Conference Proceedings and Papers

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Conference proceeding is a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the conference. They are the written record of the work that is presented to fellow researchers.

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    Labour intensive public works and agricultural off-season employment: A case study of Ghana social opportunity programme
    (University of Ghana, 2015-04-17) Osei-Akoto, I.; Bawakyillenuo, S.; Owusu, G.; Offei, E.L.
    The Labour Intensive Public Works (LlPW) of the Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP) was initiated by the Government of Ghana to provide targeted rural poor households access to local employment and income-earning opportunities during agricultural off-seasons. The key objectives of the programme were to protect households and communities against external shocks and; rehabilitate and improve productive and social infrastructure such as roads, dams and schools. The initiative was to mainly mitigate the effects of extreme poverty, particularly during agriculture off-seasons. This study assessed the impact of the L1PW project on labour force participation and employment generation during the off season in agriculture in Ghana. Panel data from two rounds of survey were used for this analysis and propensity score matching technique was used for the estimation of the average treatment effect. The results show that labour force participation increased by 7% in the lean season among beneficiary households relative to the non-beneficiaries. Paid employment among beneficiary households increased by 9.4% relative to the non-beneficiary households and the number of days spent in a week on paid work by beneficiary households increased by 30.8%. The average income received by L1PW beneficiary households from paid work was GHC 48.57 higher than the amount received by non-beneficiary households. The paper shares interesting results on sustainability of such innovative programmes that seek to lessen the burden of unemployment or under-employment in deprived communities during the lean agricultural season while creating vital infrastructure for eco nomic growth
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    The shift from traditional window systems to new window designs in Ghana: sociological and energy efficiency issues in Ga East and Awutu Senya East municipalities
    (University of Ghana, 2015-04-17) Bawakyillenuo, S.; Agbelie, I.S.K.
    The challenge of reducing carbon emissions for the purpose of climate change mitigation requires both supply-side and demand-side energy efficiency measures and conservation. On the demand side, buildings worldwide account for about 30-40% of the total energy demand, thereby forming the largest sectoral consumer of electricity. Hence, the building sector offers a great opportunity for energy conservation and energy efficiency drives if certain behavioural patterns were to change. An important element of the building, which often influences energy consumption, is the window. Window types used in Ghana have evolved over time from traditional wooden to modern louvre blades and glazed (sliding-glass) windows. This paper therefore seeks to investigate the economic and energy efficiency dimensions of the shift from traditional to new window designs in Ghana as well as the sociological underpinnings of this shift. Evidence abounds from the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data gathered for the 2014 Energy Surveys in the Ga East and Awutu Senya East Municipalities in Ghana that most people use new window designs mainly due to comfort and aesthetic reasons. The analyses reveal that, while more wooden and louvre blade windows users depend mostly on natural ventilation systems and to a little extent fans, glazed window users depend mostly on fans and air conditioners. In consequence, glazed windows users spend more on electricity compared to users of other windows types. These findings have implications regarding the current architectural designs in Ghana taking into account the need for efficient energy consumption and climate change mitigation