ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Systematic review of the effects of agricultural interventions on food security in northern Ghana

Background Food insecurity and poverty rates in Ghana are highest in the districts from latitude 8˚ N upwards. These have motivated several interventions aimed at addressing the food insecurity via promoting agricultural growth. An assessment of the overall impact of these interventions on food security is necessary to guide policy design and future interventions. Methods and findings A systematic review was used to assess the cumulative evidence of the effect of development interventions, implemented from 2006 to 2016 on food security, especially in Northern Ghana. Information were retrieved from over 20 Government and non-Governmental organisations through online search and actual visits. The number of studies included in systematic review was 22. The study showed that a large number of interventions have been implemented in Northern Ghana over the study period. Access to quality extension services, training and capacity building was a major intervention strategy. About 82% of studies considered increasing production but only 14% of the studies reported on changes in yield. About 42% of the included studies used market access as a strategy but about 44% reported increase in incomes of beneficiaries (with only seven studies providing numerical evidence for this claim). The ranking of frequency of intervention strategies was in the order extension and capacity building>production>postharvest value addition>water and irrigation facilities>storage facilities>input supply. A substantial number of the studies had no counterfactuals, weakening confidence in attributing impacts on food security for even the beneficiaries. Conclusions It is concluded that evidence for impacts of the interventions on food security was weak, or largely assumed. A logical recommendation is the need for development partners to synchronise their measurement and indicators of food security outcomes. It is also recommended that some food security indicators are explicitly incorporated into intervention design while bearing in mind the potential need for counterfactuals

Source: UCC
Systematic review of the effects of agricultural interventions on food security in Northern Ghana

Background Food insecurity and poverty rates in Ghana are highest in the districts from latitude 8˚N upwards. These have motivated several interventions aimed at addressing the food insecurity via promoting agricultural growth. An assessment of the overall impact of these interventions on food security is necessary to guide policy design and future interventions. Methods and findings A systematic review was used to assess the cumulative evidence of the effect of development interventions, implemented from 2006 to 2016 on food security, especially in Northern Ghana. Information were retrieved from over20 Government and non-Governmental organizations through online search and actual visits. The number of studies included in systematic review was 22.The study showed that a large number of interventions have been implemented in Northern Ghana over the study period. Access to quality extension services, training and capacity building was a major intervention strategy. About 82% of studies considered increasing production but only 14% of the studies reported on changes in yield. About 42% of the included studies used market access as a strategy but about 44% reported increase in incomes of beneficiaries (with only seven studies providing numerical evidence for this claim).The ranking of frequency of intervention strategies was in the order extension and capacity building >production>post-harvest value addition>water and irrigation facilities storage facilities input supply. A substantial number of the studies had no Counterfactuals, weakening confidence in attributing impacts on food security for even the Beneficiaries Conclusions It is concluded that evidence for impacts of the interventions on food security was weak, or largely assumed. A logical recommendation is the need for development partners to synchronize their measurement and indicators of food security outcomes. It is also recommended that some food security indicators are explicitly incorporated into intervention design while bearing in mind the potential need for counterfactuals

Source: UCC
A Systematic Review of the Mental Health of Orphans and Vulnerable Children within the Context of HIV/AIDS in Africa

Global information on the HIV/AIDS epidemic indicates the existence of an ever-increasing number of orphans and vulnerable children. It has been suggested that by the end of 2020 there will be more than 25 million AIDS orphans globally. However, there is a scarcity of reliable empirical data on the mental health of orphans and vulnerable children in the context of HIV/AIDS epidemic. This systematic review provides a synthesis of empirical findings related to mental Health of Orphans and Vulnerable Children within the context of HIV/AIDS in developing countries. A bibliographic database using keywords of the research area was searched on various databases, including Medline, PsychINFO and PsycARTICLES from 1980 to 2013. Twenty-eight (28) empirical quantitative studies were identified which addressed the mental health challenges of HIV AIDS orphans and vulnerable children. The studies are mainly cross- sectional with few longitudinal. Standardized measures were used in all of the studies reviewed. Findings show that, in the context of HIV/AIDS, children are found to suffer anxiety, worrying and fear during parental infection and to express trauma and grief after parental death. Compared to other children, orphans were observed to be more depressed, anxious, and less optimistic and to display angry feelings and disruptive behaviours. There is an urgent need for rigorous, research into mental health, and risk and protective factors for children affected by AIDS. The review findings also highlighted the need for an evidence-based, coordinated approach, interventions to promote the mental health of these children.

