ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Where Should We Stay? Exploring the Options of Caring for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Ghana

This study provides an insight into care arrangements for orphan and vulnerable children in Ghana. It is an investigatory study using a mixed research method. Data was collected from 2, 100 households across 7 regions of Ghana and 36 institutional homes. It is evident that, there are a number of care arrangements available to orphan and vulnerable children in the country which are broadly categorized under institutional, community-based, and family/household care arrangements. Each of these care arrangements also has other subtypes depending on mode of operation. Institutional homes were most prominent followed by fosterage, adoption and house helps. Only one community-based ove care arrangement was identified. These care arrangtlJllents provided all manner of care services to ove, including education, food, health, socio-emotional and recreational care services; yet, there are obvious situations of lack of capacity and adherence to guidelines and regulations. Issues related to resources for home-based care were pronounced. It is therefore imperative that the situation of orphans and vulnerable children be carefully reconsidered. The capacity of the Department of Social Welfare comes to the fore in the quest to redefined care arrangements for ove. Nonetheless, the debate on care arrangements for ove lies in the adoption of a more. comprehensive regulatory system with consideration for home-based care arrangements including fosterage and adoption.

Source: UG
“Where You Stand Depends On Where You Sit”: The Politics Of Petroleum Pricing In Ghana's Election Cycle.

This study examines how fuel pricing in Ghana has been used as a political tool to win votes and the government's role in this process. Applying Mile's Law, it explores post-truth theory through content analysis of secondary data and interviews with energy experts. The findings indicate that political parties gain significant political leverage by promising lower fuel prices during campaigns but fail to deliver once in office. The government's influence on fuel pricing is minimal, largely due to factors beyond its control. To stabilize fuel prices, the study recommends improving fiscal and economic performance to combat currency instability and educating the public on the fac tors influencing fuel pricing to prevent misinformation.

Source: UG
Whistleblowing intentions of accounting students An application of the theory of planned behaviour

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the intentions of a section of Ghanaian university students towards whistleblowing and the factors that predict such intentions. Design/methodology/approach – This study used the survey method of research, and data was gathered through the use of questionnaires. A total of 524 accounting students from the University of Ghana Business School participated in the survey. The structural equation modelling technique was used to analyse the data. Findings – The findings of this study show that the sampled students have greater intentions to report wrongdoings when detected and that majority of the students would prefer to use internal mechanisms for reporting purposes than using external means. Further, the study found students’ attitude towards whistleblowing and subjective norm to be key predictors of internal whistleblowing intentions whereas perceived behavioural control was found to have a positive influence on the intention to blow the whistle externally. Research limitations/implications – Findings of this study have implications for policymakers who have a keen interest in enhancing whistleblowing activities and whistleblower protection. Originality/value – This study provides some insights into the whistleblowing intentions of students. An understanding of the views of students towards whistleblowing and the factors driving their intentions should be useful to organisations that may use these students upon graduation.

Source: UG
Whither reference services? Views of some Ghanaian library school students

Purpose : This paper reports on the experiences of sixty-five library students who visited one of three selected libraries on the campus of the University of Ghana to find out the extent to which the principles of reference services were being adhered to. Design/methodology/approach: The unobtrusive method for evaluating reference services was used. Students were specifically asked to pose two questions (specific- search or research questions) of their choice to two different library staff at the reference desk of the selected library. (The library staff were unaware of this evaluation and exhibited their real behaviors to the clients.) The choice of these types of questions was to allow the library staff to engage them in a reference interview. Their observations were to be summarized in a two page report. Findings : Students were not only concerned with correct answers to their questions but were influenced to return to the same library staff by certain factors such as approachability of the library staff, effective assessment of their information need, good communication skills and the attentiveness of the library staff. Practical implications : This exercise gave students a first hand experience of being information seekers and directly experiencing what ordinary users are subjected to whenever they visited libraries. This experience it is hoped would guide them when they are later employed in libraries to conform to behaviors that enhance the quality of reference interview and user satisfaction. Originality/value : This is a modest contribution to the literature on reference services from a developing countries perspective as very few empirical studies are carried out in this area.

