Search

The PanAfrican Research Agenda on the Pedagogical Integration of information and communication technology (ICT; PanAf) research project was initiated in 2006 to support initiatives in African countries to integrate ICT into teaching and learning through the frequent collection and analysis of data on ICT usage. The article examines the congruence between the intended and implemented ICT curricula in six African countries (Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, and South Africa) that participated in the study. Data obtained from the PanAf observatory (at www.observatoiretic.org) on these countries' use of ICT in education revealed that the national curricula documents (intended curricula) and teachers' classroom practices (implemented curricula) both emphasize ICT as the subject of learning rather than as a means of learning.

Medical education in Africa is in desperate need of reforms, evident in widespread diseases, and an inability to mobilise and train the required medical workforce to deal with these health issues. However, the exponential rise in the use of mobile technologies due to the spread of the Internet and increased telecommunication networks offer an opportunity for the transformation of medical education and practice through the deployment of mobile devices as a medium for learning and conveying health care services to the remote and resource-constrained locations of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper reviewed articles on the affordances of m-learning for distributed medical education in SSA published between 2010-2018. Results from 18 articles identified in the review revealed a slow-paced ascendancy of practice and research in the field; it further exposed competing priorities, infrastructural deficit, and chronic workforce shortages as the bane of m-learning implementation in the subregion. This paper makes recommendations that will enhance the growth of mobile-based distance medical education and practice in SSA.

The history, people, and culture of many African nations have been written, projected, and interpreted in different ways. The contents and variability in the early accounts about African nations, which were based largely on external viewpoints and interests which barely represented the realities in Africa, created confusions about African historiography and affected how Africans, their cultures, and histories were perceived in Western cultures. Drawing on the literature on African historiography, this paper examines Ghanaian History teachers' perspectives of historically significant events in Ghana's past, and how these perspectives translate into classroom practice. Findings demonstrate teachers' consciousness and belief in traditional African cultural practices and the unique modes of preserving and doing African history. The paper makes a case for how African historiography and History education should look different to those conducted in Western contexts.

YouTube now has more searches than Google, indicating that video is a motivating and, potentially, powerful learning tool. This paper investigates how we can embrace video to support improvements in teacher education. It will draw on innovative approaches to teacher education, developed by the Open University UK, in order to explore in more depth the potential of video. It will use case studies from three continents, and draw on research from different sources, in order to highlight the successes and the challenges. Looking across the examples presented, the paper will describe models of teacher learning and video use, and demonstrate that video can add value to teacher development activities provided that appropriate support and mediation, consistent with the pedagogy that is being promoted, is in place. Sustainable Development Goal 4 emphasizes the importance of improving the quality of the experiences that children have in school. This requires new models for teacher education, and has become an urgent issue. Video could be a significant part of the solution.

Studies on migration and education have examined homeland returns as part of family strategies around acquiring desired cultural capital. However, the impact of return migration and transnational mobility on homeland educational landscapes remains under-researched. Using ethnographic data from Ghana, Senegal, the UK and the US, this paper shows how 'international' schools on the African continent have emerged as places where young transnational Africans can acquire cosmopolitan and Afropolitan competencies and outlooks.

This paper is the second in a set of two on the extent to which Catholic and other faith-based schools are serving the poor well. Catholic and other faith-based schools reach millions of children who live in poverty, yet this does not necessarily mean that they are serving these children well enough. The paper considers two separate issues. First, beyond academic subjects, Catholic and other faith-based schools emphasise learning related to values and religion. Do they succeed in doing so? Based on small sample survey data and qualitative fieldwork, as well as broader data on parental satisfaction with schools, the paper provides a tentative and mostly positive answer to this question, at least from the view of parents. The second issue is where performance is weaker. Education systems are affected by a learning crisis in the developing world. All schools should ensure that students learn, but too often this is not the case. The second part of the paper documents this learning crisis and the fact that Catholic and other faith-based schools are not immune to it. This is done in part through a rapid review of the recent World Development Report on education's promise, and a companion piece for sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates of performance for selected African countries are also provided. The results are sobering: too many children are not learning while in school. Finally, the paper briefly summarises evidence from the literature on interventions that could improve learning, including in Catholic and faith-based schools. [For Part I of the series, see EJ1206878.]