Source: UCC
A Systematic Review of the Mental Health of Orphans and Vulnerable Children within the Context of HIV/AIDS in Africa International Journal of Psychiatry Corresponding author

Global information on the HIV/AIDS epidemic indicates the existence of an ever-increasing number of orphans and vulnerable children. It has been suggested that by the end of 2020 there will be more than 25 million AIDS orphans globally. However, there is a scarcity of reliable empirical data on the mental health of orphans and vulnerable children in the context of HIV/AIDS epidemic. This systematic review provides a synthesis of empirical findings related to mental Health of Orphans and Vulnerable Children within the context of HIV/AIDS in developing countries. A bibliographic database using keywords of the research area was searched on various databases, including Medline, PsychINFO and PsycARTICLES from 1980 to 2013. Twenty-eight (28) empirical quantitative studies were identified which addressed the mental health challenges of HIV AIDS orphans and vulnerable children. The studies are mainly cross- sectional with few longitudinal. Standardized measures were used in all of the studies reviewed. Findings show that, in the context of HIV/AIDS, children are found to suffer anxiety, worrying and fear during parental infection and to express trauma and grief after parental death. Compared to other children, orphans were observed to be more depressed, anxious, and less optimistic and to display angry feelings and disruptive behaviours. There is an urgent need for rigorous, research into mental health, and risk and protective factors for children affected by AIDS. The review findings also highlighted the need for an evidence-based, coordinated approach, interventions to promote the mental health of these children.

Source: UCC
A systems dynamics approach to explore traffic congestion and air pollution link in the city of Accra, Ghana

Economic development and urbanization poses myriad challenges to transportation systems in relation to negative externalities such as traffic congestion and environmental health risks. Accra, the capital of Ghana, faces mounting urban planning problems, for example traffic congestion, air pollution, traffic safety, and land use planning, among others. The paper aims to provide a system dynamics perspective of the problems. Most of the drivers and cause-effect relationships of traffic congestion and its attendant air pollution are investigated and analyzed using causal loop diagrams. The paper further suggests mechanisms by which the negative externalities associated with road transport in the city of Accra can be addressed

Source: UCC
A systems level based model for identifying potential taargets targets associated with influenza a infection

Developing therapeutics for infectious diseases requires understanding the main processes driving host and pathogen through which molecular interactions influence cellular functions. The outcome of those infectious diseases, including influenza A (IAV) depends greatly on how the host responds to the virus and how the virus manipulates the host, which is facilitated by protein-protein functional inter-actions and analyzing infection associated genes at the systems level, which may enable us to characterize specific molecular mechanisms which allow the virus of influenza A strains H1N1 and H3N2 to persist and survive inside the host. The system level analysis based on experimental and computational approaches was used to predict human protein-protein functional inter-actions. This human proteinprotein functional interaction is a graph consisting of nodes which are proteins, and links joining them. Using this graph, we analyse topological properties of this human protein-protein functional interactions, identify candidate proteins using centrality measures and a map set of IAV infection associated proteins to elucidate genes related to IAV infection and identify essential dense sub-graphs underlying IAV infection outcome. We performed functional closeness and enrichment analyses to identify statistically and biologically significant processes and pathways implicated in IAV infection. These IAV infection associated proteins have shown to be relevant for further research towards new drugs and vaccine development. This study enhances our understanding on the interplay between influenza A and its host and may contribute to the process of designing novel drugs.

Source: UCC
T cell-derived leptin contributes to increased frequency of T helper type 17 cells in female patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis

Leptin modulates T cell function and plays an important role in autoim- mune diseases. Our study aimed to explore the role of leptin and T helper type 17 (Th17) cells in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients. Twenty-seven patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) and 20 healthy controls were enrolled into the current study. A modest increase of plasma leptin in HT patients and the CD4+ T cell-derived leptin from HT patients was stronger than that from healthy controls. In HT patients, there are no statistically sig- nificant correlations between plasma leptin concentrations and the percent- age of Th17 cells or the level of retinoic acid-related orphan receptor gt (RORgt), but strong positive correlations were observed between CD4+ T cell-derived leptin and the percentage of Th17 cells or the level of RORgt mRNA, and additionally significantly up-regulated leptin, interleukin (IL)17 and RORgt mRNA levels in the thyroid tissue. Furthermore, neutralization of leptin decreases the frequency of Th17 cells in vitro. Current study has revealed an increased leptin involvment in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis associ- ated with an increased number of Th17 cells.

