College of Basic and Applied Sciences
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Item Charting sustainable waters: Governance challenges and opportunities for fisheries and coastal beach resources in a West African country(Marine Policy, 2024) Takyi,R.; Nunoo,F.K.E.; Mahrad,B.E.; Addo,C.; Essandoh,J.Marine fisheries and beaches (i.e., backshore, foreshore and shoreface) are essential for providing ecosystem services globally, with coastal states being at the forefront of this benefit. Consequently, several policies, legislations, and governance processes must be formulated to ensure their sustainable use due to the impact of anthropogenic and natural pressures. This study aims to analyse the legal and institutional frameworks for the management of marine fisheries and beach resources (such as flora (coconut), fauna (ghost crabs), dunes, and rocky components) under key international laws and conventions, using Ghana as a case study. The study identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) within resource management, as well as their impact on the country’s progress in the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Africa Union Agenda 2063. Data was collected through interviews with fishers, coastal residents, and other relevant stakeholders, as well as a review of secondary data. The results unveil a distinctive contrast in the regulatory landscape between fisheries and beach resources. While numerous policies have been formulated to ensure the sustainable management of fisheries, the same level of attention and commitment has not been extended to beach resources. The SWOT analysis revealed that some of the strengths in the governance of marine fisheries and beach resources rest on the availability of institutions and laws. The weakness lies in inadequate enforcement and data gathering and analyses to inform decision making. This study provides as an illuminating exploration into the legal and institutional underpinnings of marine fisheries and beach resource management in Ghana, shedding light on the critical junctures where improvements are needed.Item Microfinance With Education In Rural Ghana: Men’s Perception Of Household Level Impact(African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, 2012) Hagan, L.L.; Aryeetey, R.; Colecraft, E.K.; et al.Microcredit schemes have been shown to enhance women’s Income Generation Activities (IGA), household food security, and child nutrition. However, spouses or Male Household Heads (MHH) can influence how women’s loans are invested and how incomes ensuing from the investments are expended. This study describes how MHH perceived and experienced the participation of female caregivers from their household in the Enhancing Child Nutrition through Animal Source Food Management (ENAM) project. The ENAM project was designed as an integrated intervention providing microcredit, entrepreneurship, and nutrition education to women in rural communities in Ghana. Eighty-five MHH of ENAM project caregivers in two regions of Ghana were interviewed about their awareness of the microcredit and education intervention, their involvement in the IGA that the caregivers’ loans were invested in, and their perceptions of the impact of the project on the caregivers’ IGA as well as household and child nutrition. The majority of MHH indicated that they had been consulted by the caregivers about the decision to participate in the ENAM project. The most common reasons given for consenting to the caregivers’ decision to participate in the program were expectations that the caregiver would receive business capital (30.6%), education on optimal child feeding (36.5%), and income to enable caregivers to contribute more to household expenses (31.8%). Concerning the project’s impact, MHH perceived that the caregivers’ project participation had a positive impact on their business practices, particularly concerning improved customer relations. The MHH perceived that caregivers’ incomes increased because they participated in ENAM as evidenced by regular income savings and increased contributions to household food and non-food expenditures. However, MHH reported decreases in their contributions to almost all household expenditure categories in response to the perceived increase in caregivers’ incomes. The MHH also perceived improvements in home meal quality. In summary, MHH credited the ENAM project with improved caregiver’s incomes and increased share of household expenses. However, this outcome resulted in unanticipated declines in MHH contribution to household expenses. Further studies are needed to understand the impact of empowering women through social experiments on households.Item Who is marginalized in energy justice? Amplifying community leader perspectives of energy transitions in Ghana(Energy Research & Social Science, 2021) Baker, E.; Atarah, S.A.; Afful-Dadzie, A.; et al.