Inclusive education is a key strategy in addressing the needs of children with autism and other developmental disabilities in sub-Saharan Africa, who rarely access specialist care or quality education. We aimed to systematically review qualitative research on stakeholder experiences, attitudes and perspectives on inclusive education for pupils with developmental disabilities in mainstream schools in sub-Saharan Africa. We searched five databases and selected relevant studies through a two-stage screening process. We synthesised the papers identified through template analysis of the Results and Discussion sections, guided by the" Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research." Thirty-two publications met the inclusion criteria. The studies were conducted in seven countries and explored the experiences of pupils with developmental disabilities, parents, peers without developmental disabilities and teachers. Multiple barriers (e.g. unclear policies, insufficient training and support for teachers) and opportunities (e.g. teachers' commitment to inclusion, collaboration between teachers, the work of non-governmental organisations (NGOs)) for implementing inclusive education for pupils with developmental disabilities in sub-Saharan Africa were identified, occurring across national and community contexts and school, classroom and individual teacher levels. To effectively implement inclusive education for pupils with developmental disabilities, teachers need access to appropriate training, resources and support. Governments can capitalise on motivated teachers and the relevant work of NGOs.

This study examined the social and spill-over benefits as motivating factors to investment in formal education in selected countries in Africa. The paper had three objectives, namely) to profile the key statistics of formal schooling; ii) examine the formal education and iii) link national goals of education with expectations in Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda. The major contention of the paper is that investment in education is not a matter of random choice but rather an imperative led by the fact that education holds returns and externalities to the largest society. Authors reviewed theory of human capital, local and international publications on social and spill over benefits of education focusing on Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda. The analysis of government policies and other publications from these three African nations have shown that education is considered as a key sector in these developing nations. Nevertheless, the researchers found out that mostly only primary and secondary education are distinctively accorded considerable public financial resources which might be associated with the countries limited financial ability, competitive needs, national and global trends. However, the fact that Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda strive to become democratic, self-reliant and middle income nations by conquering long terms set visions in which caliber manpower, welfare, self-employment, reduced social inequalities, increase in average income, knowledge based society, ICT driven and sustainable economy are key characteristics; it is imperative to invest substantially in TVET and higher education. It is also recommended that Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda put in place strong institutions that objectively, effectively and rationally ensure the efficient use of all available resources towards maximum educational outputs.

Background: Conceptualisations of what it means to use evidence in policymaking often appear divided between two extremes. On the one side are works presenting it as the implementation of research findings - particularly evaluations of intervention effect. In contrast stand theoretically informed works exploring the multiple meanings of evidence use, political complexities, and the constructed nature of research evidence itself. The first perspective has been criticised as over-simplistic, while the latter can make it difficult to answer questions of what might be good, or improved, uses of evidence in policymaking. Methods: To further debate, this paper develops a 'programmatic approach' to evidence use, drawing on theories of institutional decision making and empirical work on evidence use within 11 National Malaria Control Programmes in Africa. We apply the programmatic approach by investigating the key goals and tasks of programme officials, recognising that these will shape the routines and logics followed affecting evidence utilisation. We then map out the forms, sources, features, and applications of evidence that serve programme officials in their goals. Findings: In the case of malaria programmes, evidence use was understood in relation to tasks including: advocacy for funding, budget allocation, regulation development, national planning, and identification of information gaps - all of which might require different evidence sources, forms, and applications. Discussion and conclusions: Ultimately the programmatic approach aims to facilitate clearer understanding of what uses of evidence are appropriate to policymakers, while also allowing critical reflection on whether such uses are 'good' from both programme and broader social perspectives.

This paper provides glimpses of transactions in chemistry classrooms in five African countries (Burundi, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal) during the COVID-19 lockdown. Members of the secondary school community in the countries including teachers, students, and school managers were unprepared for the unprecedent demand in shift from a face-to-face to an online delivery system. From a tepid, faltering start in the early days of the lockdown in Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal, and recognizing that the end of the lockdown may not be in sight, some minuscule progress is being made in exploring virtual delivery of the chemistry curriculum. Four major challenges to online delivery of chemistry education emerged. These are a teacher capacity deficit for delivering online education, poor internet service, an erratic power supply, and severe inadequacies in infrastructure for open and distance education. Taken together along with poor teacher motivation induced by low and irregular wages, these challenges are depressants to quality chemistry teaching during the COVID-19 period. We foresee that these challenges will persist. The harsh effect of COVID-19 on the economy of all African countries is a sign that funds will be unavailable to address these challenges in the near future. A glimmer of hope can be the reprioritization of funding resources by African governments to online delivery of education, noting that blended learning will be the new normal in the coming decades.

