ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
The role of the banking sector in promoting small scale timber firms: a case study of Kumasi

1. General Overview of the Timber Industry in Ghana: Ghana like other developing countries is characterised by low level of technology, high population growth rate, lack of expertise and so on. Ghana depends largely on her primary products such as minerals, timber, crops and livestock for generating income through their exploitation for exports as well as for meeting local demand. The importance of forest products such as timber cannot be over emphasized. For example wood is used as a framework for construction or for building houses, ships, cars and for making paper and furniture as well as for fuel. The market structure of the timber industry is relatively a perfect competitive one in terms of the numerous small firms which are nearly of equal sizes and a few large firms that provide about one-third of total supply. Exit and entry into the industry are also free. Almost all firms in the industry are export oriented. However, producer prices are administered by the Timber Export Development Board (TEDB). Thus, the highest and the lowest prices of all species of timber are fixed or quoted by the board. However, firms can sell above the highest price but cannot sell below the lowest price, Increasing sales depends on the number of contracts a firm wins, and this entails a lot of canvassing in the international market. Only the few large firms in the industry with the means are able to sponsor their personnel to the external market to undertake aggressive sales promotion in a bid to get more contracts. The small firms unlike their larger counterparts are not able to avail themselves of this opportunity because of financial constraints. They therefore face acute marketing problems. This has hindered most of them from expanding and taking advantage of economies of scale. This has also necessitated the demand for financial support to enable them penetrate the international market.

Source: KNUST
The role of the churches in health care delivery: the case of the Methodist Church, Ghana

Good health is an indispensable prerequisite for the attainment of growth and development in any nation. The Churches in Ghana (especially the Orthodox Ones) in recognition of their social concern and mission to liberate mankind, spiritually and physically, have been engaged in the promotion of health care alongside evangelism and mission. Their role has gone a long way in complementing Government’s efforts at ensuring a better health care delivery for the nation. The study focused on enhancing the role of the Methodist Church Ghana in promoting health care delivery in Ghana. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources employing the complementary multi-method strategy. The purposive sampling method was used in identifying respondents who could supply the appropriate information required. The study revealed lack of infrastructure, equipment, qualified personnel and finances which seriously undermine the capacity of the health facilities in providing a better health care service for the communities in which they operate. In conclusion, the study recommended to the Methodist Church Ghana the need to place promotion of health care delivery high on her agenda and to draw up a comprehensive strategic plan that will address these constraints and pave a way for a better health care service to the people.

Source: KNUST
The role of the District Assembly in poverty Alleviation: a case study of Ahafo Ano North District

Poverty, a situation generally defined as having insufficient resources to meet basic human needs, has been a concern of society especially the developing countries, over the years. The multiplicity in its definition has resulted in citing several reasons for its causes. However, two basic causes have been given as lack of basic social human needs such as food, clothing, housing, potable water and health services delivery, and lack of income to access one’s basic needs. Such situation, be it at the communal level or individual level, could be temporal or permanent. Whatever it is, its undesirability has resulted in the adoption of several strategies to combat it. It has been accepted that poverty can well be reduced if people who are experiencing it are involved in its solution. Participation in decision-making by the poor has been accepted as one of the effective strategies for the reduction of poverty. This concept, embedded in the decentralization process is the cornerstone of the District Assembly system in Ghana given cognisance to the fact that development is a shared responsibility between the people and the government. The District Assembly which is made up of the representatives of people in a particular locality is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the development of its area of jurisdiction including poverty reduction. Based on the study carried out in the Ahafo Ano North district, it has been observed that in its effort to execute its mandate holistically, the Assembly has adopted two main strategies which are first, the provision of social services and infrastructure such as roads, school buildings, health facilities and secondly employment generation mainly through the administration of the Poverty Alleviation Fund. The study has established that poverty can effectively be reduced through individual empowerment to earn sustainable income. This can effectively be done through equipping the individual with employable skills. The study, in recommending a paradigm shift from the over concentration on the provision of social services and infrastructure to employment generation, proposes the restructuring of the Poverty Alleviation Fund into a Micro Credit Unit, independent of the Assembly to help enhance and improve on the objectives of setting up the Fund since it has the potential to reduce poverty in the rural areas. The study concludes that there is greater emphasis on the provision of social services and infrastructure, which has not positively impacted greatly on the poverty status of the people though the people expect the Assembly to pay greater attention to employment generation. The study notes with concern the gap between policy makers at the local level and the local people both in design and implementation of programmes towards poverty alleviation and therefore recommends further research into how to strengthen, accelerate and remove all the bottlenecks in the decentralization process since it can serve as the wheel to propel the development of the rural areas.

