ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Challenges of digitization of the National Archives of Nigeria

The purpose of the study was to examine the current state, prospects and challenges in digitizing archival collections at the National Archives of Nigeria. The research adopted a qualitative research method. The case study research strategy was considered appropriate for the study. Data was gathered through observation and interviews. Interviews were conducted with six professionals, mostly heads of departments, out of the 40 archival staff at the Department of National Archives, Ibadan. The study revealed that even though the institution claimed to have embarked on a digitization programme in 2003 and reports have been published about an ongoing digitization project, most of the collections are currently not being digitized. Respondents admitted that digitization would be highly beneficial to the institution, but issues such as lack of funding, lack of digitization policy and lack of trained personnel are the major challenges facing the digitization project. The research deals with the contextual and local nature of digitization and brings to the fore the importance of digitizing the collections of the National Archives of Nigeria. The findings and recommendations of this study should be useful to policy makers and all stakeholders including the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Source: UG
The Challenges of Economic Development in Post-Conflict Africa: A Case Study of Sierra Leone

Wars and conflicts have been dominant in the history of the world, particularly in Africa for some time now. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) records that the continent of Africa experienced an approximately 630 state-based and non-state armed conflicts between 1990 and 2015. These conflicts have been caused by a multiplicity of factors and have negatively impacted the economic development of states. The youth have often been involved in these conflicts. Sierra Leone experienced a civil war caused by a multiplicity of factors from March 1991 to January 2002 which destroyed the state systems and infrastructure in sectors such as health, education and energy and displaced many people. It began the post-conflict reconstruction headed by the United Nations (UN), its agencies and other stakeholders to establish peace and rebuild what has been lost or destroyed. The state, although have made some progress with the help of non-state actors after the civil war, continues to suffer challenges that are dire to its economic development. Youth employment and provision of education are two key sectors that suffer challenges. They also pose a threat to the stability of state security because they are part of the causes of the civil war. As such, the main objective of the study is to find out the challenges that Sierra Leone faces and its ramifications for economic development, particularly with youth employment and education sectors. The study hypothesised that the measures put in place in post-conflict Sierra Leone have improved the education and youth employment sectors. The research used semi-structured interviews and purposive sampling methods to obtain quality and reliable data for subsequent analysis. It reveals that with measures put in place by Sierra Leone and with the assistance of non-state actors, she has achieved considerable progress in the education sector, as well as youth employment. The study recommends, among others, that there should be better working conditions for teachers in the education sector and also a national system which absorbs graduates after completion of tertiary studies to enable them to have some work experience to help them find official employment.

Source: UG
Challenges of income diversification and food security in Northern rural Ghana

The relationship between income diversification and food security gained considerable attention in the academic literature in the last two decades. Smallholder farmers undertake income diversification activities to ensure improved food security amidst changing patterns of climate and rural socio-demographics. Understanding the challenges of smallholder farmers in income diversification strategies is critical to assessing the effectiveness of food security measures in savannah regions threatened by weather variability and environmental shocks. This study aims to shed light on the challenges of income diversification in Northern rural Ghana and to add to the growing body of research seeking to understand the challenges of income diversification and its link to the food security status of smallholder farmers in the deprived context of rural Africa. By exploiting a unique sample of 500 agricultural households in rural Ghana, we show that income diversification and the food security status of smallholders are positively related to both food access and nutritional diversity. Our results show that income diversification played a significant role in improving food access and dietary consumption. Highly diversified households were more likely to report being food secure as higher income diversification translated into higher incomes and food security. The single most important factor which stood out as an explanatory variable for food security in Northern rural Ghana was spousal incomes generated from diversification. Spousal incomes accounted for (29.2%) of the share of total household incomes used to purchase food for farm families in distress seasons. The findings support the use of spousal income diversification pathways as a means of reducing the negative impacts of food insecurity in the Yendi and Bimbilla Municipalities of the Northern Region. The study highlights the need for Ghana’s economic policy frameworks to address the following three cardinal challenges of income diversification : (1) poor access to start-up capital or funds, (2) poor condition of infrastructure, and (3) high costs of transportation, directly linked to the underdevelopment of Northern Ghana.

