ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
State-Funded Secondary Education Policy: Implications for Private School Management in Ghana

This research explored the implications of state-funded secondary education policy for private school management in Ghana. The research used the qualitative approach relying on phenomenological design. Based on expert in modal purposive sampling techniques, a representative of Ghana’s Ministry of Education, and 10 managers of 10 accredited private senior high schools in one of the country’s regions took part in individual interviews. I analyzed the data using interpretative phenomenology approaches. Falling enrollment, inability to recruit enough qualified teachers and low revenue emerged as challenges facing private secondary school management. To overcome the issues, the managers resorted to contingency measures.

Source: UG
State-owned enterprises and privatisation in Ghana.

Between 1987 and 1999, Ghana's privatisation programme generated revenues for the government equivalent to about 14 per cent of GDP from a moribund public sector which had previously been dependent on state subventions, and thus succeeded in fulfilling a key role in easing the fiscal crisis and in fostering the Structural Adjustment Programme. The big question remained, however, whether the privatisation process would help the growth of Ghana's economy and help maximise political gains. This article reviews the experience of Ghana in privatising public enterprises, and assesses the impact of the ongoing privatisation programme on the Ghanaian economy. It suggests that, in spite of the high proceeds, the net direct revenues from privatisation have been relatively modest, due to the high outstanding credit sales, the high costs of divestiture and high outstanding liabilities of privatised firms. It also appears that the programme has placed too much emphasis on public finance rationalisation and faith in the market system, and too little on sociopolitical and regulatory issues. Equally, the inadequate attention given to post-privatisation regulation of privatised businesses, and the use of the divestiture programme as a political patronage instrument to reward the regime's friends and political insiders, has conferred limited success for privatisation in achieving its goal of enhancing efficiency, private sector investment and employment.

Source: UG
The stated preferences of community-based volunteers for roles in the prevention of violence against women and girls in Ghana: A discrete choice analysis

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a human rights violation with substantial health-related conse quences. Interventions to prevent VAWG, often implemented at the community level by volunteers, have been proven effective and cost-effective. One such intervention is the Rural Response System in Ghana, a volunteer run program which hires community based action teams (COMBATs) to sensitise the community about VAWG and to provide counselling services in rural areas. To increase programmatic impact and maximise the retention of these volunteers, it is important to understand their preferences for incentives. We conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) among 107 COMBAT volunteers, in two Ghanaian districts in 2018, to examine their stated preferences for financial and non-financial incentives that could be offered in their roles. Each respondent answered 12 choice tasks, and each task comprised four hypothetical volunteering positions. The first three positions included different levels of five role attributes. The fourth option was to cease volunteering as a COMBAT volunteer (opt-out). We found that, overall, COMBAT volunteers cared most for receiving training in volunteering skills and three monthly supervisions. These results were consistent between multinomial logit, and mixed multinomial logit models. A three-class latent class model fitted our data best, identifying subgroups of COMBAT workers with distinct preferences for incentives: The younger ‘go getters’; older ‘veterans’, and the ‘balanced bunch’ encompassing the majority of the sample. The opt-out was chosen only 4 (0.3%) times. Only one other study quantitatively examined the preferences for incentives of VAWG-prevention volunteers using a DCE (Kasteng et al., 2016). Understanding preferences and how they vary between sub-groups can be leveraged by programme managers to improve volunteer motivation and retention. As effective VAWG prevention programmes are scaled up from small pilots to the national level, data on volunteer preferences may be useful in improving volunteer retention.

Source: UG
Statement by His Majesty’s Government on the Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Disturbances in the Gold Coast 1948

The serious and widespread nature of the disturbances in the Gold Coast in February and March of 1948 led the Governor to suggest, and His Majesty’s Government to agree, that the Commission of Enquiry should be given very wide terms of reference. They were asked to enquire into the disturbances and their underlying causes and to make recommendations on any matter arising from their enquiry.