This paper proposes a re-examination of the histographies of theatre for development (TfD) which takes into account the background influences, cultures and agendas of complex networks of actors, organizations, governments, and higher education institutions in which the practice and praxis of TfD revolve. The article introduces and reflects on my ongoing research, in which I argue for a new research paradigm that will aid researchers, practitioners, and theorists to understand the complex nature of their work. Moreover, I seek to narrow the reader's attention to important but missing elements in TfD histories and historiographies.

The main aim of the study is to explore aspects of entrepreneurs' motivation and perceptions with reference to prevailing values in a given context in Africa. In the initial sections of the paper, we draw on concepts of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurship ecosystem when discussing push and pull factors, access to resources, and Ubuntu. This discussion leads to the formulation of a set of research questions and the presentation of a case study analysis. The case study reveals the extent to which globalization and global events can present as palpable phenomena for small businesses opened by entrepreneurs in Africa. Further, in highlighting altruistically oriented entrepreneurial motivations and actions, the case study raises questions about notions of "necessity" entrepreneurs, given that entrepreneurship in Africa has traditionally been linked to finance and employment as opposed to altruistic and dispositional motivations. In drawing attention to the policy implications of the findings, we highlight that entrepreneurs driven by Ubuntu values are likely to be motivated to address issues of poverty, unemployment and community harmony as compared to those who are primarily motivated by rational-economic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After decades of decline, African higher education is now arguably in a new era of revival. With the prevalence of knowledge economy discourse, national governments in Africa and their development partners have increasingly aligned higher education with poverty reduction plans and strategies. Research capacity has become a critical development issue; and widening participation to doctoral education is seen as an instrument for enhancing this capacity. Against this backdrop, this paper presents a review of emerging initiatives and policies that have some bearing on the PhD in select sub-Saharan African nations, namely Ethiopia, Ghana and South Africa. The findings show a shared optimism about the economic value of higher education, and explicate divergences and convergences in the framing of problems and policy responses related to doctoral education across the three nations. In the conclusion we reflect on challenges and policy omissions in the pursuit of the African PhD.

Within the last 30 years, the African continent has experienced significant changes related to democracy, governance, and education; however, large-scale international studies of citizenship education have not included African nations. Despite this gap, youth political movements incubated in universities and secondary schools have been influential factors in political change; in addition, youth currently make up a large portion of the population of Africa, with 43% of the population under the age of 14. The ways that young people understand and enact citizenship will shape the direction of their nations and the continent. This article discusses considerations for researching citizenship education in post-colonial nations in Africa. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative studies of civic education in Ghana and Liberia, the paper proposes four major considerations for researchers: first, the importance of situating conceptions of citizenship in the context of historical and contemporary issues; second, the importance of considering reciprocity in research ethics; third, the need to consider the impact of the researcher on the work, and fourth, the willingness to look for civic influences beyond the civics classroom and the school.

This paper describes the contribution of the Tuning Methodology toward harmonisation of undergraduate mechanical engineering programmes in Africa. This methodology is an interactive process in which academics develop high quality curricula and learning standards for students through the identification of generic and subject specific competences in consultation with employers, students, graduates, peers and other stakeholders involved in Mechanical Engineering higher education. The current Tuning process involves academics in 11 universities drawn from across Africa. The aim is to collaboratively contribute to revitalizing and reforming Mechanical Engineering higher education in Africa to make it more responsive to Africa's developmental needs. The results so far show that such a project is not only highly feasible but also holds promise for establishing compatible academic structures and reference standards across Africa, which would facilitate student and staff mobility as well as enhance cooperation not only among African academic institutions, but also between African institutions and those in the rest of the world. Eighteen generic competences and nineteen mechanical engineering-specific competences are developed, analysed and synergised to form a meta-profile that will inform the next phase of the project, which is the actual curriculum development. This activity is part of "Tuning Africa" project, which is funded through European Union-African Union collaboration.