Source: UG
Who adopts LPG as the main cooking fuel and why? Empirical evidence on Ghana based on national survey

The aim of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the probability of adopting LPG as the main cooking fuel in Ghana using household level data gleaned from last two nationwide household surveys (GLSS 5 & GLSS 6). Using a flexible semi-parametric specification, the following were uncovered. First, we find socioeconomic and demographic factors such as income, education, access to urban infrastructure, and location of household, as key drivers of households’ choice of LPG as main cooking energy source. Again the influences of these factors are stable across time, and with a strong price effect. The evidence shows that urban households with better socioeconomic and demographic factors are likely to adopt LPG as the main cooking fuel relative to households in rural areas and also urban households with poor socioeconomic and demographic factors. Finally, we observe that the imposition of fully parametric structure (functional form) prior to estimation on factors such as age of household head, income, and household size as done in the literature is inappropriate, at least in the case of Ghana and tend to bias the marginal effects. There is strong evidence of variations in the response rate of LPG adoption over the domains of income, household size, and the age of the household head. The results suggest a policy dichotomy between rural and urban dwellers for it to be effective.

Source: UG
WHO guidance on COVID-19 vaccine trial designs in the context of authorized COVID-19 vaccines and expanding global access: Ethical considerations

While the degree of COVID-19 vaccine accessibility and uptake varies at both national and global levels, increasing vaccination coverage raises questions regarding the standard of prevention that ought to apply to different settings where COVID-19 vaccine trials are hosted. A WHO Expert Group has developed guidance on the ethical implications of conducting placebo-controlled trials in the context of expanding global COVID-19 vaccine coverage. The guidance also considers alternative trial designs to placebo controlled trials in the context of prototype vaccines, modified vaccines, and next generation vaccines

Source: UG
Who has power over policy? The political economy of Kenya’s 2019 gender policy in energy access

Addressing gendered energy poverty requires policies that ensure equal consideration for women and men. In order to close the gender gap in energy access, the Kenyan Ministry of Energy developed its 2019 Gender Policy. Unlike similar policies – such as ECOWAS’s Policy for Gender Mainstreaming in Energy Access – Kenya’s Gender Policy emerged from strong leadership by the Ministry of Energy, put clean cooking up front, and established an action plan to operationalize the Constitution’s gender quota. To understand how these policy features appeared in the Kenyan context, this paper explores how the dynamics between actors working at the gender and energy nexus have impacted the development of the Gender Policy using the Actors, Objectives and Context political economy framework. We find that four major objectives drive the key actors: electricity access, economic op portunity, access to clean cooking technologies, and gender equality. Examining how these objectives are real ized in the Policy, we find a convergence of top-down government efforts to uphold constitutional rights to gender equality and bottom-up advocacy from civil society to prioritize clean cooking and women’s access to energy services.

Source: UG
Who is marginalized in energy justice? Amplifying community leader perspectives of energy transitions in Ghana

There is a divide in energy access studies, between technologically-focused modeling papers in engineering and economics, and energy justice frameworks and principles grounded in social sciences. Quantitative computational models are necessary when analyzing energy, and more specifically electricity, systems, as they are technologically complex systems that can diverge from intuitive patterns. To assure energy justice, these models must be reflective of, and informative to, a wide range of stakeholders, including households and communities alongside utilities, governments, and others. Yet, moving from a qualitative understanding of preferences to quantitative modeling is challenging. In this perspective piece, we pilot the use of the value-focused thinking framework to inform stakeholder engagement. The result is a strategic objective hierarchy that highlights the tradeoffs and the social, economic, and technological factors that need to be measured in models. We apply the process in Ghana, using a survey, stakeholder workshops, and follow-up interviews to uncover key tradeoffs and stakeholder-derived objectives. We discuss three key areas that have been rarely, if ever, well-represented in energy models: (1) the relationship between the dynamics of electricity end-use and the technology and economic structure of the system; (2) explicit tradeoffs between electricity access, cost, and reliability as defined by stakeholders; and (3) the definition of new objectives, such as minimizing hazards related to theft. We conclude that this model of engagement provides an opportunity to tie together rigorous qualitative analysis and stakeholder engagement with crucial quantitative models of the electricity system.

