ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Harnessing the Potentials of the Ghanaian Diaspora: An Analysis of Ghana’s Engagement with Its Diaspora

The study examined how Ghana could harness its the potentials of is Diaspora to complement its development efforts. One of the biggest diasporas in recent times is that of the African diaspora or more specifically the Sub-Saharan diaspora. It used both primary and secondary sources to review, since independence, how successive governments have exploited the potentials of Ghana’s rich Diaspora in their development agenda. It uncovered that the diaspora constitutes one of the most reliable sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), entrepreneurs, specialised human resources, ethics and concepts of best practices, philanthropists, foreign currency remittances and agents of technology transfer. Ghana’s engagement of the Diaspora to complement its development was intensified in the 1980s and l990s when Ghana’s economic fortunes declined, and ERP and SAP were instituted. The advent of multi-party politics from the l990s upped Ghana’s Diaspora engagement through policy instruments such as reinvention Pan-Africanism, dual-citizenship, Diaspora Home-Coming festivals, Non-Resident Ghanaian Secretariat for Investment, the Joseph Project, creation of Tourism and Diaspora Relations Ministry, the Diaspora Support Unit, and the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) for Diaspora Engagement. These Diaspora engagement policies were, however, largely ad hoc strategies that lost their significance with change of governments. The study emphasized the need for a more coherent and comprehensive Diaspora engagement national policy that involves all sectors of the Ghanaian society. It recommended that future Diaspora policies formulations must involve the Diaspora, creation of a robust Diaspora database, and a proactive redressal of the Diaspora’s needs and challenges abroad for a better harnessing of the Diaspora’s development potentials to Ghana.

Source: UG
Harnessing the Power of the Youth Through National Youth Policies in Ghana: Challenges to Notions of Empowerment

While Africa has the largest cohort of young people, and governments acknowledge that they ar e an important human resource with the potential to contribute significantly to national development, little effort has gone into harnessing its most abundant asset. Confronted with unemployment, limited access to opportunities to further education, limite d space for political participation and participation in the decision - making process, many are questioning the genuineness of national youth policies which are supposed to empower the youth. In the 21 st century, where emphasis is placed on knowledge - econom y, what the youth need today are lifelong learning opportunities such as widening access to further education to produce young people prepared to meet the challenges of today and the future. If empowerment is about agency and opportunity structure, and edu cation and our educational institutions are there to create the environment for the youth to become empowered, then p olicy - makers need to incorporate service - learning and entrepreneurship education into the educational system to help students develop criti cal and problem - solving skills — interpersonal and communication, and civic skills and dispositions , and also promote employability of young people .

Source: UG
Harnessing the tenets of health promotion and wise reasoning in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana and similar contexts

The emergence of COVID-19 in December 2019 produced new geographic spaces characterized by physical and social distancing with concomitant surprises. In Ghana, management of the first and second waves of the pandemic garnered mixed reactions from the populace. Against these perspectives, this commentary explored the critical role of health promotion and wise reasoning tenets in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana, specifically through the following eight principles: intellectual humility; acknowledging uncertainty and change; perspective-taking of different viewpoints; integration of diverse perspectives; intersectorality; sustainability; empowerment and public health engagement; and equity. Our analyses demonstrate that wise reasoning and health promotion from Ghana’s political authorities are critical to ensuring citizens’ compliance with the several measures that require a change of behavior.

Source: UG
Have environmental preferences and willingness to pay remained stable before and during the global Covid-19 shock?

This study tests the stability of environmental preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) values using a discrete choice experiment (DCE) across three countries pre and post the peak of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. A DCE examining the public’s preferences for alternative environmental management plans on the high seas, in the area of the Flemish Cap, was carried out in Canada, Scotland and Norway in late 2019 and was rerun in early May 2020 shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic had officially peaked in the three countries. The same choice set sequence is tested across the two periods, using different but nationally representative samples in each case. Entropy balancing, a multivariate reweighting method, is used to achieve covariate balance between the pre and post Covid samples in the analysis. The results suggest that both preferences and WTP remain relatively stable in the face of a major public health crisis and economic upheaval.

Source: UG
Hazards and critical control points for traditional sago starch production in Papua New Guinea: Implications for food safety education

Sago starch is an important food in lowland Papua New Guinea (PNG), however cases of severe illness following its consumption have been documented. A hazard analysis of traditional sago starch production and consumption was conducted, based on observations of the preparation process, and findings from sociological and microbiological studies. Hazards identified included common pathogenic bacteria and toxigenic fungi. Critical control points (CPP) were identified at various stages of the production process, including tree selection, starch extraction, sago storage and cooking. Storage methods that promoted spontaneous fermentation were deemed the most important risk reduction process in the production of safe sago starch. The CCPs formed the basis of an education campaign that was developed to provide guidance on how to maximise the safety of sago starch within the cultural and socio-economic context of rural PNG. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd.