Globally, Parliaments are democratic representation institutions responsible for law making, oversight over the executive, financial controls, and representation. There is ample evidence that Members of Parliament (MPs) in Africa are providing clientelistic services to constituents. This paper seeks to unearth the implications of the involvement of MPs in the provision of clientelistic goods and services on the effective performance of the MP's traditional functions. The paper used data collected from 80 Members of the 6th Parliament of Ghana, in 2016 to draw its conclusions. The incidence of Political clientelism among MPs manifest in two dimensions: Providing individual constituent's particular services and providing constituency-wide services. Political Clientelism prevents MPs from effectively performing their traditional roles. Educating the electorate on the traditional role of the MP, and improving the policy making capacity of political parties to engage citizens on policy issues, can help change the culture of political clientelism among MPs and citizens in Ghana and Africa as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reexamine the determinants of nonperforming loans through the impact of supervisory devices in credit risk management in Africa. The paper employs bank-specific, macroeconomic and institutional data for a panel of 14 universal banks over the period 2009 to 2020. We develop models that capture the role of regulatory supervision on credit risk. Findings from the Panels Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) and the system GMM shows that previous year's NPL and inflation significantly affect NPLs in the banking space of Gana. Bank size and financial development are inversely associated with NPLs. The interactive term of regulatory quality and government effectiveness on NPLs has net negative effect. This suggest that regulatory quality enhances the reductive effects of government effectiveness on NPLs. Our findings in general lends credence to the financial instability theory as NPLs in the Ghanaian context has been the outcome of activities of speculative borrowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africans express most of their religious beliefs in oral and symbolic forms. Music is one of the major sources of African theology and traditional wisdom. As the church in Africa strives to decolonize the Christian faith, African theologians must explore various means by which oral and symbolic theologies can contribute to the overall theology of the church. The present paper contributes to this theological exploration by examining key socioreligious ideas embedded in Papa Yaw Johnson's "Fa wo ntoma bɛbɔ me deɛ ano", a popular Ghanaian dirge. This paper used a literary analysis research approach to analyze the selected dirge. It began with the general concept of death and continued to consider dirges in the context of Ghanaian funerals. After offering a socio-linguistic analysis of the dirge, the paper offered a Christological reflection based on two key thematic areas: Nkwamafoɔ Christology and Nyansaboakwa Christology. The main thesis of the paper is that Jesus, through his life, ministry, death and resurrection, has reversed Adam's actions that placed humanity under the power of sin and death. Therefore, with Christ at the centre of life, one should not fear (physical) death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ghana's petroleum industry is located several nautical miles offshore in the Western Region of the country. Yet, the mechanisms and processes of production and transportation of crude petroleum are accompanied by the dispossessing of the adjoining coastal communities of their means of (re)production both on the ocean and on land. Although the insights of agrarian political economy have been deployed fruitfully to analyse land grabs in Africa, similar efforts are rare when it comes to ocean grabs. With reference to the new development thinking on the ocean economy—or 'blue economy'—as the new frontier of resource‐based industrialization in Africa, we re‐frame the agrarian question and apply it to the offshore petroleum industry, expanding agrarian political‐economic theory of industrialization beyond its traditional confines of land and agriculture. Our paper makes two main theoretical contributions. First, it contributes to efforts in agrarian political economy to incorporate the ocean and fisheries. Second, we contribute a fresh theoretical framework for analysing offshore petroleum industries and their potential to contribute to industrialization in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to explore African conceptions of digital libraries from the perspective of the historical literature. This paper argues that the concept of digital libraries is a western creation and that there was a need for developing societies to develop their own conceptions to guide their own digital library development agenda. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a literature review. The paper makes use of publicly-available literature on the theme of digital libraries from both the Western and African perspectives. The search terms used were "digital libraries", "Africa digital libraries", "electronic libraries", "information communication technologies/libraries" and "institutional repositories". A total of 89 publications were examined for this purpose. Findings: The analysis revealed that most of the initial digital library initiatives in Africa emanated from the west with African countries benefiting from international initiatives to expand access to information resources to bridge the global digital divide. However, due to a number of contextual challenges such as lack of sustainable funding and inadequate capacity and strategy, the development of digital libraries was hampered. Thus, even though digital libraries enjoy considerable goodwill, there remain negative conceptions of digital libraries in Africa. Practical implications: Information institutions in African countries must evolve a unified conception of digital libraries as this would largely drive the direction of digital library development towards achieving the developmental goals of the continent. Originality/value: The study applies the attributes of innovation to explain contextual factors shaping African conceptions of digital libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing contemporary nutrition problems often requires application of knowledge from multiple disciplines. The scaling up nutrition (SUN) movement harnesses multiple sectors for effective global and in-country planning and implementation. Although the role of knowledge networks (academia and research institutions) is recognised, the how of engaging knowledge networks in the current SUN architecture is only now becoming apparent. For relevant sectors to play their roles effectively, observed capacity gaps, particularly in developing country settings, need to be addressed. The present paper presents the work being undertaken by the Ghana SUN Academic Platform (AP), a local knowledge network, towards strengthening nutrition capacity in Ghana. The AP presently provides technical support, evidence and capacity towards scaling up effective nutrition interventions in Ghana and beyond. The data presented draws heavily on the observations and collective experiences of the authors in practice, complemented by a review of relevant literature. The ultimate goal of the AP is to build capacity of professionals from nutrition and cognate sectors (including planning, agriculture, health, economics, research and academia). This is an essential ingredient for effective and durable SUN efforts. The paper recognises that both disciplinary and interdisciplinary capacity is required for effective SUN efforts in Africa, and offers an approach that utilises cross-sector/inter-professional, peer-learning and experiential learning initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse on homosexually has largely remained Euro-American with a focus on human right of African homosexuals residing in Africa. However, current debates in Africa have centered on the cultural acceptability, legality as well as mental health concerns presumed to be associated with homosexuality. The paper approaches the issue of homosexuality from a perspective that is sensitive to the cultural context of Ghana and also through a non-Euro-American lens. The author attempts to address some of the misunderstanding about the legal status of homosexuals and the negative attitudes in Ghana. The paper concludes that Ghanaians face a paradox of accepting homosexuality because it cannot be understood to further growth of human society from their perspective. Similarly, if Ghanaians view homosexuality as a mental health issue, then it is more appropriate to decriminalize it as it is not appropriate to criminalize mental disorders. Reconceptualizing the issue as a human rights one in which both anti- and pro-homosexual religious and sexual rights respectively are accommodated may be more progressive than promoting one set of rights at the expense of the other. Though Ghana is the focus of this paper, it is believed that the discussions presented are applicable to the rest of Africa and other non-Western societies. [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]

