College of Basic and Applied Sciences
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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 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 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 .Item Genetic Improvement for Development of a Climate Resilient Food Legume Crops: Relevance of Cowpea Breeding Approach in Improvement of Food Legume Crops for Future(CRC Press, 2023) Ofori, K.; Ngalamu, T.; Galla, J.O.; et al.ABSTRACT Global population increment coupled with the adverse effects of climate change pose horrendous possibilities for food shortage and hunger. Nevertheless, climate change embedded in several biotic and abiotic stresses affects food crops' productivity, despite breeding accomplishments. Consequently, there is urgent need for mapping out sustainable and environmentally friendly food crops as well as their efficient and appropriate improvement and production systems. This will enable genetic improvement for climate resilient, high-yielding, and nutritionally valuable food crops. Food legume crops, which represent the most valuable food source globally after cereals, are ideal for meeting the global food demand; thus, improving their productivity becomes crucial. Conversely, understanding and documenting limitations of food legume yield is a step toward a defined breeding goal. Having in-depth knowledge about the genetics of drought and heat, and deployment of molecular platforms, will enhance prospects of developing food legume varieties with improved agronomic traits. This accomplishment will be reflected in the output of any programmed and systematic improvement programs: development and release of high-yielding and early maturing food legume varieties that are tolerant and resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses. Hence, this chapter will constitute a repository for legume breeders interested in developing climate-resilient food legume varieties capable of adapting to marginal environments and giving appreciable yield in the face of climatic stressors: drought and heat stress. It could be concluded that co-occurrence of drought and heat stress during both vegetative and reproductive developmental phases of food legume crops would lead to impeded tissue development, loss of organelle functions, production of non-viable pollen, abortion of ovaries, and oxidative stress in the leaves. These will result in failure to fertilize and poor quality and quantity of assimilates produced and stored. Thus, the key to improvement for climate resilience is better understanding of pathways associated with yield, resistance, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses.