Browsing by Subject "Africa"
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Item A Review Of Food-Based Dietary Guidelines In Africa: Opportunities To Enhance The Healthiness And Environmental Sustainability Of Population Diets(African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, 2022) Ainuson-Quampah, J.; Aryeetey, R.; Amuna, N.N.; Holdsworth, M.Food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) are important tools for promoting healthy eating and nutrition education at the population level. Currently, more than 100 countries worldwide have developed FBDGs with the majority of existing FBDGs in high-income countries. However, there are a few countries in Africa which have developed FBDGs. This review describes and compares the characteristics of existing FBDGs in Africa. Data were extracted from all existing FBDGs from African countries which have been archived in the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) online repository of FBDGs. In addition, supporting documentation from other sources linked to the identified FBDGs was also reviewed. Extracted data were coded and synthesized to describe the purpose of the FBDGs, the process for developing the FBDGs, and how healthy diets were expressed in the FBDGs. In addition, the FBDGs were examined for content on considerations for planetary health, and non-dietary recommendations. A checklist was used to extract the evidence in the identified documents. Of the 47 African countries in the WHO Africa region, only eight FBDGs were identified from seven countries. South Africa had two FBDGs (including an FBDG for young children). Multi-disciplinary technical working groups were convened to develop the majority of the FBDGs. The working groups utilized scientific evidence on diet-related diseases and nutrient requirements as a basis for recommendations. All the FBDGs were intended as a tool for promoting healthy diets among the lay population. The FBDGs that were reviewed included between six and sixteen dietary messages. Diet diversification was promoted as the most common recommendation across African country FBDGs. The recommendations often promoted consumption of four to six food groups communicated using text as well as images (food guide). Local availability and cultural acceptability were important values promoted as part of an optimal diet in some of the countries. However, none of the recommendations addressed environmental sustainability. Apart from South Africa, none of the FBDGs had been evaluated or revised. Across Africa, there is a need for increased focus on developing new FBDGs or revising existing ones as a tool for meeting the dietary information needs of populations at risk of malnutrition in all its forms.Item Access to mobile phones and the wellbeing of non-farm enterprise households: Evidence from Ghana(Technology in Society, 2018-08) Danquah, M.; Iddrisu, A.M.In this paper, we use the sixth round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 6) and robust methods to examine the access to mobile phones and wellbeing of non-farm enterprise households in Ghana. The findings of the study show that having access to a mobile phone improves the chances of being non-poor. With regards to the transmission channel, the results show that access to mobile phones is positive and significantly related with the revenues of nonfarm enterprises, suggesting that having mobile phones may expedite the business activities of nonfarm enterprises and thus leads to higher sales revenues. Finally, the locality disaggregated estimations of the effect of access to mobile phones on non-farm household wellbeing indicate that the significant positive effect of access to mobile phones on household wellbeing seems to be the case only among rural nonfarm enterprise households with urban nonfarm enterprise households' wellbeing not reliant on their access to mobile phones. However, having access to mobile phones improves the sales revenue of nonfarm enterprises in both rural and urban areas.Item An Account of the Gold Coast of Africa with a Brief History of the African Company(Longman. Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, Paternoster Row, 1812) Meredith, H.Item Accounting for the transitions after entrepreneurial business failure:An emerging market perspective(Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2019-06-25) Hinson, R.E.; Amankwah-Amoah, J.; Honyenuga, B.; Lu, Y.This study builds on prior scholarly works on institutions and entrepreneurship by examining the process of transitions and institutional obstacles that force serial entrepreneurs’ shift to operate in the formal or informal sector after entrepreneurial business failures. Using insights from 32 serial entrepreneurs in Ghana, a framework was developed and utilized to explicate how the pull and push motivations for the transition into or persisting with formality or informality after business failure unfolds over time.Our analysis sheds light on the processes and effects of the motivations on the persistently high level of entrepreneurial activities in the informal sector for many emerging economies.Item Accreditation Improves Quality of Oncology Education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Perspectives of African Oncologists(Journal of Cancer Education, 2019-02) Hammad, N.; Stockley, D.; Hastings-Truelove, A.; Vanderpuye, V.; Rubagumya, F.; Caruso, T.The purpose of this study is to understand the perspectives of African Oncologists on the role of accreditation and on global standards. We developed a survey that addressed African oncologists’ opinions on the role of accreditation. The survey also included 187 standards from World Federation of Medical Education Postgraduate medical education (PGME) standards, American Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-I