In Africa, the work experiences of disabled people can help employers and the government build more inclusive workplaces. Nonetheless, research exploring disabled people's work experiences at various employment stages is limited, particularly in Africa. The study applies ethnographic research methods to examine the work experience of those with visual, speech, hearing, mobility and psychological disabilities in Ghana. Data were coded and analysed using content and descriptive methods. The findings suggest that disabled people face several barriers, including inadequate accommodation, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination and poor performance evaluation at work. This paper argues that transformational leadership is a prerequisite for African governments and private sector employers seeking to improve the workplace environment and build an inclusive culture within these spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LIS education is more concerned with training in librarianship. LIS education aimed at producing competent librarians to manage all types of libraries in the countries of the world for sustainability. Other information related disciplines such as documentation, archives and records management were relatively unknown when they started existing, thus, they were not accorded prominence. However, librarianship in Africa owes its origin to colonialism. Colonialism introduced reading and writing among the indigenous people. Until then, the two activities were alien. Colonial governments introduced Western education which entailed among others, reading and writing. In an attempt to boost the two activities, a need was felt to provide the new literates with information materials, basically books, to further their reading and writing skills which brought about the establishment of Library Schools in Africa. Thus, UNESCO played a leading role in the establishment of LIS education programmes in Africa and in particular Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa. The pressure emanated from public libraries. UNESCO was convinced that illiteracy in sub-Saharan Africa could only be eradicated with the support of libraries. A number of regional seminars were held between 1953 and 1963 on the African continent to sensitize colonial governments on the need to establish public libraries in their colonies to speed up socio-economic development, thus, library schools were established in Africa to sustain library practices The history of Library Education was traced in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. The paper concluded that the existing ICT laboratories in all library schools in Africa should be well equipped, while the library schools without laboratories should be encouraged to establish one by training efficient manpower to manage and coordinate the established libraries in Africa and the yet-to-be established ones in order to sustain library practices. Adequate laboratories would enhance the provision of adequate and efficient practical and the acquisition of IT skills. Above all, the parent institutions in Africa (universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education) running LIS programme should provide adequate funding for the procurement of facilities in the ICT laboratories. [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]