Source: UG
Challenges of internet adoption of banks in Ghana

In recent years, information technology (IT) — notably the Internet — has been largely adopted on a commercial basis by businesses across the globe. This has been the case in both developed and emerging markets spanning various sectors including education (e-learning); retail (e-commerce); and financial services (e-banking). This chapter highlights the opportunities offered by the deployment of IT for the competitiveness of banks — taken from an emerging market perspective. © 2010 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Source: UG
Challenges of learning environments experienced by distance‑learning higher education students in Ghana

The study presented here investigated challenges of learning environments experienced by distance-learning (DL) and higher education (HE) students in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The author interviewed students (n = 24) in two DL centres, where they attended weekend face-to-face sessions. He asked them to share their personal experiences with respect to classrooms, learning facilities both inside and outside the classroom, and access to library support services. During each intense one-on-one interview, which lasted 45–60 minutes, the author made audio recordings and field notes for later analysis. The students’ views were complemented with audio-recordings and field notes from staf interviews (n = 4), each lasting 1–2 hours. The 28 participants in the study were recruited from two universities of Ghana Learning Centers: Accra and Tema. Data collection covered the period from April 2018 to December 2019. The field notes derived from all participant interviews were transcribed, coded, categorised and analysed using NVivo 10. Particular attention was paid to students’ educational and social well-being and their sense of place. Findings include students’ struggle with poor infrastructure conditions, and most reported lack of access to power sources in the classrooms, lack of a cafeteria, IT labs, library space, a student hub, and support services as the most significant barriers to experiencing a meaningful HE as DLs. Participants stressed the importance of infrastructural support and services tailored towards DLs’ needs, with an emphasis on on DL HE students’ physical, social and psychological well-being.

Source: UG
The challenges of managing a contemporary university library

The paper looks at the leadership/management structure in a typical Ghanaian public university library, and discusses the vital role the various levels of management in the library can play in the efficient management and administration of the library. Challenges found to be facing managers and administrators of contemporary university libraries in Ghana include: a dynamic library governing body; visionary library manager/administrator; responsible and committed supervisors. The paper highlights a number of recommendations to adder these challenges.

Source: UG
Challenges Of Nurses in Managing Type II Diabetes Mellitus at the Holy Family Hospital, Techiman B/A.

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease that occurs when the human body is not able to produce enough of the hormone insulin or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. It is estimated that 6.3% Ghanaians are affected with diabetes of which 90 – 95% are with Type II diabetes. In Ghana however, there are limited trained staff as well as inadequate equipment to provide quality care to people living with diabetes. This study therefore explored the challenges of nurses in managing Type II diabetes patients and ways to improve the care rendered to these patients. The study sought to identify the problems nurses face in managing patients living with Type II DM, to determine what nurses do to deal with these challenges, to determine the perceived effects of these challenges on Type II DM patients, to explore nurses’ role in DM management, to identify factors that motivate nurses to manage DM patients and to identify ways to improve DM care. An exploratory descriptive research design was used to conduct this study at the Holy Family Hospital, Techiman, B/A. A semi-structured interview guide with six main questions was used to conduct 14 in-depth interviews for registered general nurses. All interviews were conducted in English language between November 2015 and March 2016 and lasted between 8 and 26 minutes. The data gathered was analysed with Creswell approach to qualitative data analysis and the key findings were: lack of glucometers, bad glucometers, high cost of diabetes care, lack of nurses’ knowledge in diabetes care and patients’ non-adherence to treatment regimen. The study has shown that, nurses encounter difficulties in providing care for patients living with diabetes and these compromise quality care. It has also revealed ways to improve care for diabetes patients to be considered by policy makers to ensure the provision of quality care and prevent complications associated with diabetes. It is recommended that, further research on the challenges of nurses in managing diabetes patients should be conducted at multiple sites for generalization of findings.

Source: UG
Challenges of Our Time: Responses of African and Diasporan Intellectuals to FGM

FGM continues to elicit diverse reactions from the intelligentsia in Africa and the Diaspora. The paper appraises the four main orientations of this response: ambivalence, valorization, condemnation, and reformism. It concludes that while each of the four positions has grounds for its cause the least meritorious is that of the valorisation of FGM.