standards for hematology/oncology, and the Royal College of Physician and Surgeons of Canada Medical Oncology standards. A 3-point scale was employed for each standard: 1 = not important, 2 = important but not essential, 3 = essential. The survey was sent to 79 physicians, 38 responded. Eighty-seven percent agreed that accreditation ensures quality. Forty-five percent agreed it will not increase migration of qualified doctors. Twenty-two individuals who completed the entire survey were analyzed for the standards. Five standards received the highest ratings of 3 (essential) from all respondents. One standard received a rating of < 2.0. The majority of standards had ratings between 2.6 and 2.94 indicating African oncologists found most standards to be useful. Ratings < 2.6 were mostly related to resource constraints. Most African Oncologists believed that accreditation ensures quality of education, and most standards were considered important. This data is useful for developing and adapting accreditation standards in resource-constrained settings. © 2019, American Association for Cancer Education.Item Adaptation Opportunities And Maladaptive Outcomes In Climate Vulnerability Hotspots Of Northern Ghana(ScienceDirect (Climate Risk Management), 2017-11-27) Antwi-Agyei, P.; Dougill, A.J.; Stringer, L.C.; Codjoe, S.N.A.How climate change adaptation practices can constrain development and deliver maladaptive outcomes in vulnerability hotspots is yet to be explored in-depth using case study analyses. This paper explores the effects of climate change coping and adaptation responses in three case study villages across the Central Gonja district of northern Ghana. The study addresses the following research questions: i) What are the key climatic and non-climatic stressors confronting households in northern Ghanaian communities? ii) How are households adapting to climatic and nonclimatic stressors? and iii) What are the outcomes of these coping and adaptation responses on development? The study employs a mixed-method approach including key informant interviews, focus group discussions and household questionnaire surveys. Data identified socioeconomic stressors including a lack of access to (and high cost of) farm inputs, labour shortages and population growth. Climatic stressors include erratic rainfall, high temperature, droughts and floods. Climatic and non-climatic stressors interact to affect agricultural practices and related livelihoods. The study identified various adaptation measures including extensification and intensification of agriculture, temporary migration, planting of drought resistant varieties, irrigation, and livelihood diversification. We show that many coping measures (e.g. livelihood diversifications activities such as selling of firewood and charcoal production) and adaptation responses (including intensification, extensification and irrigation) currently deliver maladaptive outcomes, resulting in lock-ins that could exacerbate future climate vulnerabilities. The paper contributes to the growing literature on adaptation and climate risk management by providing empirical evidence showing how coping and adaptations measures can deliver maladaptive outcomes in vulnerable communities.Item Additions and corrections to the bryophyte flora of Ghana, including a new species of Cololejeunea (Spruce) Schiffn. (Lejeuneaceae, Marchantiophyta)(Taylor & Francis Group, 2021) Hodgetts, N.G.; Ameka, G.; Agyei, R.; Dankwah, C.Introduction. The bryophytes of Ghana are under-recorded, but the country has several important and relatively extensive examples of West African forest likely to support an interesting flora. Of these, Atewa Forest was targeted for survey in 2014, resulting in many records, including 58 taxa new to Ghana. This paper reports the results of further fieldwork, both in Atewa and elsewhere, in 2017, and makes some necessary additions and amendments to previously published data. Methods. Bryophyte fieldwork was carried out in key forest sites in southern Ghana during November 2017, and was followed by targeted herbarium studies. Key results. A new species, Cololejeunea ankasica, is described, and a new site for the rare Ghanaian endemic C. calcarata reported; a further 27 taxa new to Ghana are recorded, and amendments made to previously published information. Conclusions. This study shows that even lowland areas of remaining forest in Ghana are bryologically interesting and that bryophytes are an important but still under-recorded part of Ghana’s biodiversity. It also strengthens the case for National Park status for Atewa Forest, which remains the only known site in Ghana for many species characteristic of higher altitude forest.Item Addressing Africa’s outrageous neurosurgeons deficit: what could the problem be?(2023) Tenkorang, P. O.; Wireko, A. A.; Lian, D.; et al.Item Addressing the Problem of Political Vigilantism in Ghana through the Conceptual Lens of Wicked Problems(Journal of Asian and African Studies, 2019-11-26) Asamoah, K.Ghana entered into the Fourth Republic in 1993 after experiencing political instability over two decades. A defining feature that has characterized the Fourth Republic of Ghana and marred Ghana’s democratic credentials is the emergence of political vigilantism. Political vigilantism has basically been perpetuated by the two leading political parties in Ghana: the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Party. The major political actors in the political system of Ghana continue to express the debilitating effects of political vigilantism on Ghana’s democratic advancement, nevertheless, it continues to persist in monumental proportion in our political dispensation. Using a qualitative research approach, the paper examines the factors responsible for the pervasiveness of political vigilantism under the Fourth