Source: UG
Hazards of the Densu River delta in Accra—Ghana

Deltas are in a constant state of fux owing to hazards such as fooding, sea erosion and human activities. Climate change will probably increase the incidence of coastal recession and fooding of deltas. Reducing the vulnerability of deltas/coastal zones requires comprehensive studies to plan appropriate adaptation policies. However, studies on the coastal hazards of Densu delta have been limited to a few localities and also of short-term periods of less than a decade. Owing to uncertainties of natural hazard processes long-time and cyclical analysis of coastal zones provides accurate data on the state of such physical forces and their impact on the landscape and human activities if habited. Accordingly, a holistic investigation of the hazards plaguing the deltaic coastline from a long-term perspective was undertaken to determine hazards plaguing the delta and investigate the causes and impacts on the livelihoods of residents, undertake a longer-term shoreline change analysis of the coastline, and have understanding on institutional management and coping strategies of residents to the hazards. Methods adopted for the study included interviews and focus group discussions, shoreline change analysis and field exploration. The study revealed that the Densu delta is plagued by foods and coastal recession which are afecting lives and properties. Several human and physical processes (e.g., sea-level rise, increasing rainfall, encroachment of reservations) were identifed as drivers of these hazards. Government needs to resource local authorities and relevant statutory agencies to enable them efectively perform their roles regarding development planning in the locality to curb these hazards.

Source: UG
&quot;… he always slaps me on my ears&quot;: the health consequences of intimate partner violence among a group of patrilineal women in Ghana

Intimate partner violence has implications for women's health globally. Patrilineal women have been shown to have increased risk of experiencing intimate partner violence, yet, the health consequences of intimate partner violence in patrilineal women have not been thoroughly explored or documented. This study used qualitative in-depth interviews to explore the health effects of intimate partner violence among 15 ever-partnered Ghanaian patrilineal women. Participants attributed violence to several factors including gendered domestic relations, cultural and marital rites and alcohol use, among other factors. Abused women reported health problems such as feelings of worthlessness, sleeplessness, suicidal ideation, eye injuries, bodily weakness, hypertension, genital sores and the premature termination of pregnancy. Policy makers should pay particular attention to intimate partner violence-related health consequences in designing health interventions for abused women.

Source: UG
he global transcriptome of Plasmodium falciparum mid stage gametocytes (stages II–IV) appears largely conserved and gametocyte-specific gene expression patterns vary in clinical isolates

Our overall understanding of the developmental biology of malaria Parasites have been greatly enhanced by recent advances in transcriptomic analysis. However, most of these investigations rely on laboratory strains (LS) that were adopted into in vitro culture many years ago and the transcriptomes of clinical isolates (CI) circulating in human populations have not been assessed. In this study, RNA-seq was used to compare the global transcriptome of mid-stage gametocytes derived from three short-term cultured CI, with gametocytes derived from the NF54 reference laboratory strain. The core transcriptome appeared to be consistent between CI and LS-derived gametocyte preparations, but some important differences were also observed. A majority of gametocyte-specific genes (43/53) appear to have relatively higher expression in CI-derived gametocytes than in LS-derived gametocytes, but a K-means clustering analysis showed that genes involved in flagellum- and microtubule-based processes (movement and motility) were more abundant in both groups, albeit with some differences between them. In addition, gametocytes from one CI described as CI group II gametocytes (CI:GGII) showed gene expression variation in the form of reduced gametocyte-specific gene expression compared to the other two CI-derived gametocytes (CI gametocyte group I, CI:GGI), although the mixed developmental stages used in our study is a potential confounder, only partially mitigated by the inclusion of of multiple replicates for each CI. Overall, our study suggests that there may be subtle differences in the gene expression profiles of mid-stage gametocytes from CI relative to the NF54 reference strain of Plasmodium falciparum. Thus, it is necessary to deploy gametocyte-producing clinical parasite isolates to fully understand the diversity of gene expression strategies that may occur during the sequestered development of parasite sexual stages.