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.Item The Effect of Aid on Growth in the Presence of Economic Regime Change(African Finance Journal, 2019) Samanhyia, S.; Cassimon, D.The empirical literature on aid effectiveness is mired in controversy. In this regard, the paper aims to investigate the effect of aid on economic growth in Ghana. Using Auto-Regressive Distributed Lagged Models as the main estimation strategy, the study concludes that aid has a positive and statistically significant effect on economic growth. The effect of aid on economic growth is more pronounced taking into account the marginal effect of a shift in economic policy from a controlled economic regime to an open market system. The result is robust when the data is triangulated with other estimation methods. Following the key findings, the study recommends that government pursues economic policies that promote more private-sector participation. Also, alternative financing that focuses on the domestic market should be encouraged to avoid the negative impact of dwindling aid inflows.Item Measuring sustainability of conservation and conventional practices in maize production in Ghana(Journal of Agriculture and Environment for International Development, 2020) Boimah, M.; Mensah-Bonsu, A.; Osei-Asare, Y.; Sarpong, D.B.Scientists and researchers worldwide have recommended Conservation Agriculture has the potential to promote sustainability in agriculture. This paper attempts to measure and compare the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of both conservation and conventional practices used for maize production in the northern region of Ghana employing the Multi-Attribute Value Theory (MAVT) approach. Based on the three pillars of sustainability (economic, social, and environmental), adopters of minimum tillage practice (scoring 0.5, 0.6, 0.82), and the combined adoption of minimum tillage and integrated organic-inorganic fertilizer application (scoring 0.53, 0.5, 0.88) emerged as sustainable practices. Despite these scores, the z-test of difference in means of the conservation practices and conventional ones were all insignificant, indicating that the conservation practices in use were not different from the conventional ones in terms of their contribution to sustainable maize production. Technical assistance and training that aids in ensuring the appropriate application of conservation practices should be ensured if the goal of sustainability is to be realized.Item Identifying Ecosystem-Based Alternatives for the Design of a Seaport’s Marine Infrastructure: The Case of Tema Port Expansion in Ghana(Sustainability, 2019) Boer, W.P.; Addo, K.A.; Slinger, J.H.; et al.Long-term sustainable port development requires accounting for the intrinsic values of ecosystems. However, in practice, ecosystem considerations often only enter the planning and design process of ports when required by an Environmental Impact Assessment. At this late stage, most of the design is already fixed and opportunities to minimize and restore ecosystem impacts are limited. In this paper, we adopt a large-scale, ecosystem perspective on port development with the aim to identify ecosystem-based design alternatives earlier and throughout the planning and design of a port’s marine infrastructure. We present a framework, termed the ‘ecosystem-based port design hierarchy’ (EPDH), to identify ecosystem-based alternatives at four hierarchical design levels: 1) alternatives to port developments, 2) port site selection, 3) port layout design, and 4) design of structures and materials. In applying the EPDH framework retrospectively to a case study of port expansion in Tema, Ghana, we establish that ecosystem considerations played only a limited role in identifying and evaluating alternatives at all four design levels in the case study, with more eco-friendly alternatives in terms of port layouts, structures, and materials are identified using the EPDH framework. This reveals that opportunities for ecosystem-friendly port designs may have been missed and demonstrates the need for and the potential added value of our framework. The framework can assist practitioners in earlier and wider identification of ecosystem-based alternatives for a port’s marine infrastructure in future seaport developments and, hence, represents an important step towards more sustainable port designs.Item Decolonizing posthumanism: Indigenous material agency in generative STEM(British Journal of Educational Technology, 2020) Eglash, R.; Hammond-Sowah, D.; Bennett, A.; et.alThis paper describes a decolonial perspective on material agency in the context of STEM education and application. Using the framework of generative STEM, we engaged in case studies with African, African American, South American, and Native American educational communities. This research shows that understanding material agency based on Indigenous knowledge systems can open a rich source of research and education content. Using a suite of simulations and culturally Situated Design Tools, we apply this body of research to the classroom. One important theoretical conclusion is the contrast to a “content agnostic” position. A generative framework instead offers a robust blend of user agency and instructional guidance. The outcomes indicate statistically significant and notable improvement in STEM skills and interests. We conclude with a contrast to the quantum epistemology approach to posthumanism. We show that the Indigenous material agency framework in generative STEM is a better fit for decolonial aspirations and that it offers a more transformative vision for the potential role of STEM in transitioning from an extractive to a generative economy.Item Knowledge and Practice of Iodized Salt and Iodine Deficiency Disorders among Men in Nungua, Ghana(Universal Journal of Public Health, 2020-04-19) Setorglo, J.; Agyei, B.A.; Steiner-Asiedu, M.; et.alBackground: Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDDs) continues to be a problem in Ghana after several years of salt fortification with iodine. Sustainable IDD prevention requires a well-informed population willing to use iodized salt. This study determined men's knowledge levels on iodized salt, and IDDs iodized salt usage. