ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Responsibility to protect and the African union’s peace and security architecture: A case study of Libya.

The African Union as a regional organization has enshrined the principle of responsibility to protect in its Constitutive Act through Article 4(h). This article enables the African Union to intervene into the affairs of member states in order to prevent the violation of human rights. The Ezulwini consensus further supports article 4(h). The African Peace and Security Architecture was established to assist the Africa Union in its implementation of article 4(h) and to help maintain peace in the continent. However, during the 2011 Libyan Civil war, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization intervened in the Libyan crisis and sidelined the African Union. This article seeks to assess the effectiveness of the African Peace and Security Architecture and the challenges that the African Union faced in excising it responsibility to protect during the Libyan crisis. The study established that the African Union intervention was not effective which therefore brought about the involvement of NATO in Libya during the crisis in that country. The reasons for The African Unions ineffectiveness include the lack of capacity in terms of human resource and logistical needs, lack of political will on the part of African States to interfere in Gadaffi‟s affairs, lack of agreement among African states on how to approach and deal with the crisis in Libya. This study has implications for the African Union as a continental body and its member states in that they have to do all that is necessary to make Article 4(h) if its constitutive Act implementable in order to protect the human rights of citizens in times of grave circumstances.

Source: KNUST
The responsiveness of commercial banks’ lending rates to Bank of Ghana’s prime rates – the signal of monetary conditions in Ghana.

To test the strength of the Bank of Ghana’s Prime rate as a signal of monetary conditions in Ghana, this study examines the strength of the relationship between the prime rate and the commercial bank’s interest rates. The Bank of Ghana’s Prime Rate aims at signaling to the financial market the central bank’s assessment of monetary conditions. From this perspective, it is expected that the commercial banks would respond appropriately to the movements of the Prime Rate. Using regression techniques, tests of significance, trends and volatilities, the study establishes the strength of relationships among inflation and interest rates in Ghana. It was found that the Treasury bill rate is more powerful as a benchmark for the commercial banks when determining their lending interest rates than the banks of Ghana’s Prime Rate and inflation. Also, interest rates on savings deposits are too low. Real interest rates o savings deposits have been negative for a long time. That is why the savings habit of Ghanaians is poor and people prefer to buy Treasury bill instead of saving with the banks. The practical recommendations are that policy makers should work harder to reduce government’s borrowing through the Treasury bills so that the banks’ lending interest rates would be reduced. Also, the commercial banks must be impressed upon to increase interests on savings deposits so that they can mop up idle funds from the unbanked. This would enable the private sector, which is the “engine of growth” in this “Golden Age of Business” to have access to credit so as to expand employment and output.

Source: KNUST
Restrictions in the enforcement of liquidated damages (LDs) in road construction: the case of Upper East and Upper West Regions of Ghana.

When a road project is completed late due to the fault of the contractor, the client is entitled to some remedy, which is a contractual provision by the Liquidated Damages (LD) clause. Often times contracting parties suffer in one way or the other through misapplication of LD clause of a contract. This research seeks to determine the level of enforcement of LDs, to identify the main measures that will enhance the enforcement of LDs for road construction contracts. The aim of the research was achieved by interviewing two major stakeholders involved in road construction contract administration; Clients organization and the contractor organization on the issue of restrictions in the enforcement of Liquidated Damages (LDs) in Road construction contracts. The main purpose of LDs in road construction contracts are not achieved, clients organization have created situations that makes LDs clause difficult to be enforced, LD amounts stated in contracts are also not realistic pre-estimates of the expected losses to be incurred. In order to enhance the enforcement of LD clause, clients’ organizations need to make every effort to adhere to the LD contract provisions; a more scientific method needs to be developed for the determination of quantum of LD. There is also the need for guidelines in regulating the LD deductions.

Source: KNUST
Retirement preparation among Ghanaian workers: a study of a cross section of private and public workers in the Kumasi Metropolis.

In all 83 respondents were randomly selected in the public and private sectors in Kumasi to serve as participants in a non-experimental survey. The main objective of this research is to find out how the Ghanaian worker prepares towards retirement in terms of finance, health, accommodation and 1eisure. The statistical package for social science and a logistical regression model were used to analyze the data which was obtained through the use of structured and unstructured questionnaire. Public sector workers were found to prepare better towards retirement than private sector. Education, age, employment tenure, number of dependants, all had effect on one’s preparation towards retirement. Financial preparation also had a positive relationship on accommodation, leisure and health preparation. It was concluded that most Ghanaian workers are aware of retirement but little is done for its preparation. Various recommendations were given in regard to how retirement preparation could be done, and the presidential commission on Social Security and national insurance trust (SSNIT’s) recommendation should be enforced. Ones retirement date should also be attached to one’s appointment letter and there should also be policies that mandates organizations to organize retirement preparation seminars for employees at least 15-20 years prior to retirement.

