Centre for Social Policy Studies

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    Why national development experts are not included in development policy-making and practice: The case of Ghana
    (Development Policy Review, 2022) Kamruzzaman, P.; Kumi, E.
    Motivation: This article contributes to the debate around understanding whether and how the identity of aid workers (e.g. nationality, race, etc.) can contribute to inequality within various aid relationships. As “decolonizing development” is often employed either as a slogan or genuine goal, it is imperative that the politics of exclusion among/within development experts is critically scrutinized. Purpose: This article explores the processes of and the motivations behind how national development experts (NDEs) are frequently excluded in development policy-making and practice in Ghana. Methods and approach: This article relies on qualitative research methods and draws from semi-structured interviews conducted in two phases in 2017 and 2018 in Ghana. We focus on the narratives of the NDEs in Ghana are perceived to be well placed to elucidate the different mechanics of exclusionary processes and practices. Findings: International development experts (IDEs) are able to set agendas and exercise development decision-making power as their governments or organizations provide funding for many development projects. projects. This allows IDEs to influence development policies and practices in a way that eventually excludes NDEs from development policy-making in Ghana. We also reveal internal competition and power relations between NDEs and local actors (i.e. bureaucrats and politicians) can also exclude the NDEs from development policy-making processes, a feature that is non-existent in current scholarship. Policy implications: The exclusion of NDEs from national development decision-making processes undermines efforts to promote national ownership. It is important to adopt a holistic approach that does not just focus on one particular aspect (e.g. power inequality among different actors) of exclusionary practice in international development but also looks into local political and cultural settings as well as possible internal competition for resources.
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    Planning for retirement during active service in Ghana: Insights from pensioners in the Greater Accra Region
    (Journal of Aging & Social Policy, 2024) Ongoh, M.; Afranie, S.; Ohemeng, F.; Abekah-Carter, K.; Godi, A.H.
    Workers often participate in pre-retirement planning activities to gain awareness of the likely changes they may experience when they retire to enable them to prepare accordingly. Although pre-retirement planning is essential for successful retirement and healthy aging, studies on pre-retirement plan ning activities among older adults in Ghana are limited. This study explored pre-retirement planning actions that were taken by Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pen sioners in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach was adopted to gather data from 437 pensioners aged 60 years and above through surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions. The results indicate that while in active service, many (309) pensioners were not motivated to plan for retirement due to issues, such as low income, and distrust of financial institutions. When plan ning did take place, the pensioners favored financial planning over social, mental, and physical planning. The respondents also revealed that they did not prepare adequately for retirement due to low salaries, as well as low knowledge on pre-retirement planning. Policies are needed to encourage pre-retirement plan ning among workers in Ghana to enable them to have an appreciable quality of life in old age.
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    Intergenerational earnings mobility in Ghana
    (International Review of Economics, 2023) Opoku, K.; Boahen, E.A.
    This paper estimates the degree of intergenerational earnings persistence and mobility in Ghana. We use micro-data from the third and sixth rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS). We find relatively high estimates of intergenerational income elasticity (IGE), ranging from 40 to 54 percent, suggesting low intergenerational earnings mobility in Ghana. The results further point to a limited set of inherited circumstances that include the father’s education and occupation. Our estimates show that a father’s education and occupation determine one’s family’s economic status during the teenage years and explain a significant fraction of earnings inequality among male adults in Ghana. The novelty of this paper is the application of linear dynamic panel data models with repeated cross-sections to provide a consistent estimate of intergenerational elasticity of earnings in the framework of two-sample two-stage least squares (TSTSLS) using less restrictive functional form identification without exclusion restriction. The application of this new approach shows that a 1 percent increase in a father’s lifetime income raises a son’s permanent income by a range of 23.9 percent–40.9 percent, an indication of low intergenerational mobility. The results from the modified TSTSLS indicate that the traditional TSTSLS approach overestimates the IGE by at least 0.19.