Source: UG
Who is marginalized in energy justice? Amplifying community leader perspectives of energy transitions in Ghana

There is a divide in energy access studies, between technologically-focused modeling papers in engineering and economics, and energy justice frameworks and principles grounded in social sciences. Quantitative computational models are necessary when analyzing energy, and more specifically electricity, systems, as they are technologically-complex systems that can diverge from intuitive patterns. To assure energy justice, these models must be reflective of, and informative to, a wide range of stakeholders, including households and communities alongside utilities, governments, and others. Yet, moving from a qualitative understanding of pref erences to quantitative modeling is challenging. In this perspective piece, we pilot the use of the value-focused thinking framework to inform stakeholder engagement. The result is a strategic objective hierarchy that highlights the tradeoffs and the social, economic and technological factors that need to be measured in models. We apply the process in Ghana, using a survey, stakeholder workshops, and follow-up interviews to uncover key tradeoffs and stakeholder-derived ob jectives. We discuss three key areas that have been rarely, if ever, well-represented in energy models: (1) the relationship between the dynamics of electricity end-use and the technology and economic structure of the system; (2) explicit tradeoffs between electricity access, cost, and reliability as defined by stakeholders; and (3) the definition of new objectives, such as minimizing hazards related to theft. We conclude that this model of engagement provides an opportunity to tie together rigorous qualitative analysis and stakeholder engagement with crucial quantitative models of the electricity system.

Source: UG
Who is telling the story? A systematic review of authorship for infectious disease research conducted in Africa, 1980–2016

Africa contributes little to the biomedical literature despite its high burden of infectious diseases. Global health research partnerships aimed at addressing Africa-endemic disease may be polarised. Therefore, we assessed the contribution of researchers in Africa to research on six infectious diseases. Methods We reviewed publications on HIV and malaria (2013–2016), tuberculosis (2014–2016), salmonellosis, Ebola haemorrhagic fever and Buruli ulcer disease (1980– 2016) conducted in Africa and indexed in the PubMed database using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol. Papers reporting original research done in Africa with at least one laboratory test performed on biological samples were included. We studied African author proportion and placement per study type, disease, funding, study country and lingua franca. Results We included 1182 of 2871 retrieved articles that met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 1109 (93.2%) had at least one Africa-based author, 552 (49.8%) had an African first author and 41.3% (n=458) an African last author. Papers on salmonellosis and tuberculosis had a higher proportion of African last authors (p<0.001) compared with the other diseases. Most of African first and last authors had an affiliation from an Anglophone country. HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and Ebola had the most extramurally funded studies (≥70%), but less than 10% of the acknowledged funding was from an African funder. Conclusion African researchers are under-represented in first and last authorship positions in papers published from research done in Africa. This calls for greater investment in capacity building and equitable research partnerships at every level of the global health community

Source: UG
Who is this ignorant soldier boy?: A postcolonial reading of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Sozaboy

This paper is an attempt at a postcolonial reading of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s novel, Sozaboy, which in the author’s words is written in “’rotten English’, a mixture of Nigerian pidgin English, broken English and occasional flashes of good, even idiomatic English” (Author’s Note, Sozaboy, 1994). In this piece, I identify Saro-Wiwa’s novel as an indifferent account of the historical happening in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. I also consider the characterization of Mene (herein referred to as Sozaboy) as a deliberate attempt to re-create history from the point of view of a partisan judge, the author. My reason for these strong views is foregrounded in the inherent and perennial struggle for relevance by perceived minority ethnic groups of Nigeria brought under the control of three main or dominant groups by a colonial fiat through Lord Lugard in 1914. The three major groups identified by their languages are: Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo. Nigeria, being a country of as many as two hundred and fifty ethnic groups, is currently credited with a population of about 170 million people and regarded as the most populous black nation on earth. This paper also considers the role of colonization and the discovery of oil in the Niger Delta area of the country towards the end of colonial rule as major factors that contributed to the struggle for supremacy among the people of Nigeria in the early years of independence. It also examines the incursion of the military into governance of the newly-independent state as a catalyst for internal struggle, political instability, corruption, mutual hatred and wanton destruction of life and property that the new country witnessed in the early years, leading unavoidably to the civil war, otherwise known as Nigeria-Biafra War. I conclude that Sozaboy is not a true canon for the postcolonial rendition of Nigeria’s history, and if it must be considered for its “anti-war” flavours, there is need to make it walk alongside other ‘reliable’ fictional accounts of events of that era.