Source: KNUST
Retiring from the family business in Kumasi: an exploratory sequential study

ABSTRACT In Ghana, family businesses estimates about 92% of all types businesses and represent 80% of businesses in the informal economy. This is indicative that the country’s economy relies heavily on this sector. However, very little is known about what informs decision-making regarding retirement of aging family business owners in the informal economy of Ghana. This does not ensure the introduction of effective social interventions to address challenges that might be faced by them when they cease to be economically active. Using an exploratory sequential design, 35 family business owners above 50 years were interviewed in Kumasi, the largest hub of retail and wholesale businesses in Ghana. The emerging themes from the in-depth interviews were validated with the responses of a survey of 383 family business owners. Findings of the study suggest that retirement preparation is not a function of age but linked to health, business and family factors. However, a factor analysis concluded on health as the principal component determinant of family business owners’ retirement preparation. Further, based on a chi-square results (𝓍2 = 0.843; p = 0.025), the study concluded there was no gender difference between respondents’ attitudes towards retirement preparation. Also, the Spearman’s Rho (rs) correlation analysis (gamma; - 0.54) showed a negative and weak relationship between increase in age and increase in thoughts about retirement; suggesting that family business owners who were younger had higher chances of preparing for retirement than those who had attained or were older than the state pension age. Further, findings revealed that family business owners anticipate retiring gradually whilst exploring other employment opportunities, housing and relocation plans; implying that retirement is constructed as a transitional process rather than an instantaneous curtailment of work. Therefore, it is recommended that interventions such as health and financial investment plans will have to be considered as this social group will not entirely cease participating in economic activities until they are too frail to work. Further, programme intervention should focus on appropriate preparation across variety of domains such as health, social and psychological so that family business owners will look forward to retiring positively.

Source: KNUST
Retrenchment process and the coping mechanisms of employees from the banking industry in Ghana: a case of Adot Bank Ghana Limited

Although there has been a great deal of work on retrenchment in other sectors like mining and general business, this has not been the case in the banking sector. This study attempted to fill this gap in the literature in Ghana. The study adopted a qualitative case study methodology employing in-depth interviews as its main data collection tool. Purposive sampling was used to select three (3) bank staff at the HRM Department of the case bank, and snowball sampling was used to reach thirty eight (38) retrenched staff. A Logical Positivist approach was adopted, employing the Social and Human Capital Theories as the mediating variables to explain the coping mechanisms of these retrenched staff. The researcher used the comparative content analysis to analyse the data. The findings showed that the retrenchment process of the bank under study had an implementation gap at the selection criteria and severance package level within the retrenchment process. There were also indications that retrenched staff suffered loss of self-esteem and change in status. Retrenchees also experienced a reduction in spending as well as emotional breakdown such as anger and crying at some point in time which were directly related to the retrenchment process. The study further revealed that retrenched staff coped differently due to varying family backgrounds and environmental situations. Moreover, the study found that retrenched staff coped with emotion and problem focused coping by Folkman and Lazarus (1984) and also resorted to coping with the knowledge, skills and capabilities they have as well as friends, family, social organisations and religion. In line with the findings of the study, the researcher had bridged the gap by providing a comprehensive study on retrenchment that looks at the retrenchment process through to the effects, coping mechanisms as well as the labour market reintegration of the affected employee. Again the findings of the study would be relevant for policy implementers in banks to look at issues within the retrenchment process especially at the selection criteria and severance package. The researcher therefore recommends proper negotiations towards the establishment of consensus between the employer and employee as well as the trade union on the selection of the affected employee to minimise the effects on the affected employee for a better coping.

Source: KNUST
Retrenchment process and the coping mechanisms of employees from the banking industry in Ghana: A Case Of Adot Bank Ghana Limited