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    Pandemic democracy: the nexus of covid-19, shrinking civic space for civil society organizations and the 2020 elections in Ghana
    (Taylor & Francis Group, 2022) Kumi, E.
    In Ghana, civil society organizations (CSOs) play significant roles in promoting democratic development. However, the space within which they operate is increasingly becoming restricted. Coupled with this, COVID-19 inspired legislations are disrupting civil society, increasing existing threats to civic space, and creating uncertainties for Ghana’s 2020 elections. Yet, our understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic influences civic space and elections remains limited. Drawing on media reviews and 22 semi-structured interviews with CSO representatives and key informants, we find that the pandemic poses threats to civic space in terms of curtailment of freedoms of expression, movement and peaceful assembly. We also demonstrate that while the COVID-19 pandemic created uncertainties with the processes leading to the 2020 general elections, it had minimal effects on the elections due in part to the proactiveness and preparedness of the Electoral Commission in election administration. Notwithstanding, our findings show that the pandemic heightened and created opportunities for promoting polarized online campaigns characterized by hate speech and the propagation of fake news as political parties resorted to the use of social media in reaching out to voters. This undermines efforts for promoting democratic development and open civic space. Implications of the research findings are discussed.
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    Understanding the motivations and roles of national development experts in Ghana: ‘We do all the donkey work and they take the glory’
    (Taylor & Francis Group, 2021) Kumi, E.; Kamruzzaman, P.
    National development experts (NDEs) play unique roles as knowledge brokers, translators and gatekeepers between governments, intended beneficiaries and donors on various development policies and practices. Due to their local contextual knowledge, they influence development activities at national levels by engaging in formulation and implementation of development policies. However, discussion of their motivations and roles has been particularly limited in the existing development literature. Drawing on 25 semi-structured interviews with the local staff of donor agencies and non-governmental organisations, independent consultants, civil servants and academics in Ghana, this article presents findings on their motivations and roles within Ghana’s development landscape. We argue that while the motivations and roles of NDEs are similar in many ways to those of Western development experts, except their contextual understanding of national development issues, their contributions to development are so far excluded within the development literature. This article contributes to the emerging aid ethnography literature by providing a more comprehensive perspective on NDEs and deepens the scholarship by asking whether the exclusion of this group is a deliberate choice or unintended mistake. The article further highlights the perspectives of NDEs on their engagement with foreign experts and its implications for national development and future research.
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    Friend or Patron? Social Relations Across the National NGO–Donor Divide in Ghana
    (Springer, 2021) Kumi, E.; Copestake, J.
    The article examines the institutions governing relations between grant using national NGOs and grant giving international donors in three regions of Ghana (Upper West, Northern and Greater Accra Region). Formal procedural rules and professional norms can be viewed as necessary to minimise opportunities for informal patronage, rent-seeking and corruption made possible by the unequal access to resources. However, semi-structured interviews, life histories and observation high light the positive role informal networks, connections, personal contacts and friend ship play in enhancing collaboration between donors and national NGOs. Friend ships originating in kinship and ethnicity, school links and past collaboration offer opportunities for infuencing and resource mobilisation, but can also weaken NGO sustainability. Informal contacts and face-to-face interactions also build trust and strengthen lines of accountability, with non-adherence to shared norms resulting in sanctions and reputation loss. These findings affrm the positive role of informal relations, and highlight how they can complement formal rules and professional norms governing NGO–donor relations rather than undermining them. It throws a very different light on the role of informal institutions than that fostered by a discourse of clientelism and provides a more nuanced conceptual foundation for assessing ‘formalisation’ as a normative strategy.
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    Street Children in Ghana’s Golden Triangle Cities: Mental Health Needs and Associated Risks
    (Springer, 2021) Dankyi, E.; Huang, K.