Republic of Ghana and proffer some plausible solutions to address this political canker.Item The adherence of five nursing schools in Africa to regional educational standards: An evaluation report(Africa Journal of Nursing and Midwifery, 2007) Mtshali, N.; Uys, L.; Kamanzi, D.; Kohi, T.; Opare, M.Background: Programme review has been used to evaluate and formulate conclusions about the strengths and effectiveness of programmes. This article presents findings of the internal and external programme reviews which were conducted in five nursing schools in the African region. These reviews were guided by educational standards developed by the three World Health Organisation Collaborating Centres for Nursing and Midwifery Development in Africa with the support of the World Health Organisation African Regional Office. Objectives: To establish the adherence of five nursing schools in Africa to regional educational standards. Methods: In-depth case analysis was conducted, with each school forming a case. Data sources were all stakeholders and data were collected through interviews, focus groups, document analysis and observations. Results: The results reflected diversity in educational programmes and adherence to some of the educational standards. The educational programmes were striving to address the needs of the respective societies; curricula were coherent, with significant clinical exposure; there were productive international partnerships from which schools benefited significantly; and stakeholders were involved in addressing problems related to education and training. Weaknesses included inadequate teaching resources, a limited pool of suitably qualified academic staff, a lack of adequately prepared mentors and role models in the clinical areas; as well as a lack of specialist training and limited options within programmes if graduates wanted to specialise in certain areas.Item Adherence To Anti-Retro-Viral Treatment (Arv) Among People Living With HIV/AIDS In Montserrado County, Liberia(University of Ghana, 2017-07) Pewu, I.P.Though antiretroviral treatment (ARV) is known to be helpful to people living with HIV (PLHIV) globally, knowledge gaps in relation to adherence to ARV treatment among PLHIV do exist in Liberia. Thus, the aim of the study was to assess adherence to ARV treatment among PLHIV in Liberia. A cross-sectional study was done in 2016 among Liberian HIV-positive individuals receiving antiretroviral treatment. A sample size of 270 was calculated using two-stage sampling (first by strata, and then by simple random sampling in each stratum. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to participants. Participants were considered highly adherent if they reported following their medication per prescription by health providers. Reasons for non-adherence to ARV treatment were recorded while logistic regression modeling was developed using significant factors influencing non-adherence to ARV treatment. There were no significant differences between highly adherent and less adherent patients with regard to age, education and employment status. Reasons associated with high non-adherence were unavailability of drugs, side effects, busy work schedule and travels, no money for transportation to collect drugs, funerals and others. Non-adherence to ARV treatment was higher in respondents within the age range 20-35 years. Educated respondents was higher in non-adhering to treatment as compared to non-educated. From the logistic model developed, non-adherence was more likely among patients with multiple pills (pills burden), difficulty in remembering medication time and side effects. However, adherence was more likely among patients who experience short stay at the health care center as well as patients who view ART medication as easy. Despite the importance of ARV treatment to PLHIV, the study revealed high level of non-adherence among HIV patients in Liberia. Regarding reasons provided for non-adherence, some recommendations for promoting adherence to ARV treatment in Liberia include continuous counseling by trained counselors should be carried out at all times when patients visit the hospital for medication.Item Adversity or Opportunity? Exploring the Effect of COVID-19 on Ghana’s Informal Economy(2021) Anku-Tsede, O.; Arthur, R.This study purported to explore the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the informal sector in Ghana. Particularly, the study sought to explore the nature of adversity, opportunities arising from the pandemic and remedial measures. The study adopted a mixed method and used a sample of 186 small-scale business owners and operators. The study found that the major driver of people into the informal sector were the lack of job opportunities in the formal sector rather than the need to evade government regulations. The adverse effects of the pandemic on informal businesses included lowered sales, shortage of supplies and closure of businesses. However, there were opportunities for informal businesses propelled by business diversification and technology. The study recommended the need for government to support and protect the informal sector to enhance mutual revenue generation amidst this pandemic.Item Aetiology of heart failure as seen from a National Cardiac Referral Centre in Africa(Cardiology, 2000) Amoah, A.G.; Kallen, C.572 consecutive patients with heart failure referred to the National Cardiothoracic Centre, Accra, Ghana, over a 4-year period were evaluated for the aetiology of heart failure using two-dimensional Doppler echocardiography with colour flow. The mean age of the subjects with heart failure was 42.3 ± 0.9 years. The male to female ratio was 1.2:1.0. Combined heart failure was seen in 50.5% of subjects. Peak incidence of heart failure occurred in the 5th decade. The main causes of heart failure