Working Paper 78 - Trade Policy and Performance in Sub - Saharan Africa since the 1980s

This paper reviews trade policy reform and performance in Africa since the 1980s. African countries have implemented significant trade liberalisation in this period, in particular reducing tariffs. This has usually resulted in an increase in imports, but export growth has often been sluggish so that in many countries the trade deficit has increased. The paper documents trends and performance and reviews the explanations for poor export response. While trade policy reform has been beneficial, the impact has not been as great as expected and the core challenge facing African countries is how to diversify and increase exports.

Internal migration in Ghana : determinants and welfare impacts

Using a recently compiled dataset on migration and remittances in Ghana, this paper estimates the determinants of an individual’s likelihood to be an internal migrant and the relationship between internal migration and welfare. The analysis finds that the likelihood to migrate is determined by a combination of individual (pull) and community-level (push) characteristics. The probability of migration is higher for younger and more educated individuals, but communities with higher levels of literacy, higher rates of subsidized medical care, and better access to water and sanitation are less likely to produce migrants. The analysis finds that households with migrants tend to be better off than similar households without migrants, even after controlling for the fact that households with migrants are a non-random sample of Ghanaians. However, the positive relationship is only true for households with at least one migrant in urban areas; the welfare of households with migrants exclusively in rural areas is no different from households without any migrants.Population Policies,Anthropology,Gender and Development,Remittances,Voluntary and Involuntary Resettlement

Food Price Changes and Consumer Welfare in Ghana in the 1990s

In this paper, we analyse the effect of food price changes on household consumption in Ghana during the 1990s and assess the extent to which changes can be explained by trade and agricultural policy reforms. The measurement of the total household welfare effect, one that jointly considers (static) first order effects as well as (dynamic) consumption responses, is the object of this study. Food consumption behaviour in Ghana is analyzed by estimating a complete food demand system using the linear approximate version of the AIDS model with household survey data for 1991/92 and 1998/99. The estimated price elasticities are then utilized to evaluate the distributional impacts of the relative food price changes in terms of compensating variation. The results indicate that the distributional burden of higher food prices fell mainly on the urban poor. While it is difficult to attribute the price changes and by implication the welfare losses, to any particular policy per se, a simulation analysis indicates that trade liberalisation may not have been responsible for the welfare losses. Our simulation exercise suggests that further tariff liberalisation would tend to offset the welfare losses for all households although it is the poor and rural consumers who stand to gain the most.Food prices, Demand analysis, Consumer behaviour, Welfare, Ghana

Trade Liberalisation is Good for You if You are Rich

This paper investigates the relationship between trade policy and growth using a dynamic panel regression model with GMM estimates for data on 44 developing countries over 1980-1999. Trade policy is captured by measures of tariffs, import and export taxes. Typically, the average effects of changes in such policy variables have been investigated. However, from a policy perspective, the differential effects on high-or low-income countries may be of more interest. Our preferred specification for growth thus includes as an explanatory variable an interaction term between trade barriers and initial income levels to capture the non-linearity in the relationship. This specification reveals a significant interaction effect under which the marginal impactof tariffs on growth is declining in initial income. In particular, for low-income countries tariffs appear to be associated with higher growth, whereas only for middle-income and richer countries is there a negative impact of tariffs on growth. The impact of a marginal change in protection on growth changes from positive to negative as income increases beyond a threshold level of GDP per capita (below which, in rough terms, a country would be classed as low-income). Put differently, trade liberalisation seems to offer the possibility of achieving faster growth only in relatively richer countries.Growth; Openness; Trade barriers; Cross-country analysis

The Task of a Project Manager in Building Individual and Project Team Capability in Modern Day Project Work

From the point of view of an organization, projects act as a means for consolidating the experience and expertise of the organizational members effectively, create learning environment, encourage team-spirit and help to achieve organizational objectives. This article is about the task of a Project Manager in building Individual and project team capability in modern day project work

The Modern Techniques of Commerce with Matters Connected to Projects

This article has highlighted some of the issues related to projects and how to deal with it. So often projects start and its completion becomes a challenge due to some the related issues discussed above. The project manager must monitor and control the human side of his project. This involves utilizing appropriate forms of power in managing the project team to obtain desired results. Project teams also need to manage stakeholder expectations through understanding their expectations, delivering on those expectations, and communicating effectively (Kloppenborg, 2012). This will give the project manager the upper hand to deal with issues that may cause the failure of the project