Source: UG
The Challenges of Surveying Public Opinion in an Emerging Democracy

Based on interviews with political party officials and journalists as well as a content analysis of election poll stories, this paper discusses opinion polling in Ghana's emerging democracy. Highlighted in the discussion are the relevance of surveying public opinion in a neo-democracy and the journalistic reporting of poll results. The paper describes the surveying of public opinion in a political climate in transition from long historical experience of authoritarianism and dictatorship including a period of a ‘culture of silence’, to freedom of expression, as a challenge. In an examination of local ‘polls’ conducted by newspapers during the 1996 presidential and parliamentary elections, it characterizes those exercises as unscientific and inaccurate. Technical details about surveys were mostly missing in the stories, suggesting lack of poll reporting knowledge among journalists as a major challenge. There is an attempt to address these challenges for the purpose of strengthening the enabling role of political polling and journalistic reporting of poll results in Ghana's new democracy. Adequate responses to these challenges would, it is proposed, contribute to a scientific and an objective assessment of issues in political decision–making including measuring voter support for political parties and candidates.

Source: UG
Challenges to climate change adaptation in coastal small towns: Examples from Ghana, Uruguay, Finland, Denmark, and Alaska

The ability of a coastal settlement to adapt to climate change is largely dependent upon access to a range of resources, which many coastal towns and small cities lack. Coastal small towns of less than 10,000 are therefore at a significant disadvantage compared to larger settlements when it comes to adaptation. One way to begin to overcome this disadvantage is to compare coastal small towns in order to identify efficiencies and support knowledge sharing. In this article we present and analyse five case studies of coastal small towns: Fuvemeh, Ghana; Kiyú, Uruguay; Hanko, Finland; Lemvig, Denmark; and Nome, Alaska, USA. A number of key outcomes and lessons were identified which highlights the need for a formal network of international coastal small towns to encourage and develop knowledge sharing practices going forward. A further lesson is the importance of using a range of indicators in order to establish the regional/national importance of a town. Basing this solely on population size can result in an erroneous interpretation of the significance (and therefore adaptive capacity) of a coastal small town. Finally, despite many barriers to adaptation in coastal small towns, being small offers some potential advantages, such as the possibility of being able to form a community consensus more easily, using 3D visualisations for adaptation planning, and having managed realignment as a realistic management option. It is imperative that climate change resilience in coastal small towns is increased by focussing on overcoming barriers and developing appropriate adaptation approaches by governments, non-governmental organisations, business, and researchers.

Source: UG
The challenges to performance and sustaining mutual health organisations/health institutions: An exploratory study in Ghana

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore challenges to the performance and sustainability of mutual health organisations (MHOs) and health institutions towards enhancing access to quality health care (HC) in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered through interviews and documentary review. Findings – Problems with late release of reimbursement funds for discharging with claims by the central government has impacted heavily on the financial and strategic management and decisionmaking processes of the MHOs and health institutions. Research limitations/implications – The lack of in-depth analysis of the financial viability of the MHOs; and the limited number of schemes selected. Practical implications – Recommends the need to ensure prompt release of reimbursement funds by government to enable the MHOs to reimburse claims to health institutions. Social implications – There is a perceived tension between the MHOs and HC institutions due to late release of reimbursement funds by the government. Originality/value – Contributes to understanding of how the NHI Act influences the operations of MHOs and health institutions towards increasing access to quality HC and financing. © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Source: UG
Challenges to Regional Security Cooperation: A Comparative Analysis of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)

The study sought to find out the challenges to regional security cooperation in Africa with ECOWAS and SADC as case studies. The data used for this study was qualitative method of collecting and analyzing data. It found that there are both structural differences and ideological similarities between ECOWAS and SADC. Both ECOWAS and SADC were originally economic integration Organization; however, the contemporary nexus between security and development compelled them to adopt security roles. The two Organizations however differ in their approaches in managing threats to their sub-regions. ECOWAS was more predisposed to deploy its economic and political sanctions and military intervention mechanisms; while SADC is more given to using preventive diplomacy and conciliatory mechanisms to contain threats to the sub- region than deploying the threat of using military intervention. The difference is due to the type of colonialism member states of the two Organizations experienced. ECOWAS member states experienced a milder form of colonialism as compared to SADC, which had experienced more severe form of colonialism. The two regions experienced financial difficulties, lack of necessary political will, poor good governance, and corruption to varying degrees. SADC suffered lack of institutional capacity, lack of unity and nationalist rivalry while ECOWAS suffered from Anglophone and Francophone divide and volatility of conflicts. The study suggested greater collaboration between sub-regional Organizations to learn from each other’s experiences and set up funds for managing security threats to ensure their independence.