Source: KNUST
The Role of the District Assembly in Poverty Alleviation; A Case Study of Pru District

Poverty is seen at two level by the Development Economists and other Social Scientists (International Community).First, it is lack of innovation,creativity,skills,experiencing technology and ability to provide basic human needs such as adequate food, clothing,shelter,portable water and health care. Second, it is viewed as lack of or inadequate income to enable humanbeings have access to basic human and social needs. By the two classifications about 65% to 70% of the population of Ghana is poor.In the case of Pru District, about 80% of the people do not have access to adequate food, water, education, health, shelter and so on. From the level of income distribution, 75% of the people earn less than GH¢200.00 per year. The people live dejected life because they do not have the financial means nor the technological knowhow to overcome their plight. Under Ghana’s decentralization policy, the Pru District Assembly has a big role to play to alleviate poverty of the people.The study was done to determine what the Assembly and the people are doing to alleviate or even reduce poverty. This is a descriptive study in which the researcher used various data collection instruments to collect data.The sample size of this study was made up of 170 respondents with the use of questionnaires and interviews to collect data from the respondents. The study found that respondents have different perception of poverty and what causes it. They also enumerated how poverty manifested itself in the district. As a result the Pru district holds poverty reduction high on its agenda by embarking on a series of programmes to reduce it. The study, recommended a shift from the over concentration on the provision of social services and infrastructure to employment generation, by structuring the Assembly to help enhance and improve on the objectives of setting up a Fund since it has the potential to reduce poverty in the rural areas.

Source: KNUST
The role of the district health management team in co-ordinating primary health care for district development (case study of Keta district)

For the Primary Health Care system currently being pursued in Ghana to be a success, the need for effective co-ordination between all health related departments is inevitable. This is one of the main reasons why District Health Management Teams of the Ministry of Health were established as a fulcrum to facilitate this process. Often, the inability of the health sector to effectively deliver primary health care services has been blamed on inadequate funds. However, it must also be acknowledged that the lack of co-ordination of activities between health related departments limits the effectiveness of the PHC. The study sets out to find the type and degree of effectiveness of co-ordination mechanisms employed by the DHMT in Keta District and the problems militating against effective co-ordination of PHC activities. The study further examines the effects of weak co-ordination which later serve as the basis for making recommendations on how to strengthen and sustain a high level of co-ordination among all departments whose activities contribute to the delivery of PHC in the district. Eight departments were chosen and studied through interviews and focus group discussions. Major findings of the study include limited planning skill of the DHMT, lack of time and personnel to effectively co-ordinate PHC activities. Coupled with these, is the difference in perception and understanding of co-ordination by different health related departments. Finally, even though the departments contribute immensely towards PHC delivery, they are not members of the DHMT and hence are excluded from planning PHC programmes in an integrated way. This situation relicts the duplication of projects and functions as well as waste of resources (time, skill, money etc.) in the implementation of PHC projects. One major key issue is the need to create a forum for regular discussions by all departments on the need for co-ordination as a basis for effective PHC delivery. To improve co-ordination of PHC activities, some of the recommendations made include: Upgrading the planning skill of the DNMT to stand the prescribed functions of coordination, introduction of composite budgeting of all PHC activities and the organisation of seminars every six months to discuss the meaning of collaboration, cooperation and co-ordination, expansion of the membership of the DHMT to include representative of other health related departments. This can only be facilitated by a renewed commitment on the part of all actors and especially the DHMT to recognise and give priority to PHC as a basis for improvement in health delivery, and the translation of this into a bye-law by the Assembly to help the DHMT to effectively co-ordinate PHC activities.