Source: UG
States and the Protection of Women in Africa:The Perceptions of Women Survivors of Domestic Violence in Ghana

Violence against women consists of several heinous acts that are committed against women and girls. These include rape, domestic violence (DV), murder, female genital mutilation, and forced marriage. Globally, the underlying causes of DV are entrenched in patriarchal value systems that put women in subordinate positions to men. Actions aimed at revealing and fighting violence against women by the second-wave feminists movement during the 1970s in most countries pressured governments to see it as an issue of public concern. The objective of this study is to assess Ghana’s protection of DV victims from the perspective of survivors. The research design is a qualitative cross sectional study conducted at Weija-Gbawe, a municipality in the Greater Accra region. A total of twentyeight (28) semi structured interviews were conducted with: twenty-one (21) female DV survivors, three (3) women’s rights advocates, and one official each from Department of Social Welfare (DSW), Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and a medical officer. Content analysis was used to examine the qualitative data, and summary descriptive statistics performed on socio-demographic data. The median age of DV survivors was 42 years (range 23 to 54). All DV survivors knew at least one state agency responsible for protecting them but 90.5% (19/21) did not know the range of services available to them. The most patronized state agency was DOVVSU and their main sources of information on state support were radio and television. Victims of DV thought the state failed them through: delays in arresting and prosecuting perpetrators, poor attitude of some state officials, lack of temporary shelter for victims, economic hardship on family in the time that perpetrators are under investigation or detention, and the cost of medical reports in building evidence for their cases. In conclusion, Ghana has designated agencies for protecting victims of DV through arrests, prosecution, and detention of perpetrators. However, prosecution failures, costs of medical reports, lack of temporary shelters and upkeep support during the crisis period make these agencies less attractive to victims. These findings underscore Ghana’s weakness in keeping up with her international commitments under the Convention on the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEDAW) and its optional protocol of applying due diligence to prevent, investigate, and punish acts of violence against women in accordance with national legislation. The study concluded by recommending a multi-dimensional policy approach to prevent DV and improve service provision to survivors in Ghana based on international human rights frameworks.

Source: UG
Static versus dynamic model for estimating asymmetric price transmission in the Ghanaian maize market

A conventional approach to analyzing asymmetric price transmission involves the use of the Houck's static model. This paper compares this time invariant approach to a dynamic variant of the model. The static model is a standard regression type model where parameters are assumed fixed over time, whereas the more flexible dynamic Houck's model allows parameters to vary over time. The flexibility of the dynamic modeling revealed the existence of price asymmetry in the Ghanaian maize market. This result was not supported by the Houck's static model. The results suggest that within the price transmission modeling framework, static and dynamic variants of the same approach may lead to differences in conclusion. © 2011 Academic Journals.

Source: UG
Statistical Analysis of Public Sentiment on the Ghanaian Government: A Machine Learning Approach

Gathering public opinions on the Internet and Internet-based applications like Twitter has become popular in recent times, as it provides decision-makers with uncensored public views on products, government policies, and programs. Through natural language processing and machine learning techniques, unstructured data forms from these sources can be analyzed using traditional statistical learning. The challenge encountered in machine learning method-based sentiment classification still remains the abundant amount of data available, which makes it difficult to train the learning algorithms in feasible time. This eventually degrades the classification accuracy of the algorithms. From this assertion, the effect of training data sizes in classification tasks cannot be overemphasized. This study statistically assessed the performance of Naive Bayes, support vector machine (SVM), and random forest algorithms on sentiment text classification task. The research also investigated the optimal conditions such as varying data sizes, trees, and kernel types under which each of the respective algorithms performed best. The study collected Twitter data from Ghanaian users which contained sentiments about the Ghanaian Government. The data was preprocessed, manually labeled by the researcher, and then trained using the aforementioned algorithms. These algorithms are three of the most popular learning algorithms which have had lots of success in diverse fields. 'e Naive Bayes classifier was adjudged the best algorithm for the task as it outperformed the other two machine learning algorithms with an accuracy of 99%, F1 score of 86.51%, and Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.9906. The algorithm also performed well with increasing data sizes. 'e Naive Bayes classifier is recommended as viable for sentiment text classification, especially for text classification systems which work with Big Data.

Source: UG
A statistical assessment of whitened-PCA/SVD under variable environmental constraints

This work is directed to evaluating Whitened Principal Component Analysis and Singular Value decomposition (PCA/SVD) face recognition algorithm under variable facial expression. The proposed template-based algorithm is tested on some created face database captured along the universally accepted principal emotions. Their recognition distance from the neutral pose are recorded in multivariate sets and prepared for statistical evaluation. The repeated measures design (multivariate method) is used to test for significance difference in the study constraints when being recognized by the propose recognition algorithm. The entire recognition processes and statistical evaluation were modeled using GNU Octave. After experimental runs, recognition results showed that, Whitened PCA/SVD algorithm has an encouraging recognition performance of recognizing images under various principal expressions. The statistical evaluation revealed that, significant difference existed in average Euclidean distance (recognition distance) of the study expressions. Specifically, significant difference existed between the average recognition distance for the constraints (Happy vs Surprise and Sad vs Surprise). All other constraints (facial expressions) considered have pairwise insignificant difference in their recognition distances. © 2016, CESER PUBLICATIONS.