Preparation and coordination have come to dominate discourse on operational excellence in post disaster supply chain management. In this paper we explore the critical success factors (CSF) of operations excellence in post-disaster operations management in Africa, using in-depth interviews with disaster management practitioners. Available studies have often focussed on the commercial supply chains, but rarely on the critical success factors in service excellence in post disaster management operations in Africa. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews and desk-top data collection techniques from disaster management experts in Ghana a number of factors were identified. Employing thematic data analysis technique, these factors were categorised into eight (8) themes: management and administration, resources, political, governance structure, socio-cultural, education and training, infrastructure, and stakeholder involvement and co-operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sets out to address the decontextualized discourse on African entrepreneurship and attempts to locate it within the socio-cultural context using the philosophy and principles of Ubuntu. It investigates and traces how Ubuntu informs the motive, decisions and actions of the African entrepreneur. The study contrasts the Ubuntu-based decisions of the entrepreneur with the individualistic economic rationalism expected of an entrepreneur in a typical market economy. It presents a peculiar case of a young entrepreneur who started a business in 2013 which has gone through lots of experiences and trajectories that are relevant to Ubuntu philosophy. The study is underpinned by grounded theory research design which enabled us to analyze Ubuntu values and motivation through the entrepreneur's actions and stories. The research provides insights into the "contours" of the business journey and how social capital helps to sustain the firm. The nuances of economic rationality and humanity feature in this study as the business reached critical moments where the owner was torn between folding up and thinking about the potential impact of this decision on the employees. The research draws policy implications for entrepreneurs in Africa and encourages scholars to interrogate Westernized approaches to the concept of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large, extant literature examines the effect of political factors on individual subjective well‐being. These studies have treated political factors as a cause and subjective well‐being as an effect. A sparse but growing literature now advances the argument that subjective well‐being is a cause and voting or political participation an effect. In this paper we examine whether subjective well‐being influences voting and political participation in Ghana. Using data from Wave 6 of the World Values Survey in Ghana, we find that subjective well‐being influences neither voting nor protest behavior. [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]

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]

This paper explores the predictors of HIV/AIDS awareness and knowledge among older and younger Ghanaian women of reproductive age. Logistic regression was estimated using the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey data. Results indicate that older Ghanaian women are significantly different from their younger counterparts in terms of the selected socio-economic and demographic characteristics that influence awareness and knowledge of the epidemic. In all, the respondents' age, region of residence, wealth status, education, marital status and religious affiliation were found to significantly predict knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDS among women. In addition, pregnancy status and place of residence proved to be significant correlates of HIV/AIDS awareness among Ghanaian women. The study suggests that higher social status is critical in determining whether women of reproductive age are aware of and knowledgeable about the epidemic. Thus, there is the need for policies and interventions to target messages taking into account the varied socio-economic and demographic backgrounds of women in Ghana. Further, health education interventions should be sensitive to the changing technological landscape in order to develop messages that can be delivered via mobile phones, whether as reminders or ringtones, and therefore enhance health knowledge and promote behaviour that brings about desirable health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to decompose income inequality across various household income components and to estimate the marginal effects of changes in each of the income components on overall income inequality in Ghana.Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from the fifth and sixth rounds of the Ghana Living Standards Surveys. Gini coefficient was estimated and decomposed across structured income components. The marginal effects were obtained by computing the partial derivatives of the Gini coefficient with respect to a percentage change in a particular income source.Findings The results suggest that, in general, income inequality has increased marginally over the years (Gini coefficient of 0.66 in 2013 and 0.62 in 2006). Inequality was, however, higher in urban areas than in rural areas in 2013 with the reverse observed in 2006. The income component decomposition analysis suggests that wage employment income dominated household income in both rural and urban areas, even though the magnitude was higher in urban areas. Farm income was only dominant in rural communities in 2006. Self-employment and remittance income had consistent inequality reducing effects on total household income distribution.Originality/value The study goes beyond inequality studies in Ghana to estimate the marginal effect of income components on inequality. Such decomposition will allow for effective policy targeting in a resource-constrained developing country like Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article details how Ubuntu was incorporated into each step of the research project, shares the authors' experiences and key learnings, and provides recommendations for researchers utilizing Ubuntu as a research paradigm. Ubuntu is an ancient African philosophy emphasizing a way of life grounded in interdependence, collaboration, harmony, and community. In recent years, researchers have incorporated Ubuntu as a research paradigm to decolonize research in a sub-Saharan African context. The present article used international collaborative qualitative research conducted virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic to demonstrate the application of Ubuntu as a research paradigm for conducting research in the African context. Some of the key takeaways include technological factors to consider, establishing connections during the planning stage, and ultimately nurturing productive collaboration within virtual groups. [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]