Source: KNUST
The role of the informal sector in housing provisioning in Kumasi

Housing plays a key role in the socio-economic development of every country but unfortunately, housing supply worldwide has not been able to meet demand. The inadequate housing is one of the biggest challenges facing both developed and developing countries today with finance being a crucial factor. The informal sector is the largest housing supply system but has not been able to meet the increasing demand partly as a result of the inadequate and ineffective financial mechanisms for financing housing in the country. The study therefore investigated the major finance mechanisms used by the informal sector and factors which hinder their access to formal credit facilities. It also made suggestions to improve access to credit facilities to the informal sector to improve housing delivery. A cross-sectional research design was adopted as a research approach for the study. The simple random sampling was used to select the ten communities whilst the convenience sampling method was used to select the homeowners. In order to increase the accuracy of the work, the research was operated at a 95 percent confidence level with a 5 percent margin of error. A total of 310 interviews were conducted out of the total determined sample size of 392. The study came out with some major findings which included the dominant use of informal source of finance, the existence of an underdeveloped mortgage market and uneasy access to formal credit facilities from financial institutions due to the type and nature of jobs. It was realised that this has affected housing delivery because homeowners had to build incrementally which took a lot of time before house completion. The study recommended microfinance for housing, site and services scheme by the financial institutions and a non-mortgage lending facility for the informal sector. Also, how to sustain the formal credit facilities for the informal sector is seen as an area for further research.

Source: KNUST
The Role of the Indigenous Ghanaian Textile Industry in Relation to the President’s Special Initiative (PSI) on Textiles and Garments

The dissertation is an outcome of the researcher’s bid to unearth to the fullest, the available development opportunities to help salvage the duress of the ailing textile industry in Ghana; particularly, the indigenous textile industry.This study seeks to; contribute to the development of Art education in its totality, providing adequate grass root information about Ghanaian indigenous textiles and the textile industry in terms of history, evolutions, developments, organization and economic prospects while projecting challenges to export development.Research methods employed are the Descriptive and Statistical inferential analysis approaches. The scope of the study covered selected indigenous textile centres and communities in the Ashanti, Volta and Northern regions of Ghana. Concepts under investigation included the development initiatives available to be harnessed towards the growth of the indigenous Textile industry and adverse poverty reduction among Ghanaians.Population of the study was limited to 130persons, mostlyTextile practitioners and Policy makers consisting of textile Merchants, Tutors, Students, Curators, Human resource managers, Financial management experts, Craftsmen and other randomly selected opinion leaders.The stratified sampling method was adopted with the assumption that the findings would be representative of the Ghanaian populace. This doctoral dissertation therefore has sought to identify, describe the indigenous Ghanaian textile industry and the President’s Special Initiative on Textiles and Garments, assesses the role of Ghanaian indigenous Textiles as an ingredient in the poverty reduction machinery and as the engine of improvement of the Nation’s Economic Growth; and to examines the impact of the PSI on the indigenous textile industry in Ghana towards the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Source: KNUST
The role of the human resource management and development unit in enhancing quality education delivery a case study of the HRMD unit of the regional education office, Ho

Human Resource activities have become the focus in most organizations all over the world and the Volta Regional Education Office, Ho is no exception. The study investigated the activities performed by the HRMD Unit of the Regional Education Office. It also investigated the competencies of schedule officers and finally found out the impact of HRMD activities on quality education delivery. A set of questionnaire which was the main instrument for the survey were designed and validated by the researcher to collect the data for the study. The data collected was sorted, coded and analysed. In all 82 respondents took part in the study but incomplete questionnaire reduced the usable number to 78. Data analysed showed that the HRMD unit of the Regional Educational Office, Ho performs all activities except employee safety issues and Human Resource Research which recorded sharp disagreement from respondents. Schedule officers also had all the competency skills except that of innovativeness. The study revealed that the concept of total quality management exist in our schools. However, issues concerning health and safety, empowerment and innovation of employers of the unit have been downplayed. In this regard, recommendations have been made which when implemented would enhance the performance of the HRMD Unit in ensuring quality education delivery.

