ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Communication strategies for peacebuilding: a case of radio peace in the effutu municipality

Despite the potential of Communication for Peacebuilding (CfP) for global peacebuilding efforts, the nature of communication strategies used by the media in peace communication and their effectiveness for peacebuilding in Ghana has not been adequately explored. This study fills this gap by examining the communication strategies employed by Radio Peace in peace communication and their effects on promoting peace in the Effutu Municipality. Adopting a qualitative approach and a case study design, the study collected data from the research participants in the Effutu Municipality using interview guide and focus group discussion (FGD) guide. The purposive sampling technique was used in selecting participants from the management of Radio Peace, community leaders and opinion leaders at Effutu Municipality. The convenient sampling technique was further used in selecting community members for both interviews and FGDs in the Effutu Municipality. The analysis revealed that through its radio programmes such as Hyewbo and Wo su ka bi, Radio Peace had become a communication tool in facilitating the peace process in the Effutu Municipality. The findings demonstrated that communication strategies such as focus-group discussions, public forums, community engagements with traditional leaders, durbars, phone-ins segments, and the creation of jingles by the radio station in peace communication have engendered meaningful dialogue and inclusivity. This bottom-up approach has engendered participatory discussions among the people to define problems affecting their peace and finding solutions to them. The study recommended that all stakeholders, particularly from the media

Source: UCC
Communication Strategies: The Views of People with Learning Disabilities with Epilepsy and Their C

The aim of this study is to investigate strategies used by people with learning disabilities and epilepsy to meet their communication needs with carers and health and social care professionals. Communication in healthcare setting is of crucial importance to quality of life of the individual. Effective communication is a key determinant of patient satisfaction, compliance and recovery. Methodology: The study adopts a naturalistic inquiry approach using semi-structured interviews. The population was made up of adults with learning disabilities with epilepsy and their careers. Analysis: The data was analysed thematically using a framework approach which yielded descriptive findings Findings: The study produced a range of communication strategies including behavioural strategies, modified communication environment and organisational strategies as tools for communication. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that people with learning disabilities adopted a range of communication strategies to ensuring that the communication with carers and healthcare professionals is successful.

Source: UCC
Communication Strategies: The Views of People with Learning Disabilities with Epilepsy and their Carers

The aim of this study is to investigate strategies used by people with learning disabilities and epilepsy to meet their communication needs with carers and health and social care professionals. Communication in healthcare setting is of crucial importance to quality of life of the individual. Effective communication is a key determinant of patient satisfaction, compliance and recovery. Methodology: The study adopts a naturalistic inquiry approach using semistructured interviews. The population was made up of adults with learning disabilities with epilepsy and their careers. Analysis: The data was analysed thematically using a framework approach which yielded descriptive findings Findings: The study produced a range of communication strategies including behavioural strategies, modified communication environment and organisational strategies as tools for communication. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that people with learning disabilities adopted a range of communication strategies to ensuring that the communication with carers and healthcare professionals is successful.

Source: UCC
Communication styles and performance of employees at Takoradi Technical University, Takoradi

Proficient communication has a positive effect on employees. Some previous studies in the communication literature revealed that communication style is a main driver of organizational, employees’ performance and satisfaction. The study set out to investigate the relationship between communication styles and employees’ performance. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between communication styles and employees’ performance. Thus, using quantitative approach and descriptive study design, census sampling technique in sampling 378 respondents of Takoradi Technical University, questionnaires for data collection, multiple linear regressions to test hypotheses and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16 for data input, transformation and analysis. The study concluded that communication styles significantly affect employees’ performance. Again it was concluded that communication styles significantly affect employees’ commitment. It was further concluded that communication styles significantly affect employees’ absenteeism. Lastly, it was also concluded that communication styles do not have any significant influence on employees’ turnover. In view of this, the study recommends that managers and leaders who are determined to achieve high employees’ performance, increase employees’ commitment, reduce absenteeism and avoid employees’ turnover should exhibit communication styles with stronger prediction in the organisation and on situational demand.