Source: UCC
Tackling traffic congestion in Accra, Ghana: A road user’s perspective

A fast emerging component of the urban transportation problem in cities of the Third World is the problem of traffic congestion. Rapid increases in car ownership coupled with poor land use planning, equate road space lack of regulated parking systems, uneducated use of the road by pedestrians, and bad driving behavior of motorists have all combined to produce congestions comparable to those experienced in cities in the advanced parts of the world. Traffic management measures have been tried in some of the major cities such as road expansion and redistribution of land uses in city centers, but most have produced minimal results. It is recommended in this paper that city authorities adopt an integrated approach to congestion with emphasis on influencing the behavior of the road users.

Source: UCC
Taking education for all goals in sub-Saharan Africa to task: What’s the story so far and what is needed now?

In many sub-Saharan African countries, the endorsement of the 1990 Education for All (EFA) and the 2000 Millennium Development Goals agreements have resulted in the introduction of ‘fee-free’ education policies in recent time. Yet, in 2015 it is becoming unlikely that education for all will be attained, as it has not been achieved through previous pledges. Using a ‘processual analytical approach’, this paper examines literature from disparate sources to exemplify challenges faced by countries in the sub-region in their attempt at getting children from disadvantaged communities to enrol in primary education. In the process, the paper contends that ‘new’ research is needed to examine how political imperatives and democratic processes impinge on implementation of EFA policy initiatives in the sub-region. This endeavour, the paper argues, is necessary to unearth the commitment, progress and constraints of sub-Saharan African governments (as well as commitment of international donor countries and agencies to helping the sub-region) towards meeting the EFA goals.

Source: UCC
Taking the long view: temporal considerations in the ethics of children's research activity and knowledge production

Children are increasingly engaged in the research rocess as generators of knowledge, but little is known about the impacts on children’s lives, especially in the longer term. As art of a study on children’s mobility in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa, 70 child researchers received training to conduct peer research in their own communities. Evaluations at the time of the project suggested largely positive impacts on the child researchers: increased confidence, acquisition of useful skills and expanded social networks; however, in some cases, these were tempered with concerns about the effect on schoolwork. In the follow-up interviews 2 years later, several young Ghanaian researchers reported tangible enefits from the research activity for academic work and seeking employment, while negative impacts were largely forgotten. This study highlights the unforeseeable consequences of research articipation on children’s lives as they unfold in unpredictable ways and underscores the temporal nature of children’s engagement in research

Source: UCC
A tale of two distal demonstratives in Dagaare: Reflections on directionality principles in grammaticalisation

For the past half century, the versatile nature of demonstratives across languages has increasingly attracted attention in language typology. The present study contributes to this research agenda by examining the grammaticalisation pathways of two distal demonstratives in the Lobr dialect of Dagaare (Niger-Congo: Gur), namely, nɛ, an adnominal demonstrative, and lɛ, a pronominal demonstrative. The analysis reveals that the adnominal demonstrative nɛ first got reanalyzed as an identifying copula verb and, subsequently fused with third person pronouns, ʋ and a, to derive identifying pronouns, nʋ and na respectively. Further, the identifying pronouns nʋ and na fused with the attributive copula ι to derive the focus particle nι. The identifying pronoun na has also been reanalysed into an affirmative final particle. On the other hand, the pronominal demonstrative lɛ first developed into a scalar demonstrative determiner and then into an intensifier. Subsequently, the scalar demonstrative determiner evolved into a copula, which fused with third person pronouns ʋ, a and bɛ to derive the emphatic counterparts of these pronouns, comprising ʋlɛ, alɛ and bɛlɛ respectively. These are further cliticized and have evolved into adnominal demonstratives and then postnominal focus particles. These grammaticalisation trajectories contribute to a finer-grained and richer account of the diachrony and typology of demonstratives, including the substantivizing role of morphophonemic fusion on the development of grammaticalisation chains

Source: UCC
Talent Management and Employee Creativity of Administrative Staff at the University of Cape Coast

