistent degradation through human activities throughout the catchment. This situation raises concern on the regional deterioration of water quality and quantity. We present the attitudes of local communities towards their involvement in river water management and the sustainable exploitation of natural resources. We administered both open ended and closed structured questionnaires in seven communities in the reservoir catchment. The results revealed that individual residents in these communities have not been involved in the management of the reservoir, adversely affecting goals of sustainable management. Our study concludes with direct policy recommendations and applications in four specific areas to arrive at sustainable management of the facility by involving affected communities through their inclusion in: ongoing and proposed project development as shareholders; the review of existing environmental legislation; adopting of indigenous knowledge in management institutions; and the re-introduction of norms and traditions within the communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]