Source: UCC
Communication Technology Capacity Development And Safety In Underground Mines: The Case Of Chirano Gold Mines And Newmont Gold Ahafo Underground mines

Improving safety in undergro un d M·m es necessan.ly r.eqUire s CommunI.c atI.O n Technology Capacity (CTC) Development. The main objective of the thesis was to analyse CTC Development and Safety in Underground Mines to generate knowledge resources for improving Safety in Underground Mines. The data used were obtained from primary and secondary sources. The data were obtained through interviews, focus group discussion, questionnaire administration, and literature search. Data were analysed using these frameworks: Descriptive, Correlation, Comparative, Evaluation, and Synthesis. And again Data were analysed using these Techniques: Descriptive Statistics, Regression, Chi-square, Impact Analysis, Modelling, and Computer Simulation. Chirano Gold Underground Mines And Newmont Gold Ahafo Underground Mines were endowed in CTC Development and safety in underground Mines. The drivers employed for CTC development were Traffic lights, Power supply, Traffic light module, Radio frequency transmitters and receivers, and Software component. These drivers helped minimise and prevent unnecessary interactions between mobile equipment. Constraints in CTC Development in both mines included High cost of training, Training sessions conflicting off days, Employees unwilling to participate in training, and High labour tum over make training costly. ·Also Formal Internal training, Formal external training, Learning by doing, Learning by adapting foreign te~hnology, etc. both underground mines compared favourably in respect of their mechanisms for CTC development and its constraints. Effects of CTC Development on safety in Mines, it was realised that 80 m distance must be observed between mobile equipment in order to slow to a stop not more than 4 seconds to prevent a collision. In the improved CTC Development System, five scenarios for simulations were considered to assure orderly movement of mobile equipment in Mines namely: Heavy Vehicle (HV) moving at underground Mines Emergency Vehicle moving in the underground mines, HV descending, Light Vehicle (LV) ascending and HV descending and lastly, LV ascending and another LV descending.

Source: UCC
Communicative skills: Peripheral current or mainstream flow

This study investigates the impact of the Communicative Skills course at the University of Cape Coast on students' academic literacy. It employs a mixed methods approach to data collection involving focus group discussions with students and semi-structured interviews with lecturers. Issues raised in these qualitative methods informed items in a questionnaire administered to students. The findings suggest that though) students find the Communicative Skills course useful and beneficial, they were not appropriating it in their programs of study because they saw it more of a gate keeper, another course to be passed in order to move on to the next level. Suggestions are made as to how Communicative Skills can be integrated into other academic' courses to impact on students' performance.

Source: UCC
Community - based natural resources management and livelihood improvement: the case of Amansuri Conservation and Integrated Development Project (ACID) in Jomoro district in Ghana

The environment has since time immemorial been useful to human beings. However, demands of development have put a great deal of pressure on the environment to the point that it is undergoing rapid transformation which conservationists consider an unpleasant phenomenon to human beings. The establishment of protected areas (PAs) became, and is, in fact, still an important global practical conservation tool. PAs exclude livelihood activities because they are incompatible with the conservation objectives of PAs. Although 'walls' are erected around PAs, the environment continues to experience transformation by way of dwindling biodiversity. Consequently, Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) emerged in the 1980s. As an approach to conservation, it advocates the integration of conservation and development. Amansuri Conservation and Integrated Development (ACID) project which is being implemented by the Ghana Wildlife Society in partnership with the Western Nzema Traditional Council in the Jomoro District of the Western Region of Ghana, is guided by the philosophy of CBNRM. Guided by the sustainable livelihood framework, a qualitative research design was used to ascertain the extent to which the ACID project had impacted on the livelihood assets of local residents. Results from the study show that though the ACID project has resulted in income generation, employment opportunities and natural resource conservation, it is playing a complementary role rather than a principal source of livelihoods in the communities.

Source: UCC
Community and household determinants of water quality in coastal Ghana

Associations between water sources, socio-demographic characteristics and household drinking water quality are described in a representative sample of six coastal districts of Ghana’s Central Region. Thirty-six enumeration areas (EAs) were randomly chosen from a representative survey of 90 EAs in rural, semi-urban and urban residence strata. In each EA, 24 households were randomly chosen for water quality sampling and socio-demographic interview. Escherichia coli per 100 ml H2O was quantified using the IDEXX Colilert® system and multi-stage regression models estimated cross-sectional associations between water sources, sanitation and socio demographic factors. Almost three quarters, 74%, of the households have > 2 E. coli /100 ml H2O. Tap water has significantly lower E. coli levels compared with surface or rainwater and well water had the highest levels. Households with a water closet toilet have significantly lower E. coli compared with those using pit latrines or no toilets. Household size is positively associated, and a possessions index is negatively associated, with E. coli. Variations in community and household socio-demographic and behavioural factors are key determinants of drinking water quality. These factors should be included in planning health education associated with investments in water systems