Source: KNUST
The Role of the Private Sector in Health Care Service Provision in Techiman Municipality

This study was conducted to assess the role of the private health sector in the provision of health care services in the Techiman Municipality of the Brong Ahafo Region. The study focused on the types of private health facilities in the municipality, the services provided by both public and private facilities, users of the health services, conformity of services provided with national standards and the challenges and prospects of the sector. The study adopted the case study design. Secondary and Primary data were gathered for the study. A sample size of 100 Household Heads was used for the study. The study revealed that, eleven out of the thirty-five health facilities surveyed in the municipality were privately owned. Five of these are maternity homes, four are private hospitals and two are private Clinics. It was also revealed that the public facilities do not provide major and specialized services due to their nature and level as compared with the private facilities where major, specialized services and professional nurses and midwife training are provided. The study further revealed that Household heads and for that matter users of the health facilities are from all age groups with the majority being youthful and fall within the income group of Gh¢ 100.00 – 299.00. Again, the study revealed that, all the private health facilities in the municipality are registered and supervised by the Ghana Health Service on monthly, quarterly and annual bases as required by the National Health Policy. On the bases of the major findings, the study recommended the need for expansion of the existing health facilities and provision of a district hospital and effective collaboration between the public and private actors to ensure quality service delivery.

Source: KNUST
The role of traditional medical practitioners in healthcare delivery in Offinso District, Ashanti region

In many developing countries and other developed world more people use traditional medicine to cater for their health care needs. Globally WHO has estimated that 80% of rural folks in the developing world rely on traditional medicine for their health care needs. The Ghanaian situation is a similar one; traditional medicine contributes immensely to the health of the majority of people living not only in the rural areas, but also in the urban centres of the country. In the rural district of Offinso in the Ashanti Region with a population of 153,657 and a doctor-population ratio of 1:38414 in 2003, tradition medicine was the most widely used health care service by the inhabitants as supported by the results of the study. However, in the District the services of T.M.Ps were not captured in health care data, in order to influence health care service planning and also present the true picture of disease morbidity and mortality patterns. This study, therefore, assessed the role played by genuine traditional medical practitioners in the provision of medical services to the people and their contribution to the overall health care delivery in the Offinso District. A descriptive cross-sectional survey approach, using qualitative and quantitative methods to process data gathered at interviews, was adopted in this study to evaluate independent variables developed for the research. The study results and analysis of the data gathered during the survey indicated amongst others that, traditional medicine was contributing significantly to health care services in the District: The weekly reported new cases at the shrine/herbal clinics was higher (67.62%) than that gathered from orthodox health facilities (32.3 8%), with reasonably high cure rate for diseases (67.10%) reported by patients who used the services of T.M.Ps. Irrespective of the valuable input from the T.M.Ps into the health care system in the District, their services were not targeted for improvement by health service authorities. They were virtually left alone, as unregulated individual professionals whose population and locations were not known to the Ghana Health Service Directorate. This could expose more people to the exploitation of quack T.M.Ps willing to take advantage of the situation. Cooperation between genuine T.M.Ps themselves was very low and in the real sense, none existed between O.M.Ps and T.M.Ps , which could be exploited for the benefit of quality health care services to clients. It was important, therefore, to recommend that the Ghana Health Service in the District must help to take census of all the T.M.Ps in its catchments area, and put measures in place to regulate their activities for the benefit of the clients who have been using the services of the T.M.Ps. The researcher further recommended that the Government must help to improve traditional medical services in the District by supporting and investing money into traditional medicine.

Source: KNUST
The role of Traditional Property Rights in the sustainable use of Rural Lands in the Techiman Municipality

Land is an invaluable resource that serves the socio-economic needs of various communities in the country. Ghana has several ethnic groups with diverse cultural systems which have influence on the way land resources are used in the different communities. Techiman is an agrarian municipality with the largest food crops market in Ghana. Over the years, tenure practices have led to land fragmentation, insecurity of tenure, boundary disputes and decreases in agricultural production. This study therefore employed preliminary investigations, interviews, focus group discussions to unravel the extent to which traditional land tenure has influenced the sustainable use of lands. The study has suggested among others that, there should be land mapping of customary lands to define clear boundaries, mainstreaming of customs and norms into municipal bye-laws and introduction of common rules to govern the use of common properties.

Source: KNUST