Public Policy Making in Ghana: The Role of Politics and the Media

This study examines the influence of politics and the media on policy making from the perspective of political system theory and rational theory. The role of politics and media in policy making in Ghana can be defined in two stages. The study identified that, from the 1960s where the system of government was one-party, through the military regimes. Policy making was the right of the ruling elite and few bureaucrats. The media coverage was limited to the state media. In 1992, when Ghana adopted the multi-party democracy, public policy making process expanded to include civil societies, individuals, political parties and all interest group. Politics influence on policy becomes dominant during electioneering year where the two major political parties NDC and NPP trade policy ideas in exchange for votes. The media also has played a major role in policy making by providing platform and setting agenda for policy discussion. The media also serve as a source of policy information to the citizens. The study concluded by suggesting to constitutional bodies to develop, a comprehensive national development plane binding on all political parties, regulating media ownership and employment of experts and media professionals to work in the media sector. Keywords: public policy, politics, medi

Governance in Higher Education: A Comparative Study on Ghana and China

Governance in higher education is one key concern for policy makers on restructuring the higher educational systems all over the world. The concepts of higher education governance often bring conflict between institutions and politicians on issues concerning institutional management. This study examined the concepts of higher education governance based on a comparative study of china and Ghana. The study gave special attention to various reforms on governance, higher education autonomy, funding, higher education law and structure of decision making in both countries. This paper argued that, if government limits its influence on higher education governance and higher education institutions are given a significant level of autonomy to make decision on academic program development and appointment of key positions, it will enable the higher education leaders use their expertise to develop high quality higher education. However, it’s worth mentioning that, this paper does not argue for governmental absence on higher education governance and management; government will continue with policy formulation on higher education. The comparative study is adopted because, china’s higher education has attracted many students from developing countries in Africa and Asia and Ghana as an African country has over ten thousand students pursuing programs at all levels. Higher institutions in Ghana in the past decade have enjoyed good academic relationship with Chinese institutions. Ghana as a middle-income country in the quest to build high quality higher education can learn from the Chinese system. This study will also contribute to literatures in educational governance. Keywords: higher education, governance, autonomy, reforms

Improving Public Sector Service Delivery in Ghana:The Application of Innovation and ICT.

Public sector institutions are established by law to provide essential service to citizenry. However, research has shown that, service delivering form the public sector is not meeting the satisfaction of users. The competition posed by the private sector has collapsed many public corporations in developing countries. The emergence of the new public management was to improve the effectiveness of the public sector by adopting proactive phrases like reinventing government, re-engineering, revitalization of the public service, organizational transformation. Researchers have suggested that, the application of some private sector strategies into the public sector will improve service delivery. This study looked at how public sector will improve by adopting innovating strategies like, innovations, e-government and entrepreneurship. The study intent to provide literature on existing best practices of improving public sector effectiveness and efficiency. We argued that, public sectors in developing countries could improve by innovating existing practices, having an entrepreneurial mind and the application of e-government to facilitate full citizen inclusion in decision making process. Keywords: public sector, innovation, service delivering, e-governmen