Volunteering for Health Services in the Middle Part of Ghana: In Whose Interest?

BACKGROUND: In many developing countries like Ghana, community volunteers assist in the provision of certain health services to rural and hard-to-reach communities. This study examined factors that influence the motivation and retention of community-based volunteers supporting with work on health-related activities at the community level in Ghana. METHODS: Using a sequential mixed-method design, a cross-sectional survey was carried out among 205 selected community-based volunteers in Kintampo North Municipality (KNM) and Kintampo South District (KSD) of Ghana between December, 2014 and February, 2015. Qualitative interviews, including 12 in-depth interviews (IDIs) among health workers and community opinion leaders and 2 focus group discussion (FGD) sessions with volunteers were conducted. RESULTS: Personal interest (32.7%) and community leaders' selection of volunteers (30.2%) were key initial reasons for volunteering. Monetary incentives such as allowance for extra duty (88.8%) and per diem (49.3%) and non-monetary incentives such as T-shirts/bags (45.4 %), food during training (52.7%), community recognition, social prestige and preferential treatment at health facilities were the facilitators of volunteers' retention. There was a weak evidence (P=.051) to suggest that per diem for their travels is a reason for volunteers' satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Community-based volunteers' motivation and retention were influenced by their personal interest in the form of recognition by community members and health workers, community leaders' selection and other nonmonetary incentives. Volunteers were motivated by extra-duty allowance but not per diems paid for accommodation and feeding when they travel. Organizations that engage community volunteers are encouraged to strengthen the selection of volunteers in collaboration with community leaders, and to provide both non-monetary and monetary incentives to motivate volunteers

Volunteering for Health Services in the Middle Part of Ghana: In Whose Interest?

Abstract Background: In many developing countries like Ghana, community volunteers assist in the provision of certain health services to rural and hard-to-reach communities. This study examined factors that influence the motivation and retention of community-based volunteers supporting with work on health-related activities at the community level in Ghana. Methods: Using a sequential mixed-method design, a cross-sectional survey was carried out among 205 selected community-based volunteers in Kintampo North Municipality (KNM) and Kintampo South District (KSD) of Ghana between December, 2014 and February, 2015. Qualitative interviews, including 12 in-depth interviews (IDIs) among health workers and community opinion leaders and 2 focus group discussion (FGD) sessions with volunteers were conducted. Results: Personal interest (32.7%) and community leaders’ selection of volunteers (30.2%) were key initial reasons for volunteering. Monetary incentives such as allowance for extra duty (88.8%) and per diem (49.3%) and non-monetary incentives such as T-shirts/bags (45.4 %), food during training (52.7%), community recognition, social prestige and preferential treatment at health facilities were the facilitators of volunteers’ retention. There was a weak evidence (P=.051) to suggest that per diem for their travels is a reason for volunteers’ satisfaction. Conclusion: Community-based volunteers’ motivation and retention were influenced by their personal interest in the form of recognition by community members and health workers, community leaders’ selection and other nonmonetary incentives. Volunteers were motivated by extra-duty allowance but not per diems paid for accommodation and feeding when they travel. Organizations that engage community volunteers are encouraged to strengthen the selection of volunteers in collaboration with community leaders, and to provide both non-monetary and monetary incentives to motivate volunteers

Open defecation and attainment of Sustainable Development Goal Six: evidence from Kintampo Surveillance System, Ghana.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether the open-defecation (OD) free target is achievable by 2030. DESIGN: Longitudinal study. SETTING: Seven sub-Districts of Kintampo North Municipal, and five sub-Districts of Kintampo South District. DATA SOURCE: Kintampo health and demographic surveillance system PARTICIPANTS: Data was collected from household heads or their representatives over a 12-year period from 2005 to 2016. MAIN OUTCOME: Open-defecation and attainment of OD free by 2030. RESULTS: In an exploratory analysis, the correlation between the total number of households, year, and total number of OD households was obtained. The average percentage yearly increase or decrease in OD was computed and used to project the percentage of OD for the years 2020, 2025 and 2030. In addition, geo-spatial technology was used to visualize variability in OD across the twelve sub-Districts. The results showed that the OD free target is not achievable in 2030 or even if the current trend continues. In 2016, 44.2 per cent of the 31,571 households defecated openly. In six out of the 12 sub-Districts, more than half of the households openly defecated. Four out of these six sub-Districts were in the Kintampo North Municipality.Conclusion: The 2030 OD free target is not achievable in the Kintampo districts of Ghana if the current trend continues

Assessing the Performance of ELL and EBP Models in Estimating District Level Poverty Indices in The Presence of Outliers in the Northern Region of Ghana.

The objective of this study was to assess the performance of the Elbers, Lanjouw and Lanjouw (ELL) and the Empirical Best Predictor (EBP) Small Area Estimation (SAE) models in estimating the Foster-Greer-Thobecke (FGT) poverty indices for the Northern Region of Ghana in the presence of outliers. The sixth round of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS) data and the Population and Housing Census ( PHC) data were used for the study. The performances of these SAE models under normality and non-normality assumptions were evaluated by computing and comparing their Absolute Relative Biases and Relative Root Mean Squared Errors values under both conditions by conducting a model-based simulation study in the absence and presence of outlier contaminated data. Results from the study showed that no matter the level of contamination, the EBP model is a better performer and more stable than the ELL model in estimating all the FGT poverty indicators for the Region. Therefore, it was recommended that in future poverty estimating exercises, the EBP model be used to estimate the FGT poverty indicators for the Northern Region of Ghana