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to examine the influence of influence of talent management on employee creativity at the University of Cape Coast. There were four main specific objectives, among them were to examine the effect of talent attraction on employee creativity at the University of Cape Coast; assess the effect of talent development on employee creativity at the University of Cape Coast; establish the influence of the relationship between talent retention and employee creativity and determine the influence of the three dimensions of talent management on employee creativity at the University of Cape Coast. The study sought to draw evidence from 269 employees from the study area, however, only 249 were deemed usable for the study. It was a quantitative study with self-administered questionnaire as the main research instrument. The results from the survey were analysed with the help of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS v26.0). The independent constructs for talent management were: Talent Attraction, Talent Development and Talent Retention. The dependent construct was Employee Creativity. In a nutshell, the study results indicated that all the independent constructs (Talent Attraction, Talent Development and Talent Retention) had positive influence on Employee Creativity. The study therefore recommended that management of the University of Cape Coast should work on determining the skills that the institution requires to apply the recruitment and attracting strategies, using the internal employee referral programs widely to bring in new employees, and as well design a more practical hiring system and take into consideration the “quality of hire”

Source: UCC
Talent Management And Organisational Performance At The Cocoa Health And Extension Division In Kumasi, Ghana

The study examined the influence of talent management on the performance of Cocoa Health and Extension Division of Ghana Cocoa Board, Kumasi. Specifically, three (3) research objectives were investigated, to: assess the level of talent management practices from the perspective of employees; assess the employee perspective on the level of organisational performance; and analyse the effect of talent management on organisational performance. The study adopted the positivism philosophy thus relying on the quantitative approach and descriptive correlational design. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 217 sampled employees of the organisation. The data was then processed using the IBM SPSS Statistics (version 26) software. Both descriptive (means and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (multiple regression) were used to address objectives in the study. The study found talent attraction and recruitment, talent motivation, talent development and talent retention as the dimensions of talent management used in the organisation. The study also found high levels of organisational performance at the Cocoa Health and Extension Division of Ghana Cocoa Board. The study finally found that talent management through the dimensions had significant positive effect on performance of Cocoa Health and Extension Division of Ghana Cocoa Board. The study therefore recommends that management should engage in career progression, and development and creating an atmosphere of mutual trust among employees in order to strengthen talent management.

Source: UCC
Talent Management and Organisational Performance of Telecommunication Firms in Ghana: the Moderating Effects of Demographic Variables

Ghana in recent times has recorded an increase in the number of multinational companies due to the relative stable nature of the Ghanaian political environment. The presence of these multinational companies continue to put pressure on firms to put in strategies to be able to manage their talents in order not to lose these talents to other firms. This has therefore, necessitated the need for research work to examine the linkage between talent management and organisational performance. The current study therefore, examines talent management strategies and organisational performance. Using the mixed approach, data was collected using questionaire and interview guide. Out of a total population of 514 a sample size of 384 was used for the study. SMART PLS-SEM was used to model the relationship between talent management strategies and organisational performance and the moderating roles of age, gender and job level. Amongst the six talent management strategies employed in the study, three were found to predict organisanisational performance. However, age, gender and job level were found not to moderate the relationship between talent management and organisational performance. The study therefore, concludes that for organisations to record increases in their performance they must engage in performance mangement, succession planning and talent retention practices. Organisations cannot achieve it goals or output may increase or decline depending on how they manage age, gender and job level. It therefore, recommends that managers prioritize succession planning and talent retention. Because these aspects of talent management strategy contribute more to organisational performance of telcos in Ghana.

Source: UCC
Talent Management and Sustainable Organisational Growth: The Role of Organisational Climate at the St. Francis Xavier Hospital, Assin Foso

The aim of this study was to examine talent management and sustainable organisational growth: the role of organisational climate at the St. Francis Xavier hospital, Assin Foso, Ghana. There were three main specific objectives, among them were to assess the influence of dimensions of talent management on sustainable organisational growth of staff at St. Francis Xavier hospital; organisational climate on sustainable organisational growth of staff at St. Francis Xavier hospital and the mediating role of organisational climate on talent management and organisational sustainable growth nexus staff. The study was based on the views of One Hundred and Fifty-Four (154) nurses and administrators from the study area. It was a quantitative study with self-administered questionnaire as the main research instrument. The results from the survey were processed with the help of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS v26.0) and the Smart PLS 3 (v 3.3.8) software. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) was the main multivariate statistical analysis technique used in the study. The independent constructs were: talent acquisition, talent development and talent retention. The mediating variable was organisational climate. The dependent construct was sustainable organisational growth. The results of the study concluded that employees are able to improve more on sustainable organisational growth when the required organisational climate is provided. The study therefore recommended that, the leadership at the St. Francis Xavier Hospital put mechanisms in place which allow employees to experience an innovation supportive climate.

Source: UCC