Ghana, like other African countries, suffers a huge infrastructure gap. In recent times China has become a major bilateral source of investment in Ghana’s energy infrastructure. This article examines the strategic importance of Chinese infrastructure investment in Ghana’s energy sector in recent times. The study is based on field research conducted by the author in Ghana and on the analysis of semi-structured interviews with Ghanaian policy makers, journalists, civil society organizations, academics and individuals. Additional data were collected on some key projects China has been sponsoring in the energy sector. The paper suggests that China has become a key partner in Ghana’s development efforts as its provision of infrastructural projects soars and its involvement in Ghana’s economy grows. Yet China’s engagement presents a complex dynamic given its dual role as financier of energy infrastructure and at the same time a competitor or seeker of Ghana’s oil and other natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage planning in Ghana is mainly governed by the idea of sustainable pro-poor tourism, but is only marginally integrated with general planning programmes and fragmentally addressed by policy-makers. Motivated by the general lack of research on heritage policy in Ghana, this paper examines the role of heritage planning in national socio-economic, cultural and tourism policy and highlights various ambiguities in terms of concepts, objectives and approaches. The major findings show gaps between rational and communicative planning ideals, between informal management systems and wider democratic concerns, and between delimited and comprehensive planning perspectives. The central argument is that the lack of coherence among different development planning perspectives is an issue that future heritage policy-making needs to consider in order to balance tourism development with concerns such as social stability, community development and local pride of place. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study is to understand the emergence and constraints of enterprise platform silos for online interactions at the organizational level. Information systems (IS) research has focused more on external platforms without silos. As a result, not much is known about internal platforms and silos at the organizational level and how they constrain online interactions, especially in the developing economic context of Africa. This study follows an interpretive, qualitative case study methodology and the encounter-episode process model to investigate the case of using enterprise platform silos in an organization in Ghana, before and during Covid-19. The findings show how failure to modernize the installed-based platforms, integrate platform portfolios, use enterprise architecture, and build internal competence for platform integration leads to silos. Identified constraints include challenges with information sharing and transfer between platforms, manual intervention with delays and errors, and multiple sign-ins with different password formats per user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Argumenta Oeconomica Cracoviensia is the property of Cracow University of Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For the first time in its history, Ghana held a referendum in 2018 to divide some of its regions to create new ones. Though the regions are purely administrative, the division faced resistance in some areas and not in others. This study combines qualitative comparative analysis with process tracing to show that the resistance occurred within regions with relatively high support for the opposition party, but only in the combined presence of (traditional) elites competing from either side of the region and controversies regarding claims to (traditional) political authority. Further, it finds a bottom-up mechanism of the resistance, evolving as the threatened interests of stakeholders grew from the community to the regional, national and diaspora levels. As in other African cases, this suggests that the sources of conflicts in Africa are not so much about ethnic differences but more about elites' unequal access to political and economic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the potential contributions of African American migrants to the economic and cultural development of destination countries in Africa. The study explores the contributions of migrants to the gross domestic product (GDP), labor market, and fiscal impact—measures used by the International Labor Organization (ILO) to assess the impacts of migrants on the economy of a destination country. Migrants may share their own life experiences in community citizenship with traditional authorities when dealing with community issues. For example, land use-planning, allocation of urban-rural land, siting of sanitation facilities, health and safety of community, and community economic planning are within the competence of migrants given their education backgrounds and their decision to follow a traditional style of governance. African-American migrants present an opportunity to form backward linkages to sources of finance and investment capital in the country of origin. Our study found no existing institutional mechanism to grow these backward linkages, and there is no recognized privateprivate partnership between migrants and U.S. financial sources. The study recommends increased theoretical and empirical studies in support of the economic and cultural contributions of African American migrants in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper provides an insightful quantitative ethnoecological analysis and affirms that agro-pastoralists have a multiplicity of criteria for valuating their natural forage resources. Rural households in West Africa are not only confronted with water resource scarcity but also have to cope with limited forage resources to feed livestock in both wet and dry seasons based on local knowledge. Local agro-pastoral social-ecological systems (SESs) in the study areas stem from the daily utilization of available forage resources by dominant domestic livestock (cattle, goats, and sheep) over the years. However, there is very little systematic knowledge documentation on forage-related valuation criteria in this part of the world. Hence, this study aimed at examining (1) forage resources used for different seasons and livestock types, (2) explicit forage-related valuation criteria and associated salience, and (3) effects of socio-demographic and climatic aridity on local valuation criteria. Methods: To address these aims, a total of 526 individual ethnoecological interviews (encompassing Dagbani, Gurunsi, and Mossi ethnic groups) were conducted in 16 villages coupled with vegetation sampling of 144 plots in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Rigorous model selection, generalized linear mixed-effects models, cognitive