were hypertension (21.3%; n = 122), rheumatic heart disease (20.1%; n = 115) and cardiomyopathy (16.8%; n = 96). Congenital heart disease and coronary artery disease accounted for 9.8 and 10% of cases, respectively. The commonest rheumatic valvular lesion was mitral regurgitation (78%). Dilated cardiomyopathy was the commonest form of idiopathic cardiomyopathy (67.7%; n = 65). Endomyocardial fibrosis and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy accounted for 22.9% (n = 22) and 9.4% (n = 9), respectively, of cardiomyopathies.Item Africa(Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Part B: Regional Aspects: Working Group II Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2015-01) Niang, I.; Ruppel, O.C.; Abdrabo, M.A.; Essel, A.; Lennard, C.; Padgham, J.; Urquhart, P.Africa as a whole is one of the most vulnerable continents due to its high exposure and low adaptive capacity. Given that climatic and ecological regions transcend national political boundaries, we have used the divisions of Africa's Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to structure the assessment within this chapter. 22.1.1. Structure of the Regions. The African continent (including Madagascar) is the world's second largest and most populous continent (1,031,084,000 in 2010) behind Asia (UN DESA Population Division, 2013). The continent is organized at the regional level under the African Union (AU). The AU's Assembly of Heads of State and Government has officially recognized eight RECs (Ruppel, 2009). Except for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, all AU member states are affiliated with one or more of these RECs. These RECs include the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), with 5 countries in Northern Africa; the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), grouping 27 countries; the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), grouping 19 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa; the East African Community (EAC), with 5 countries; the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), with 10 countries; the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with 15 countries; the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) with 8 countries; and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with 15 countries. The regional subdivision of African countries into RECs is a structure used by the AU and the New Partnership for Africa (NEPAD). 22.1.2. Major Conclusions from Previous Assessments 22.1.2.1. Regional Special Report and Assessment Reports Major concluions related to Africa from previous assessments are summarized in Table 22-1. 22.1.2.2. Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation The IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX; IPCC, 2012) is of particular relevance to the African continent. © Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2014.Item Africa and the Green Climate Fund: current challenges and future opportunities(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2018) Fonta, W.M.; Ayuk, E.T.; van Huysen, T.Although the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is widely commendable in several ways, access to the Fund has been very challenging for many African countries. Using GCF published statistics, we identify possible challenges likely to be responsible for this. First, we present an assessment of the GCF’s Readiness Support Programme with respect to how the programme’s performance may have affected achievement of African countries’ readiness outcomes. Second, a critical evaluation of the status of African GCF portfolio (pipeline and approved projects) provides a means by which to assess how well Africa’s current portfolio aligns with GCF strategic impact areas, results areas and investment priorities. We then discuss GCF access modalities and the implications of relying on International Accredited Entities (IAEs) to indirectly access the Fund. The readiness support assessment indicates that the distribution of support requests and funding approvals is nearly equal across the regions of Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean. However, when the regions are considered individually, Africa demonstrates lower approvals with respect to requests and securing funding. Results from the GCF portfolio evaluation reveal that little or no attention has been devoted to GCF critical result areas such as forests and land use or transport, where great potentials for low-carbon development transitions exist. With respect to access modalities, the IAE financing mechanism currently provides access to the Fund for the majority of projects in both the global and African GCF portfolios. The implications of these findings are extensively discussed.Key policy insightsFor Africa, limited readiness support and a reliance on International Accredited Entities constrains capacity building, thereby reinforcing a lack of both readiness and direct access to the GCF.There are opportunities for Africa to diversify its GCF portfolios, adhere to international commitments, and address its adaptation and development needs by identifying and capitalizing on linkages between GCF funding priorities, mitigation, and adaptation.There are leverage points within existing climate finance and governance systems that could catalyse a shift in Africa’s engagement with the GCF and generate positive, cascading effects on institutional strengthening, direct access accreditation and securing funding. © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupItem Africa and the prospects of deliberative democracy(South African Journal of Philosophy, 2013-09) Ani, E.I.Preoccupation with multiparty aggregative democracy in Africa has produced superficial forms of political/electoral choice-making by subjects that deepen pre-existing ethnic