Source: UG
Who is utilizing anti-retroviral therapy in Ghana: An analysis of ART service utilization

Abstract Introduction The global scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV patients has led to concerns regarding inequities in utilization of ART services in resource-limited contexts. In this paper, we describe regional and sex differentials in the distribution of ART among adult HIV patients in Ghana. We highlight the need for interventions to address the gender-based and geographic inequities related to the utilization of ART services in Ghana. Methods We reviewed National AIDS/STIs Control Program&#8217;s ART service provision records from January 2003 through December 2010, extracting data on adults aged 15+ who initiated ART in Ghana over a period of eight years. Data on the number of patients on treatment, year of enrollment, sex, and region were obtained and compared. Results The number of HIV patients receiving ART in Ghana increased more than 200-fold from 197 in 2003, to over 45,000 in 2010. However, for each of six continuous years (2005-2010) males comprised approximately one-third of adults newly enrolled on ART. As ART coverage has expanded in Ghana, the proportion of males receiving ART declined from 41.7% in 2004 to 30.1% in 2008 and to 27.6% in 2010. Also, there is disproportionate regional ART utilization across the country. Some regions report ART enrollment lower than their percent share of number of HIV infected persons in the country. Conclusions Attention to the comparatively fewer males initiating ART, as well as disproportionate regional ART utilization is urgently needed. All forms of gender-based inequities in relation to HIV care must be addressed in order for Ghana to realize successful outcomes at the population level. Policy makers in Ghana and elsewhere need to understand how gender-based health inequities in relation to HIV care affect both men and women and begin to design appropriate interventions.

Source: UG
Who is utilizing anti-retroviral therapy in Ghana: an analysis of ART service utilization.

INTRODUCTION: The global scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV patients has led to concerns regarding inequities in utilization of ART services in resource-limited contexts. In this paper, we describe regional and sex differentials in the distribution of ART among adult HIV patients in Ghana. We highlight the need for interventions to address the gender-based and geographic inequities related to the utilization of ART services in Ghana. METHODS: We reviewed National AIDS/STIs Control Program's ART service provision records from January 2003 through December 2010, extracting data on adults aged 15+ who initiated ART in Ghana over a period of eight years. Data on the number of patients on treatment, year of enrollment, sex, and region were obtained and compared. RESULTS: The number of HIV patients receiving ART in Ghana increased more than 200-fold from 197 in 2003, to over 45,000 in 2010. However, for each of six continuous years (2005-2010) males comprised approximately one-third of adults newly enrolled on ART. As ART coverage has expanded in Ghana, the proportion of males receiving ART declined from 41.7% in 2004 to 30.1% in 2008 and to 27.6% in 2010. Also, there is disproportionate regional ART utilization across the country. Some regions report ART enrollment lower than their percent share of number of HIV infected persons in the country. CONCLUSIONS: Attention to the comparatively fewer males initiating ART, as well as disproportionate regional ART utilization is urgently needed. All forms of gender-based inequities in relation to HIV care must be addressed in order for Ghana to realize successful outcomes at the population level. Policy makers in Ghana and elsewhere need to understand how gender-based health inequities in relation to HIV care affect both men and women and begin to design appropriate interventions.

Source: UG
“Who Knows, You May Overpower Him”: Narratives and Experiences of Masculinities Among the Dagaaba Youth of Northwestern Ghana

This article focuses broadly on how young men construct, negotiate, and express masculine identities in northwestern Ghana. Situated within discourses of ruling masculinity, and drawing on qualitative interviews, this article provides locally grounded insights about how young men articulate and make themselves visible by negotiating and renegotiating the interplay of complex struggles and realities to maintain dominance over peers. Findings suggest that dominant norms on the meanings of being a young Dagaaba man entail ambivalences, status insecurity, contradictory desires, and an investment to always act in satisfaction of the observer’s gaze. The danger of being looked down on emerges as an important organizing framework that shapes participants’ engagement in discursive and exaggerated behaviors and violence. Consequently, young men engage in dramatic performances and public displays to further authenticate their manhood, which provokes and authorizes young men to mask their feelings of vulnerability. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Source: UG