ABSTRACT Although there has been a great deal of work on retrenchment in other sectors like mining and general business, this has not been the case in the banking sector. This study attempted to fill this gap in the literature in Ghana. The study adopted a qualitative case study methodology employing in-depth interviews as its main data collection tool. Purposive sampling was used to select three (3) bank staff at the HRM Department of the case bank, and snowball sampling was used to reach thirty eight (38) retrenched staff. A Logical Positivist approach was adopted, employing the Social and Human Capital Theories as the mediating variables to explain the coping mechanisms of these retrenched staff. The researcher used the comparative content analysis to analyse the data. The findings showed that the retrenchment process of the bank under study had an implementation gap at the selection criteria and severance package level within the retrenchment process. There were also indications that retrenched staff suffered loss of self-esteem and change in status. Retrenchees also experienced a reduction in spending as well as emotional breakdown such as anger and crying at some point in time which were directly related to the retrenchment process. The study further revealed that retrenched staff coped differently due to varying family backgrounds and environmental situations. Moreover, the study found that retrenched staff coped with emotion and problem focused coping by Folkman and Lazarus (1984) and also resorted to coping with the knowledge, skills and capabilities they have as well as friends, family, social organisations and religion. In line with the findings of the study, the researcher had bridged the gap by providing a comprehensive study on retrenchment that looks at the retrenchment process through to the effects, coping mechanisms as well as the labour market reintegration of the affected employee. Again the findings of the study would be relevant for policy implementers in banks to look at issues within the retrenchment process especially at the selection criteria and severance package. The researcher therefore recommends proper negotiations towards the establishment of consensus between the employer and employee as well as the trade union on the selection of the affected employee to minimise the effects on the affected employee for a better coping.

Source: KNUST
Retrieval of integrated water vapour from GNSS signals for numerical weather predictions

Atmospheric Water vapour is an important greenhouse gas and contributes greatly in maintaining the Earth's energy balance. This critical meteorological parameter is not sensed by any facility in Ghana contributing weather data to the Global Telecommunication System of WMO. This thesis presents a highly precise tool for water vapour sensing based on the concept of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) meteorology and tests the computed results against global reanalysis data. Conventional approaches used to sense the atmospheric water vapour or precipitable water (PW) or Integrated Water Vapour such as radiosondes, hygrometers, microwave radiometers or sun photometers are a ected by meteorological conditions, expensive and have coverage limitations. However, GNSS meteorological concept o ers an easier, inexpensive and all-weather technique to retrieve PW or IWV from Zenith Tropospheric Delays over a reference station with very high temporal resolutions. This study employed precise point positioning (PPP) techniques to quantify the extent of delays on the signal due to the troposphere and stratosphere media where the atmospheric water vapour resides. The KNUST GPS Base station was used to log dual-frequency signals for approximately 260 days between the months of February 2013 to December 2014. Stringent processing criteria were set using an elevation cut-o of 5 o , precise orbital and clock products, Antex les, nominal tropospheric correction and mapping functions. The delays which were originally slanted are mapped unto the zenith direction and integrated with surface meteorological parameters to retrieve PW or IWV. This research work investigated the applications of ground-based GNSS to meteorology and gives all correction models implemented in PPP and for Tropospheric delay estimation.The gLAB software was used for ZTD computations. PW values obtained were compared with ERA-Interim, Japanese Meteorological Agency Reanalysis (JRA) and National Centres for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) global reanalysis data. Correlation analysis were run on computed PW from logged GNSS datasets and downscaled reanalysis data. The obtained results show stronger correlation between the retrieved PW values and those provided by the ERAinterim. The computed amount of ZTDs varies perfectly with weather pattern in the country. Again, a linear-model was derived that could predict PW based on ZTD with standard errors of 6.01 mm for JRA, 5.40 mm for ERA-Interim and 6.34 mm for NCEP reanalysis data. Finally, the study results indicate that with a more densi ed network of GNSS base stations the retrieved PW or IWV will greatly improve numerical weather predictions and more speci cally precipitation forecasting in Ghana.

Source: KNUST
Retrieval of stratospheric NO3 vertical profiles from SCIAMACHY lunar occultation measurement over the Antarctic

[1] NO3 vertical profiles have been retrieved over the Antarctic (60 –90 S) from the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography (SCIAMACHY) lunar occultation spectra, using the visible spectral band (610–680 nm) containing NO3 absorption bands at 623 and 662 nm. The retrieved NO3 profiles agree well with calculations from a photochemical model constrained by retrieved O3 and analyzed temperatures in the altitude range between 24 and 45 km. Below about 35–40 km, observed NO3 is well reproduced by photochemical steady state calculations. Differences between observed and modeled NO3 are within the estimated accuracy of 20–35%, demonstrating the consistency of the NO3 retrieval and model.

Source: KNUST
A Retrospective Evaluation of Ciprofloxacin use at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Hospital, Kumasi

Back ground Ciprofloxacin has been used for chemotherapy of bacterial infections over the years in Ghana. However not much is known about the quality of its use regarding the appropriateness of clinical indication, dosages administered, dose frequency, duration and potential for interactions with multivalent cations Objective The present study was therefore undertaken to evaluate its use in respect of the above mentioned parameters excluding the first. Methods This was a cross-sectional retrospective study involving two thousand patients’ charts that covered a three month period (1st Oct 2004 to 31st December 2004) at the KNUST Hospital. Patient records were examined to assess the appropriateness of ciprofloxacin use with respect to the dose, dose frequency, dose duration and the potential for drug –drug interactions with multivalent cations (MVCs). Results It was found out that the dose for all the justified indications of UTI, bone and joint infection, enteric fever and enteritis was 500 mg. The dose frequency in all the above cases was twelve hourly. The potential for drug –drug interaction with respect to multivalent cations was virtually absent. However the duration of treatment for all the justified cases did not meet standard criteria.