Source: UCC
Community awareness and willingness to participate in tourism development in the Akatsi district of the Volta region

Tourism development in Ghana has undoubtedly moved to a key point in government policy. The district assemblies have equally been allocating resources to develop such potentials in their areas. However there seems to be no direction from most of the Regional Co-ordination Councils and hence the various assemblies are implementing programmes they think are right in their own estimations with no regional outlook. This study focuses on the Akatsi district which was the first to launch a tourism fair in the Volta Region. Primary data obtained through structured interviews with assembly and community members have been supplemented with materials from the district assembly and the dailies. Although in the Akatsi district there is some awareness of what tourism is all about there is very minimal involvement of the people by the Assembly in tourism development. The study therefore draws attention to the need for greater participation of the people since the local people and for that matter the community will have to live with the consequences of that development. The Akatsi district study also shows that the strategic location of the area on the ECOW AS Highways and very close to the Ghana-Togo border on the eastern side offers great potentials in tourism development. However the expected private sector participation in the industry is yet to catch up with the people. The constraints seem to be the poor infrastructure in the district and inadequate marketing of the district potentials. In the Central and Western Regions much gains are being made at tourism promotion. There is therefore the need for the Volta Region and the Akatsi district for that matter to put its house in order if she is to reap the fruits of the industry.

Source: UCC
Community based natural resource management for development: A study of selected sites in the Nzema East district

The last two decades have witnessed a ‘paradigm shift’ in conservation and natural resource Management away from costly state-centered control towards approaches in which local people play a much more active role. The inefficiency of state control over natural resources use, has partly led to poverty, forest degradation and lack of participation by local actors in resource management. The purpose of this study therefore was to analyse the emergence and development of Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) and how it affects the livelihood of farmers practicing CBNRM in Ghana. A total sample of 100 household members and 20 key CBNRM stakeholders were covered in five communities in the Nzema East District. The methodology of the study was conducted with qualitative and quantitative approach. There were two interviews; one at the household level and the other at key CBNRM stakeholder level. The data was analysed quantitatively using SPSS with functions such as simple frequency distributions, cross tabulations, percentages and graphs, and qualitatively using the descriptive method. The CBNRM Path Way Model, the literature and evidence from empirical studies were used for the interpretation and discussion of the findings. The study revealed that farmers practicing CBNRM fell high above the Ghana statistical poverty line of per adult expenditure per year. The study concludes that the use of CBNRM is an effective tool for livelihood improvement of the farmers for the short, medium and long term development needs of farmers practicing CBNRM. Therefore, it is recommended that government should review its policies on CBNRM in relation to poverty alleviation and professional skill development of the youth in training and tertiary institutions for efficient and effective pro-poor programmes.

Source: UCC
Community Extension Agents’ Perceived Effect of Knowledge Management Capacity on the Performance of Cocoa Health and Extension Division in Ghana.

The study assessed community extension agents’ perceived effect of knowledge management capacity on the performance of Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) in Ghana. A descriptive correlation survey design was used. A hundred and sixty-six (166) randomly sampled CEAs from thirty (30) districts in three (3) Cocoa regions of Ghana partook the study. A questionnaire was used to collect data and analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation, correlation coefficients and ordinary least square regression using SPSS version 21. A significant relationship was found between organizational performance and both knowledge management process and infrastructure at an alpha level of 0.05. However, organizational performance had no significant relationship with sex, age, level of education and leadership style. Inadequate infusion of ICT (27.2%) was rated as the most severe of all the challenges of knowledge management in CHED. The best predictors of organizational performance were knowledge management culture (35.7%), knowledge management acquisition (4.8%), sex (6.1%), highest level of education (3.3%) and knowledge management application (1.4%). The study concluded that, the overall rating of knowledge management process, knowledge management infrastructure and leadership style were high in CHED. The study recommended among others that, CHED should boost its knowledge management technology infrastructure, develop a unique knowledge management culture, improve its knowledge management acquisition process by revamping its ICT units, intensifying on the job trainings, inspiring self-search and discovery, encouraging knowledge sharing and minimizing bureaucratic structures.