Source: UG
Statistical Information Resources and Development Planning in Ghana

Information is an essential tool in the planning process of District Assemblies in Ghana. The aim of the study was to identify the information resources at the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) used by the Assemblies. The survey method was used for the study, focusing on the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Northern regions. Findings showed that published reports and publications of the GSS serve as the main sources of statistical information. Information about these resources came from workshops and seminars attended by respondents. The study recommended that the GSS should strengthen the capacity of its district offices to render better services to the District Assemblies. © 2005, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

Source: UG
Statistics of flow and the scaling of ceramic water filters

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there was an increase in the number of people that have access to safe drinking water between 2006 and 2010. Such trends can be accounted for partly by the increasing usage of ceramic water filters that can remove microbial pathogens from water. However, the initial flow rates in such filters are often limited to ranges between 1 and 3 L/h. In this paper, six frustum-shaped ceramic water filters of the same clay:sawdust composition were tested. Each ceramic water filter was filled with water and allowed to filter 20 times. Each time, the flow rate and water level were measured for a consecutive 12 h. Permeability values were estimated for each run of the ceramic water filters. Statistical analysis was performed on flow rates (in the first hour), mean flow rates, and estimated permeability values. The flow rate values (in the first hour) for the six ceramic water filters were found to be between 1.4 and 3.0 L/h. An effective permeability was obtained for ceramic water filters with a range of microscale and nanoscale pore sizes. The statistical variations in the flow rates and effective permeabilities were elucidated along with the potency of a multiple ceramic water filter system for scale-up studies in serving communities that need portable water. © 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Source: UG
Status and Challenges of Care in Africa for Adults With Congenital Heart Defects

The 54 countries in Africa have an estimated total annual congenital heart defect (CHD) birth prevalence of 300,486 cases. More than half (51.4%) of the continental birth prevalence occurs in only seven countries. Congenital heart disease remains primarily a pediatric health issue in Africa because of the deficient health-care systems: the adults with CHD made up just 10% of patients with CHD in Ghana, and 13.7% of patients with CHD presenting for surgery in Mozambique. With Africa's population projected to double in the next 35 years, the already deficient health systems for CHD care will suffer unbearable strain unless determined and courageous action is undertaken by the African leaders.

Source: UG
Status of acid mine drainage and metal leaching studies in Ghana

This chapter reviews the status of acid mine drainage studies and management inGhana. Acid drainage, and the contaminants associated with it, has been acknowledgedas the single largest environmental problem facing the mining industry worldwide.Metals mobilised from acid rock/mine drainage conditions invade the environment withdisastrous consequences. Fortunately, knowledge of both local and regional geology andgeochemical processes can lead to a better understanding of the phenomenon and itsenvironmental impacts. This knowledge has constituted the bases of managementstrategies, defining practices in acid drainage prediction, prevention, control, treatmentand monitoring, developed to reduce risk of formation of acid drainage from mine wastesin most developed countries. These management approaches rely on the correctidentification of mine rock, both in the pre-mining phase and as an ongoing part of mineplanning. The Birimian and Tarkwaian Rocks Systems are the main source of gold inGhana. Gold mineralisation in the Birimian occur in the form of quartz - veined gold inmainly carbonaceous phyllites while mineralisation in disseminated sulphides is in themetavolcanics. Base metal sulphides and sulphosalts including arsenopyrite, pyrite,sphalerite, pyrrohorite, and terahedrites dominate ore mineralogy. Althoughmineralisation in the Tarkwaian is not directly associated with sulphide-bearing rocks,dolerite intrusions among the Tarkwaian country rocks have been reported to containconsiderable sulphide minerals. These sulphide - bearing lithologies present potential acidgenerating sites. Various studies of stream drainage emanating from some mine siteshave recorded pH values as low as 2.4 with associated high doses of As (23. mg/L), Mn(15 mg/L) and Fe (103mg/L). Low pH (<3.4) and high trace metals have been reportedfrom some boreholes in mining areas. Areas outside mining centres with similar geologyhave water bodies with similar low pH and high metal content. Unfortunately, acid mine drainage and metal leaching management practices are still a very gray area in Ghana.Mining environmental management in itself is a novelty in Ghana. The guidelines formining environmental management and Environmental Regulations are two key tools formining environmental management in Ghana. However, these do not have definitebenchmarks, protocols and methodologies to guide companies in the evaluation of rocksfor acid generating potential in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) processes.Limited studies on the subject matter has been carried out by mining companies on themine scale and largely restricted to the mine site, as part of the project's EIA. © 2010 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Source: UG
Status of biodiesel research and development in Kenya