Source: KNUST
A Retrospective Descriptive Study on Cerebrovascular Accidents at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (Kath) in Kumasi.

INTRODUCTION: Stroke is a major challenge facing medicine with an alarming statistics of being the second leading cause of death and the leading cause of physical disability worldwide. Recognition and management of risk factors remain key to reducing morbidity and mortality from stroke. OBJECTIVES: The main objective of this project was to conduct a retrospective study to assess stroke outcomes among stroke patients at KATH for the years 2006 and 2007. METHODS/ DESIGN: A retrospective descriptive study involving review of adult stroke patients records on; age, sex, length of hospital stay, outcome of management (dead/alive), socio-demography, blood pressure on admission and before discharge or death, patient’s knowledge of his/her hypertension status and the most common presenting features. DATA ANALYSIS \ STATISTICAL METHOD Data was first entered in excel 2003 and transported into Epi info version 3.4.1 for further statistical analysis. RESULTS: Stroke constituted 1.3% of total hospital admissions and 6.3% of total hospital deaths within the period under review, 9.1% of total medical adult admissions and 13.2% of the total medical adult mortality were ascribed to stroke. A total of 1,050 cases made up of 537 (51.1%) males and 513 (48.9%) females were involved. 456(43.4%. 95% CI = 40.4%-46.5%) patients died from stroke of which 244 (53.5%) were men (RR= 1.10. 95% CI = 0.96-1.26).The peak age was 66-75 years representing 274 (26.1%) of stroke cases. The mean age of those who died was higher than that of those who survived (65.37 years versus 62.38 years).The average length of hospital stay of those who died was lower than that of those who survived (5.13 days versus 7.07). Hemiplegia/hemiparesia and hypertension were topmost on the list of most commonly presenting features. Fifty-four patients (18%. 95% CI = 13.8%–22.8%) had previous episode of stroke. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Stroke is an important health problem affecting both males and females with hypertension as a major risk factor. Majority of stroke victims belong to the active segment of the population. Attention needs to be focused on patients, health personnel and public education with the intention of reducing as many modifiable risk factors as possible to stop the weakening of the country’s labor force by the disease and to forestall premature deaths.

Source: KNUST
A retrospective descriptive study on Cerebrovascular accidents at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.

INTRODUCTION: Stroke is a major challenge facing medicine with an alarming statistics of being the second leading cause of death and the leading cause of physical disability worldwide. Recognition and management of risk factors remain key to reducing morbidity and mortality from stroke. OBJECTIVES: The main objective of this project was to conduct a retrospective study to assess stroke outcomes among stroke patients at KATH for the years 2006 and 2007. METHODS/ DESIGN: A retrospective descriptive study involving review of adult stroke patients records on; age, sex, length of hospital stay, outcome of management (dead/alive), socio-demography, blood pressure on admission and before discharge or death, patient’s knowledge of his/her hypertension status and the most common presenting features. DATA ANALYSIS \ STATISTICAL METHOD Data was first entered in excel 2003 and transported into Epi info version 3.4.1 for further statistical analysis. RESULTS: Stroke constituted 1.3% of total hospital admissions and 6.3% of total hospital deaths within the period under review, 9.1% of total medical adult admissions and 13.2% of the total medical adult mortality were ascribed to stroke. A total of 1,050 cases made up of 537 (51.1%) males and 513 (48.9%) females were involved. 456(43.4%. 95% CI = 40.4%-46.5%) patients died from stroke of which 244 (53.5%) were men (RR= 1.10. 95% CI = 0.96-1.26).The peak age was 66-75 years representing 274 (26.1%) of stroke cases. The mean age of those who died was higher than that of those who survived (65.37 years versus 62.38 years).The average length of hospital stay of those who died was lower than that of those who survived (5.13 days versus 7.07). Hemiplegia/hemiparesia and hypertension were topmost on the list of most commonly presenting features. Fifty-four patients (18%. 95% CI = 13.8%–22.8%) had previous episode of stroke. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Stroke is an important health problem affecting both males and females with hypertension as a major risk factor. Majority of stroke victims belong to the active segment of the population. Attention needs to be focused on patients, health personnel and public education with the intention of reducing as many modifiable risk factors as possible to stop the weakening of the country’s labor force by the disease and to forestall premature deaths. KEY WORDS: Stroke, morbidity, mortality, risk factors.

Source: KNUST