Source: UCC
Community living and participation of people with disabilities: A Case Study of the Cape Coast Metropolis

The purpose of the study was to examine the community livving and participation of people with disabilities with their sighted counterparts. The case study design was used for the study. The sample size was 16. These comprised 12 people with disabilities and 4 non-disabled peers. The method for data collection was interviews. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample size. Data was analysed thematically. Results from the study showed that most people with disabilities do not participate fully in the community. The study concluded that community living and participation of people with disabilities was partial due to some environmental, policies and self-perceptions of people with disabilities and the non-disabled in the community. It was recommended that the self-perceptions of people with disabilities need to be improved upon through counselling during their associations meeting and also through active participation in community activities whenever possible. Also playing and working together on activities in the community should be adopted by the non-disabled to boost the nature of friendships in the community, since such activities proved to be effective in predicting friendships in the community. It was also recommended that regular advocacy be done to educated community members on disability issues to minimize prejudice and misconceptions.

Source: UCC
Community ownership and management of rural drinking water facilities in the Builsa district

This study assessed the management arrangements and capacity at the community and District Assembly level for the ownership and management of boreholes fitted with hand pumps under the Community Water Project (COW AP) in the Builsa District of the Upper East Region of Ghana. Data was collected from households, community management groups of the facilities, the District Water and Sanitation Team (DWST) and the Desk Officer for water and sanitation at the District Assembly. Visits were made to hand pump sites to assess their condition. Different sampling methods and tools were used to collect qualitative and quantitative data from primary and secondary sources. The study revealed that majority of community members understand the concept of community ownership and management (COM) of their water point sources and had formed management groups. However, the infinite tenure of office coupled with lack of motivation and the uncooperative nature of some community members led to high drop out rates and the collapse of some committees. It is recommended that there should be a specified tenure of office for Pump Management Committee (PMC) members subject to renewal based on satisfactory work. Training and refresher courses should be organized for members.

Source: UCC
Community participation and sustainability of the school feeding programme in the cape coast metropolis

The main purpose for this study was to explore community participation and sustainability of the School Feeding Programme (SFP), examine the existence of community participation within the implementation of the SFP, examine the essence for the sustainability of the programme and assess how community participation contributes to the sustainability of the SFP in CCMA. The study design adopted was qualitative with focus group discussion guide and key informants interview guide as instruments to collect data from key informants and community members. The study revealed that not much was done at the grass roots level by communities in the implementation of the intervention. Communities recognise prospects for the sustainability of the programme but their deprivation had prevented them from benefiting from the intervention. Besides, communities recognised that their participation could largely contribute to the sustenance of the SFP in CCMA. The findings indicate that basic amenities to start the programme was lacking and regular monitoring and supervision will sustain the programme. Based on the findings, it is recommended that, programme planners engage in serious field work and regular supervision to ensure that policy guidelines were complied with. Also, community members should support the programme managers since active participation by communities could lead to the sustenance of the programme. The programme significantly provided prospects for sustainability in two ways which are sustainability in relation to community participation and financial sustainability from government.

Source: UCC
Community participation in basic education in the Akatsi district of the Volta region of Ghana

Researchers and educationists have stipulated that community participation in education is an invaluable tool in promoting quality education in localities across countries. This study therefore used this as a base to measure important aspects of community participation in education. The purpose of the study was to examine the state of community participation in education in the Akatsi District of the Volta Region of Ghana. The study was a descriptive survey. In all 39 schools and their communities were covered in the study. A total of 285 respondents were selected using purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. Three sets of questionnaires were used: one for the headteachers and teachers which had a reliability coefficient of .8270, one for community members which had a reliability coefficient of .7480, and the other for the district education officers which also had a reliability coefficient of .8763. The major finding of this study was that even though there was some awareness among the communities of their responsibilities to their schools, parents’ attitude to their children’s education was poor and the schools had not been taking part in community programmes. The study recommended that both schools and communities be educated more on their roles to enhance community participation and school-community relationship.

Source: UCC