Source: UG
Head and neck tumours in Ghanaian children. A 20 year review

Histological reports on tumour specimens recorded at a teaching hospital in Accra, Ghana from 1989 to 2008 were reviewed to determine the incidence of head and neck tumours in children less than 16 years old. There were 4546 reports of head and neck tumours (2041 malignant, 2505 benign). Of these 613 met the study age selection criteria. 186(30.3%) were malignant and 427(69.7%) benign. The male to female ratio for malignant tumours was 1.86:1, benign 0.73:1 and for all tumours 1:1.04. Lymphoma (54.8%), nasopharyngeal carcinoma (19.9%) and rhabdomyosarcoma (14%), together constituted over 88% of malignant neoplasms. The commonest benign neoplasm was squamous papilloma (76/427) 17.8%, and then haemangioma (60/427) 14.05%. The incidence increased with age, peaking in those aged 12-16 years. The commonest site for benign tumours was the larynx and for malignant tumours the neck (cervical lymph nodes). Relative to all head and neck malignancies, the incidence of childhood head and neck malignancies was 11% (186/2041). This study reveals that malignant head and neck tumours are not rare in Ghana compared to benign tumours and the incidence of rhabdomyosarcoma is higher in females.

Source: UG
Headteachers’ Support and Challenges Toward ICT Integration into Teaching and Learning in Ghanaian Basic Schools

This study explored headteachers’ support toward ICT integration into teaching and learning and the challenges they face in offering such support. By employing a qualitative research paradigm, the study interviewed 10 headteachers and 10 ICT-trained teachers from one education district in the Greater Accra Region. Findings generated from a thematic analytical technique showed that the headteachers supported ICT integration into teaching and learning by organizing and supporting teachers in ICT-related trainings, monitoring and supervising teachers, providing and mobilizing ICT infrastructure, and maintaining the ICT infrastructure. However, inadequate funds to support the procurement of ICT equipment, lack of stakeholder support in mobilizing ICT resources, difficulty in training teachers, unavailability of electricity and internet facilities, and high maintenance costsconstrained headteachers’ efforts in supporting ICT integration into teaching and learning. The study concludes that for headteachers to successfully support ICT use among their teachers, pragmatic steps must be taken by policymakers to address the challenges they face in providing such support.

Source: UG
Healing the Blind Spots: An Exposition and Critique of the Law on Maritime Liens under the Ghana Shipping Act, 2003

Ghana maritime law is basically drawn from the general maritime law from the English common law, and statutory law, currently the Ghana Shipping Act, 2003. Therefore, the law governing maritime liens in Ghana is to be found in these two sources. The Ghana Shipping Act (GSA, 2003) repealed the Merchant Shipping Act, 1963 (Act 183) as severally amended, and seeks to consolidate and bring the law governing maritime activity in Ghana into conformity with the International Maritime Organization’s (I.M.O.) conventions. Prior to the enactment of the GSA, 2003, there was no statutory provision on maritime liens and the subject was primarily governed by the traditional common law rules. The obvious defect was that law on maritime liens as it applied in the United Kingdom on 24th July 1874 was the only applicable law in Ghana despite the fact that maritime world had significantly moved on. In recognition of this state of affairs, Ghana acceded to the 1993 International Convention on Maritime Liens and Mortgages and implemented this Convention into domestic legislation. This Convention, and by extension the Ghana Shipping Act, among other things, recognizes that ship financing is becoming increasingly international and, therefore, the need for the application of uniform rules in the recovery of loans by financiers. Secondly, the Convention seeks to reduce the number of maritime liens in order to encourage ship financing by granting better priority to mortgage holders. In this way, ship-owners could develop their fleets and obtain adequate financing while securing the financial interest of the financiers. Finally, the Convention aims to secure maritime liens as a means of contributing to the safe and efficient operation of ships.

Source: UG
Health - Seeking Behaviour Of Men Living With Prostate Cancer – A Qualitative Study In The Volta Region

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common male diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death globally. The treatment involves huge financial commitments from patients and their families. In Ghana, there is a dearth of literature on the health-seeking behaviour of men living with PCa hence, the need for this study to explore the health-seeking behaviour of men living with PCa in the Volta Region using the Theory of Reasoned Action as a guiding framework. An exploratory descriptive qualitative study design with a purposive sampling technique was employed to recruit ten (10) participants for the study. An in-depth interview was conducted using a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, coded, and analyzed using thematic content analysis techniques. Five major themes emerged: attitude, subjective norms, health-related factors, behavioural intention, and behaviour. The finding revealed that personal beliefs, emotions, and behaviour greatly influenced the participants' attitudes towards health-seeking. The participants sought interventions such as traditional, medical, and complementary therapies. Secrecy due to perceived negative judgment, ignorance, misinterpretation of the early clinical manifestation, and financial difficulties contributed to delayed health-seeking behaviour. Therefore, there is a need for more education on urological conditions especially PCa to promote early health-seeking behaviour