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 400 men (18 years and above) sampled conveniently at Nungua in the Ledzokuku Krowor Municipality of the Greater Accra Region, Ghana. Data on socio-demographics, knowledge, use of iodized salt, and IDDs were collected. We computed descriptive statistics for socio-demographic data, knowledge of iodized salt, usage of iodized salt, and knowledge of IDDs. We grouped scores for knowledge of iodized salt into poor and good. Scores for knowledge of IDDs were split into tertiles and labeled as low, moderate, and high. Chi-Square (χ2 ) test and multinomial logistic regression were performed to determine the association between socio-demographic characteristics, good knowledge of iodized salt, and high knowledge about IDDs. Results: The majority of respondents (37.5%) were aged between 26 and 41 years. About 97.8% have heard about iodized salt and 69.3% first heard about iodized salt through the media. About 70.5% used iodized salt in cooking and 76.8 % of the respondents would encourage women to use salt in cooking. When the knowledge level was split into two groups, the higher proportion (266 out of 400) had poor knowledge of iodized salt and in tertiles, the majority (184 of 400) had low knowledge on IDDs. There were statistically significant differences between age, marital status educational level, and knowledge of IDDs all at P< 0.001. Those with Junior High School education had 54% less chance, OR= 0.465; 95% CI: (0.244, 0.884) of obtaining a good knowledge of iodized salt compared with those with a University education. Conclusions: Knowledge of iodized salt was low, and knowledge of IDDs was low among the men. There is a difference in the level of knowledge of IDDs among the socio-economic groups but not knowledge on iodized salt and its use. The more educated the men are, the more likely they are to use iodized salt.Item The Productivity and Management of Ghanaian Soils(Soil Productivity Management in Ghana, 2023) Adiku, S.G.K.Over decades we have longed for a book that related the scientific principles of soils to the Ghanaian context. Most of the textbooks were written by foreign authors with little or no data on soils from Ghana. Our reading and understanding about soils were abstract. This book fills this great vacuum with data from the soils in Ghana. The book will enhance the capacity in solving the peculiar problems of soils in our ecological zones. The book takes the reader not only through the knowledge of soils but also the related edaphic properties which directly or indirectly impact soil productivityItem Making North–South Collaborations Work: Facilitating Natural Product Drug Discovery in Africa(Springer link, 2019) Osei-Safo, D.; Kyeremeh, K.; Amewu, R.; et al.Many global North–South collaborations seek to address different aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Africa . The role of the North in these collaborations is crucial from a funding point of view. However, the realisation of the SDG objectives for Africa will depend largely on strategies that are guided by the successes and challenges of previous and existing collaborative efforts. Globally, Africa has the highest disease burden with the leading causes of morbidity and mortality being malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS and more recently, cardiovascular diseases , diabetes and cancer. Neglected tropical diseases are also causing long-term detrimental health effects, resulting in huge social and economic losses. Ironically, the continent is endowed with a huge biodiversity resource that has the potential to provide novel and potent drug candidates but remains largely unexplored partly due to financial and infrastructural challenges. Developing the scientific research capabilities of African institutions towards drug discovery through global networks is, therefore, an important component of improving health systems on the continent. This chapter examines experiences from three North–South collaborations—the Royal Society’s Leverhulme Trust Africa Award (LTAA), Newton Advanced Fellowships (NAF) and Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx)—and proposes the adoption of structures that extend the current focus on skill transfer to include the building and maintenance of sustainable infrastructure. It is believed that these thoughts and suggestions could promote sustainable collaborative research to provide good health and well-being (SDG3), quality education (SDG4), relevant infrastructure (SDG9) and reduced inequalities (SDG10) in Africa .