Source: UG
Challenges to the delivery of clinical diabetes services in Ghana created by the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: The barriers to delivering clinical non-communicable disease services in low- and middle-income countries have risen with the onset of COVID-19. Using Ghana as a case study, this article examines the changes COVID-19 has brought to diabetes service delivery and considers policy responses to deal with future such outbreaks. Methods: We conducted 18 interviews between November 2020 and February 2021 with health professionals and administrators from primary, secondary and tertiary facilities within the Ghana Health Service. The analysis was performed using deductive and inductive methods. Results: There were six general themes in interviewees’ responses: (1) COVID-19 had exacerbated the problems of high medicine and service costs and medicine shortages, (2) the pandemic had exacerbated problems of poor patient record keeping, (3) COVID-19 had reduced the availability of suitably trained health providers, (4) staff had become demoralized by management’s unwillingness to make innovative changes to cope with the pandemic, (5) COVID-19 led to a reor ganization of diabetes services, and (6) the country’s national health insurance scheme lacked flexibility in dealing with the pandemic. Conclusions: Access to resources is limited in LMICs. However, our study highlights practical policy responses that can improve health providers’ response to COVID-19 and future pandemics

Source: UG
Challenges women with disability face in accessing and using maternal healthcare services in Ghana: A qualitative study

Background: While a number of studies have examined the factors affecting accessibility to and utilisation of healthcare services by persons with disability in general, there is little evidence about disabled women's access to maternal health services in low-income countries and few studies consult disabled women themselves to understand their experience of care and the challenges they face in accessing skilled maternal health services. The objective of this paper is to explore the challenges women with disabilities encounter in accessing and using institutional maternal healthcare services in Ghana. Methods and Findings: A qualitative study was conducted in 27 rural and urban communities in the Bosomtwe and Central Gonja districts of Ghana with a total of 72 purposively sampled women with different physical, visual, and hearing impairments who were either lactating or pregnant at the time of this research. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to gather data. Attride-Stirling's thematic network framework was used to analyse the data. Findings suggest that although women with disability do want to receive institutional maternal healthcare, their disability often made it difficult for such women to travel to access skilled care, as well as gain access to unfriendly physical health infrastructure. Other related access challenges include: healthcare providers' insensitivity and lack of knowledge about the maternity care needs of women with disability, negative attitudes of service providers, the perception from able-bodied persons that women with disability should be asexual, and health information that lacks specificity in terms of addressing the special maternity care needs of women with disability. Conclusions: Maternal healthcare services that are designed to address the needs of able-bodied women might lack the flexibility and responsiveness to meet the special maternity care needs of women with disability. More disability-related cultural competence and patient-centred training for healthcare providers as well as the provision of disability-friendly transport and healthcare facilities and services are needed.

Source: UG
Challenging Contexts: Gender Studies and Geography in Anglophone African Countries

Gender equity has been acknowledged as critical to the equitable and sustainable development of Anglophone Africa, with much work at various levels in the region since the early 1990s. In higher education, this has included the introduction of courses on women and gender, an increase in studies on gender and place, and networking among feminist scholars and activists. While geographers have made significant contributions to the discourse, these have not translated into the mainstreaming of gender into sub-areas in the discipline nor to an examination of how gendered attributes are socially constructed or to the nature of space-time variations in femininity and masculinity. This paper provides an overview of recent developments in Anglophone African countries in the study of women and of gender studies in general. It offers case studies of work in geography within Ghana and South Africa. In so doing, it locates gender and women’s studies in relation to international women’s movements and African contexts. It also traces how gender studies have evolved and outlines challenges and potential trajectories for future directions.

Source: UG
Challenging formal accountability processes in community natural resource management in Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa is endowed with vast natural resources. It is equally labelled a cursed continent due to a plethora of conflicts emanating from the use and sharing of gains from these natural resources. For the past decades, accountability has been thought of as an anecdote to natural resources conflicts. However, these challenges have persisted across the Sub-Saharan African region. Using Ghana and South African communities, the study revisits the relationship between accountability of natural resources and community development with the aim to strengthen accountability processes in Africa. The paper revealed that accountability in natural resources management should extend beyond reports and opinions of the technocrats, bureaucrats, experts and political elites. We argue that accountability should be participatory, inclusive, and embody elements of trust and social justices. It therefore proposes the adoption of negotiated accountability, to strengthen the governance of natural resources in Africa. Negotiated accountability should holistically address four main accountability elements: the normative, relational, decisional and behavioural element.

Source: UG