salience indices, and descriptive statistics were applied. Results: The results revealed that majority (73%) of the agro-pastoralists regarded herbaceous forage plants to be very palatable for livestock consumption in the rainy season and for cattle while woody vegetation and crop-related forage plants were rather perceived to be more important in the dry season and for goats and sheep. The findings also indicated that climatic aridity significantly influenced the number of forage-related valuation criteria cited by agro-pastoralists for different seasonal and livestock types (p < 0.001). It was also found out that agro-pastoralists did not only judge forage plants based on their availability but also on other criteria such as palatability, stimulation of milk production, and healthy growth of livestock. Conclusion: Local agro-pastoralists' knowledge on natural forage resources and their valuation criteria is geared towards sustainable domestic livestock production. This study is thus interesting and crucially important for fellow scientists, policy-makers, and other stakeholders in the agricultural production sector in local farming landscapes within West Africa and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women empowerment could be the key to unlocking women's productivity potential in Africa. Women's contribution to the agricultural sector is greatly influenced by their health status. This paper examines the impact of women's empowerment in agriculture on women's health and the implications for the African food and agricultural sector. It utilizes a unique dataset from a 2012 survey of 2,405 women in northern Ghana and the Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes modeling approach. Findings provide insight on how gender-sensitive policies and private-public initiatives can translate into better health outcomes for women and improved capacity to meet future needs of food and agriculture in Africa. Initiatives focusing on increasing women's membership in social and economic groups, easing women's access to credit, and increasing women's incomes are some key empowerment strategies for improving women's health status and production capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of R&D support in the degree of internationalization through the mediating mechanism of technological capability. We also investigate the moderating role of technological turbulence in the relationship between R&D support and technological capability. Using primary data collected from 227 firms engaged in cross‐border activities, and employing moderated mediation analysis, the results show that R&D support positively relates to technological capability, and this relationship is moderated by technological turbulence. Moreover, the impact of R&D support on firms' degree of internationalization is mediated by technological capability. The findings from the study provide implications for IB theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on migrant children and young people has often focused on the global North and less on South–South migration. This article discusses language and its effect on how young migrants access Ghanaian schools. Through interviews with 68 pupils, 21 parents and 40 teachers and principals from 30 schools across Accra, we found that children and young people from francophone countries were placed in lower than age‐appropriate grades due to their lower command of English. Our study highlights the complex linguistic barriers facing migrant youth in an anglocentric educational system. The article discusses the relevance of our results in other postcolonial multilingual nations in the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant theoretical framework for analyzing migration in Africa rests on the assumption of cooperative intrahousehold decision making regarding the mobility of household members. This framework, applied to women's migration, overlooks the varied decision-making processes underlying their mobility, and obscures their ability to act as purposeful agents in making decisions about migration. Drawing on a study of women's rural–urban migration in Ghana, this article argues that women's migration decisions exist on a continuum defined by the presence or absence of intrahousehold contestation and the degree of agency exercised by the migrants themselves. Consequently, household models of migration may not always be the appropriate theoretical framework for the analysis of women's migration in this context. The findings presented have implications for economic analyses of women's migration and remittances, for our understanding of migrant women's capacity for agency, and for the design of effective policies to improve migration outcomes for women. HIGHLIGHTS The study directly elicits information from women about their migration decisions. Women's migration is the outcome of complex decision-making processes. The dichotomy between household and individual models of migration ignores these complexities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Development Research is the property of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

National identity in Africa is routinely viewed as underdeveloped relative to ethnic identity because most states did not follow classic forms of nation‐building, such as mass schooling with nationalist content. Yet recent survey data show that national identity across the continent is more robust than most scholars predicted. What is driving national identification in Africa? What unifies Africans around common national identity? Existing theories are not well suited to explaining this question, because factors that they see as essential, such as higher levels of development and cultural cohesion, often do not exist. In this article, I suggest a new understanding of the strength of national identity, based on the impact of political events, such as peace, political stability and conduct of elections. Drawing on over 200 original interviews with Ghanaian respondents, I demonstrate how political stability in Ghana, contrasted with political turmoil in neighbouring countries, produces narratives about national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores whether the use of imported intermediates has a moderating impact on the productivity effects of export market destinations using data from Ghanaian manufacturing firms over the period of 1991 to 2002. The results show that the use of imported inputs in the production process helps firms that export outside Africa alone to enhance productivity compared to non-exporting firms. In contrast, firms that export outside Africa alone, but do not use imported inputs in the production process have lower productivity compared to non-exporting firms. Policies that promote trade in intermediate inputs across borders can help to enhance productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]