Blockchain and gender digital inequalities in Africa: A critical afrofemtric analysis

Advances in the technological sphere are synergistic with society’s progression. Technological innovations result in social realities, and these correspondingly remodel technologies to reconcile their functions and values with society’s needs. The birth of blockchain ushered in euphoric pronouncements about its disruptive potentialities for low-resourced societies. While dominant discourses frame it as a tool for enabling grassroots participation in socioeconomic activities, they ignore the societal embeddedness of innovations. A central premise of this study is that the modalities of blockchain’s adoption reflect, and to an extent cement, the inequitable gender power dynamics of its context. Drawing on principles of gender justice from my original critical theory afrofemtrism, technofeminism, and the social construction of technology, I examined the adoption of blockchain technologies in Ghana and its engagement with gender digital inequalities. My empirical data is from 33 qualitative interviews with participants in the blockchain economy. I found that investing and trading in cryptocurrency are the principal blockchain activities in Ghana. This evinces the perception of low entry barriers without needing specialized education. Additionally, participants are overwhelmingly male, and the women in the space navigate a complex existence of relegation and comity. Their presence in this male-dominated space opens them to ridicule, and yet they benefit from better transactional opportunities as people perceive them to be more trustworthy than the average man. Blockchain could engender financial emancipation for women and other marginalized social groups. However, conditions like the compound effect of inhibiting familial, societal, and cultural socialization on gendered interests and progression undercut these affordances. Blockchain in itself is, therefore, not a panacea. Interventions for social change must include gender justice-conscious policymaking, as well as nationwide conscientization of the underpinnings of gender digital disparities. This study’s findings are integral to advancing studies in gender disparities in a sociotechnical arena. It also contributes to knowledge emanating from the Global South, particularly regarding emerging technology

The 21st Century way of Dealing with Some Issues Related to Project Teams

This article addresses the issues that comes up as a result of working in a group on project. Assembling a good team is important in any phase of business, but it is especially important when managing a project to make sure that the work can get done on time and on budget. The process of acquiring a project team takes place within the executing processes and is concerned with confirming human resource availability and obtaining the personnel needed to complete project assignments. It is complicated by the fact that individuals with different skill sets will be required at different points throughout the project

Antiquity versus Modernity: Aspects of Lifestyles and Life-conditions

Biology and ecology set optimal limits to our potential for development and significant deviations from these limits threaten our well-being and existence. Yet there seems to be little, if any, concern, for those significant deviations that are atavistic and are reinforced by or are generated from Western industrial modernity, which most Third World countries have adopted as their favoured approach to national development. This paper focuses on nine of the areas in which these deviations occur. The measure of deviation, explicitly or implicitly made, is a select set of lifestyles and life-conditions in modernity and antiquity. The emphasis in this paper on ecologically or biologically efficient lifestyles and life-conditions in antiquity is not a recommendation to return to the ways of antiquity; it is to highlight the principles and values of wellness embedded in those ways in order to provoke further discussions and to imply either that creative adaptations of those lifestyles and life-conditions are desirable or that policy interventions may be required to address deviations from them.Keywords: antiquity, modernity, life-conditions, biology, ecolog

Developing a Verification Program for Sanitation and Pasteurisation Activities during Pineapple Juice Production

Pineapple juice is a popular refreshing drink served in most catering establishments in Ghana. Despite its nutritious benefits, a number of spoilage microorganisms have been associated with the juice with the most important one being Saccharomyces cerevisiae which is known to reduce the shelf life of the product. It is imperative to put in place certain control measures such as hygiene or temperature controls, which have to be verified that they are indeed under control in order to limit microbial contamination and growth. Most small and medium-sized enterprises in the food production industry in Ghana do not have quality management systems due to lack of support and technical expertise. This present work was aimed at developing an on-going verification program, based on existing literature, for the pasteurisation and sanitation activities during pineapple juice production. The main focus was on the critical factors influencing the effectiveness of the pasteurisation and sanitation activities and how verification had to be done in terms of frequency, person responsible, methods/sources of information, documentation requirements and verification data analysis. A verification program has been successfully developed and is being suggested to pineapple juice production companies for implementation. Keywords: Sanitation, pasteurisation, pineapple juice processing, verification, quality assuranc