    More than 61,000 persons below the age of 18 are living on the streets in the Greater Accra region in Ghana. Street children is a hidden vulnerable population and a global public health issue in the world, but little is known about their mental health and health needs, and mechanisms that contribute to their poor health. With a lack of mental health research to guide intervention or psychoeducation programme and policy planning, this study aimed to address these research gaps by examining prevalence of mental health problems and a set of associated risk factors (i.e. Perceived quality of life, and social connection). In addition, we examined whether the associations between risk factors and mental health problems were moderated by demographic and contextual factors (i.e., gender, age, work status, reason for living on street, number of years in street). Two hundred and seven children between age 12 and 18 who lived on the street in three cities (Accra, Sekondi Takoradi, and Kumasi) were recruited. Data were gathered through adolescent survey/interviews. Multiple regression was utilized to examine risk factors and moderation efects. Results support high mental health needs among street children. Approximately 73% street children experienced moderate to severe mental health problems, and 90% experienced poor quality of life. Perceived quality/happiness of life was the strongest predictor for street children’s mental health. Social connection was associated with children’s mental health only in certain subgroups and contexts. This study adds new epidemiological evidence for street children, an extremely vulnerable population, in Ghana and global child and adolescent mental health.
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    Strategic responses of microfinance institutions to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis in Ghana
    (Taylor & Francis Group, 2021) Yeboah, T.; Antoh, E.F.; Kumi, E.
    This paper examines the impacts of COVID-19 on MFI operations and the response measures taken by MFIs in Ghana. Data from interviews shows that MFIs are faced with operational difficulties as a result of the crisis: inability to disburse new loans and collect loan repayments which is leading to increase in portfolios at risk, increased operational costs, and bottlenecks with non-financial service delivery. Reduction in lending and rescheduling of outstanding loan repayments, adoption of flexible working arrangements, and use of digital technologies are key response measures taken by the MFIs although the scale of implementation differed considerably by contextual factors.
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    Parental Wellbeing, Parenting and Child Development in Ghanaian Families with Young Children
    (Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 2018-09) Huang, K.Y.; Bornheimer, L.A.; Dankyi, E.; De-Graft Aikins, A.
    Approximately one-third of early childhood pupils in Ghana are struggling with meeting basic behavioral and developmental milestones, but little is known about mechanisms or factors that contribute to poor early childhood development. With a lack of developmental research to guide intervention or education program and policy planning, this study aimed to address these research gaps by examining a developmental mechanism for early childhood development. We tested a mediational mechanism model that examined the influence of parental wellbeing on parenting and children's development. Two hundred and sixty-two Ghanaian parents whose children attended early childhood classes (nursery to 3rd grade) were recruited. Data were gathered through parent interviews and Structural Equation Modeling was utilized to examine pathways of the model. Results support the mediational model that Ghanaian parents' depression was associated with less optimal parenting, and in turn greater child externalizing behavioral problems. This study adds new evidence of cross cultural consistency in early childhood development.
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    Implementation of Social Protection Interventions in Africa. "The Trend in the Outcomes of Free Basic Education in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Uganda"
    (Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2018-12) Brenyah, J.K.
    Social protection interventions have been used as a poverty reduction strategy in many countries. Free Basic Education is one of the social protection interventions implemented in most developing countries. This review assessed the outcome of the implementation of Free Basic Education in Africa, using Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and Malawi as a test case. Thirty-Seven (37) published documents were used for the study. The study is underpinned by Bagozzi’s Goal Theory and Conceptualized with Knowledge Gaps and Knowledge Management Strategies. The study noted that, the Free Basic Education Policy has increased primary school net enrolment rates in these countries holding all other confounders constant. The study also revealed that, the implementation of the Free Basic Education Policy did not reduce educational expenditure as expected as school authorities continue to levy pupils. The objective of removing financial barriers was therefore not met, and the quality of teaching and learning delivery in most schools has fallen due to high pupils-teacher ratio and other implementation challenges. Based upon these findings, the study concluded that, there is the need for constant stakeholder interaction, efficient financial practices, fiscal space creation, provision of more educational infrastructure, recruitment of additional teachers, measures to ensure quality of teaching and learning delivery and effective monitoring of social protection intervention programmes in Africa.