Research has established that biodiesel performs well in engine and is considered to be fuel with low carbon emission. This gives it a possibility of replacing it with fuel obtained from fossil sources and whose amount is dwindling as they are not renewable. Biodiesel development in Kenya has begun to receive high levels from the government due to continued rise in the cost of fossil fuels. Various stakeholders in biodiesel industries formed the National Biodiesel Committee in January 2006 under the Ministry of Energy to have a collective voice in promoting policies such as blending mandates, tax mandates and production subsidies. This review therefore, focus on status of biodiesel research and development in Kenya. Among the areas of focus include development of biodiesel in various Kenyan institutions, impact of jatropha on Kenya’s biodiesel plans, status of biodiesel research using indigenous jatropha oil, physicochemical properties of Jatropha curcas seed oil, formulation of biodiesel policy, possibility of harnessing indigenous algae for biodiesel production and the possibility of re-using waste vegetable oil and animal fat for biodiesel. The various works reviewed revealed that the energy requirement of Kenya can be met and the looming energy crisis averted.

Source: UG
Status of Cloud Service Adoption in Climate Risk Country

Ghana has attained cloud readiness indices facilitating services adoption by local enterprises through brokerage ﬁrms. According to Gartner group by 2015, at least 20% of all cloud services will be consumed via internal or external cloud service brokerages, rather than directly with service providers. It means enterprises must identify local cloud brokerage ﬁrms to intermediate for cloud clients and service providers. We aimed at surveying cloud service awareness among enterprises in Ghana. We performed ﬁeldstudy using statistical tool to analyze data collected among 45-participants spread across 20 local enterprises, using purposivesampling in the selection of strategic enterprise managers located in the second largest city, Kumasi, Ghana. We employed Delphi technique involving three Information Technology experts to validate responses in reducing margin of error in the analysis.We found that 67% respondents are unaware of local cloud service brokerage ﬁrms. Alternatively, 33% respondents mentioned atleast one local cloud brokerage ﬁrm; although experts believed some did a chess guessing to have it correct. Our Delphi expertsattributed this alarming percentile to lack of policy stakeholders involvement in ensuring cloud adoption readiness. We concluded on eﬀective sensitization of cloud computing service adoption in optimizing data center proliferation by enterprises in Ghana.Adopting cloud computing over data center helps in reducing global warming contributed by heat emissions from computing servers.

Source: UG
Status of diversity, abundance and seasonal variations of gill net catches of cichlids in Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana

Abstract The cichlids in Lake Bosumtwi are under increasing pressure with a recent build-up in local fishing pressure. This study was conducted to assess the status and seasonal catch rates of fish species using gillnets over a two-year period. Four species and one introduced fish belonging to the Cichlidae family were encountered in the study. Coptodon discolor (Günther, 1903) was the most abundant species, making up 75.5% of the total fish caught (100.1 kg). Tilapia busumana (Günther, 1903) was the least abundant species, representing only 0.6% of biomass. Catch per unit effort was significantly affected by seasonality; however, species diversity, richness and evenness were not influenced by seasonal variations. The highest catch rates (975.62 g net−1 night−1) were recorded in the minor wet season (August to November). No statistical differences were detected in the diversity indices estimated for all three seasons of study. The key physico-chemical parameters (conductivity, salinity, temperature and pH) measured were within the tolerance range for tilapia survival and growth, with the exception of dissolved oxygen that decreased below 3 mg l−1 during the lake’s deep mixing events in August. Overall, physico-chemical factors explained 75% of fish catches, with salinity levels correlating significantly with catch per unit effort.

Source: UG