and primordial cleavages. This is because the principles of the multiparty system presuppose that decision-making through voting should be the result of a mere aggregation of pre-existing, fixed preferences. To this kind of decision-making, I propose deliberative democracy as a supplementary approach. My reason is that deliberation, beyond mere voting, should be central to decision-making and that, for a decision to be legitimate, it must be preceded by deliberation, not merely the aggregation of pre-existing fixed preferences. I agree with arguments that when adequate justifications are made for claims/demands/conclusions, deliberation has the potential to have a salutary effect on people's opinions, transform/evolve preferences, better inform judgments/voting, lead to increasingly 'common good' decisions, have moral educative power, place more burden of account-giving on public officers, and furnish subjects/losers/outvoted with justifications for collectively binding decisions. I argue that a deliberative turn in politics in Africa will have a mitigating effect on tribal and money politics. Copyright © South African Journal of Philosophy.Item The Africa Bible Commentary(Ghana Journal of Religion and Theology (GJRT), 2007-07-02) Frederiks, M.T.On July 5, 2006, the Africa Bible Commentary was officially presented to the wider public. I The ABC, as the commentary is known, is a joint project of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa and the International Mission Organisation, (Serving in Missionin) The press release states that the ABC is a one-volume, 1600 page Bible commentary, written by Africans for Africans. 3 The ABC gives a ' section-by-section exegesis and explanation of the whole Bible as seen through the eyes of African scholars,.4 Besides the Bible commentary, the ABC also includes 72 short articles on relevant social, cultural and theological issues. The book has a separate section called Guidelines for using the ABC, to aid non-academic readers in using the commentary.5 In total seventy African scholars from a variety of countries and denominations were involved in the project.Item Africa Its Peoples and Their Culture History(McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1959) Murdock, G.P.This book does not present a distillation of long and intimate familiarity with the African continent. The author has had field experience only among indigenous peoples in North America and Oceania, and his first hand. Knowledge of Africa has been limited to three brief visits- a week in Egypt in 1921, four days in Cape Town in 1945, and a fortnight in Kenya and Tanganyika in 1957. His interest in the area stems primarily from the accident of having undertaken, about eight years ago, to offer a graduate course in African ethnology. Exposure to the descriptive literature raised problems of unusual challenge and engendered a mounting enthusiasm. In contrast to regions which man has occupied for only a few thousand years, Africa offers the fascination of a continent inhabited, in all probability, from the very dawn of culture history history, a continent in which diverse races have interacted in complex ways for millennia and in which survivals of extremely archaic cultural adjustments still emerge here and there only slightly masked by subsequent developments.Item Africa Speaks(Guinea Press Limited, Accra., 1959) Dei-Anang, M.Poetry has a rich and fertile soil in Africa because Africans have no inhibitions about their emotions. They laugh and weep without restraint and leave no one in any doubt of their amusement or displeasure. Africans have unsophisticated innocence. It could almost be said that from the cradle to the grave they regale themselves with songs of joy or soothe their pain with their mellifluous chants of distress. The stuff of which poetry is born is there without measure.Item Africa’s businesswomen – underfunded or underperforming?(Springer, 2023) Ackah, C.; Görg, H.; Hanley, A.; et al.Abstract While the recent success of Africa’s ‘Lionesses’ – successful female entrepreneurs – is internationally celebrated, less is known about how liquidity can fuel the success of the ‘Lionesses’ and other businesswomen. Using information from a panel of over 800 male- and female-owned businesses in Ghana (ISSER-IGC survey), we capture a measure of underfunding, in addition to data on supplier credit, equity and other fnance sources. Our regressions reveal a female-to-male productivity gap of between−11 and−19 per cent, values similar to estimates for other African countries. However, when fnancial constraints are taken into account, the gender performance gap disappears. Accordingly, female business owners who indicate that funding is not a problem are associated with higher productivity than males, all things equal. In a fnding new to the literature, our regressions reveal the importance of supplier credit for Africa’s businesswomen. Plain English Summary 300 African Businesswomen in Focus - Suppliers Key to Success. Suppliers to Africa’s businesswomen (e.g. sellers of cloth for garment manufacture) who ofer the possibility for delayed repayment, statistically boost the survival of female-owned businesses. Africa’s ‘Lionesses’ – exceptional businesswomen – are a comparative rarity, a reason we explore the reasons behind their success. Using data from over 800 Ghanaian businesses from 2011 to 2015, we examine the role of funding in explaining why the majority of businesswomen perform so poorly. Our fndings highlight an unusual fact – suppliers to female-owned businesses (e.g. sellers of cloth for manufacture into garments) who ofer their female customers the possibility to delay repayments are enormously benefcial in narrowing the gender gap. Targeting tax-cuts towards such suppliers would boost the emergence of future ‘Lionesses’.