Source: UG
Health advocacy role performance of nurses in underserved populations: A grounded theory study

Aim: Nurses' health advocacy (HA) role requires them to speak up for patients, clients, and communities in relation to healthcare. Various studies report the importance of the HA role of the nurse in healthcare. However, nurses' performance in this role is not clear yet. The present study aims to identify and explain how nurses perform their HA role in underserved populations. Design: Qualitative grounded theory by Strauss and Corbin. Methods: Data were gathered from three regional hospitals in Ghana with 24 regis tered nurses and midwives as participants through purposive and theoretical sam pling techniques. Face-to-face in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted from August 2019 to February 2020. The data were analysed using Strauss and Corbin's method and Nvivo software. The reporting follows Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research guidelines. Findings: The HA role performance theory emerged from data with role enquiry, role dimension, role context, role influence, role reforms and role performance as building blocks. Data analysis showed that the main concerns of the nurses during their daily practice were mediating, speaking up, and negotiating. Among others, the intervening conditions were clientele influence and interpersonal barriers, whereas the outcome was a balance between role reforms and role performance. Conclusion: Although some nurses proactively initiated biopsychosocial assessment and performed the HA role, most of them relied on clients' requests to perform the role. Stakeholders should prioritise critical thinking during training and intensify men toring programmes in the clinical areas. Relevance for Clinical Practice: The present study explains the process by which nurses perform their roles as health advocates in their daily activities as nurses. The findings can be used to teach and guide clinical practice for the HA role in nursing and other health care fields. There was no patient or public contribution.

Source: UG
Health and Economic Growth Nexus: Evidence from Selected Sub-Saharan African (SSA) Countries

This article examines the effect of health on long-run economic growth in 35 selected sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries using panel data covering the period 1997–2016. Data were analysed using panel co-integration tests, panel Granger causality tests and the dynamic OLS estimator. The results show that health human capital is a significant determinant of long-run economic growth in SSA. In particular, a percentage increase in health human capital proxied by per capita health expenditure increases growth by 0.207 per cent. The prime contribution of this article to the literature lies in the results of the novel interaction between health human capital and institutional quality. More precisely, by using the dynamic panel least square estimation technique, we found that the effect of institutional quality on economic growth is positive and robust only when it is interacted with the required health human capital. It is further revealed that the causal link between economic growth and health is bidirectional.

Source: UG
Health and social needs of older adults in slum communities in Ghana: a phenomenological approach used in 2021

Slum-dwellers lack several essential amenities (such as water, sanitation, and electricity) which make them more vulnerable than non-slum dwellers. As there is limited to no access to health and social care services in slums, the slum environment is expected to be an even more dangerous environment for older adults, negatively impacting their quality of life (QoL). To provide an overview of the perceived (unmet) health and social care needs and how it affects the QoL, this study aims to explore the self-perceived health and social needs of older adults in urban slums in Ghana. Using a phenomenological approach, 25 semi-structured interviews were conducted between May and June 2021, in the homes of older adults in two slums in Ghana. After coding and analysing the transcripts, five main themes emerged: (a) perception of health; (b) (de)motivators of health service use; (c) perception of social care, (d) social needs, and (e) influence of phenomena on QoL. It appeared that older adults believed that spiritual powers were causing illnesses and influenced their use of formal health services. Other factors such as expired insurance cards and the attitude of healthcare workers served as demotivators for using health services. Perceived health needs were mainly current disease conditions (arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, vision/hearing challenges), challenges with health insurance, the behaviour of some health professionals, the proximity of health facilities, and unnecessary queues at major health facilities. Unmet social needs identified by this study were a sense of neglect by family (need for companionship), requiring assistance with activities of daily living, and the need for financial support. Participants had more health needs than social needs. Health providers do not usually prioritize the care of slum-dwelling older adults. Most participants still have challenges with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Their social needs were mainly related to financial difficulties and help with some activities of daily living. Participants expressed that they desired companionship (especially the widowed or divorced ones) and the lack of it made them feel lonely and neglected. Home visits by health professionals to older adults should be encouraged to monitor their health condition and advocate for family members to keep older adults company. Healthcare providers should exhibit positive attitudes and educate older patients on the advantages of formal health services use, as well as the need to seek early treatment as this will influence their QoL to a large extent.

Source: UG