Oil in Ghana: a curse or not? Examining environmental justice and the social process in policymaking

There is great expectation that oil development in Ghana will catapult the nation towards prosperity and lead to drastic improvement in the wellbeing of Ghanaians. However, there is also concern that Ghana could fail to achieve these due to the resource curse notwithstanding the fact that scholars of the curse have yet to agree on the inevitability of the curse. Resource curse scholars adduce different reasons for its occurrence or absence. One thing common among the scholars, however, is that none discusses environmental justice in the context of the curse. In this dissertation, I examine Ghana's attempts at avoiding the resource curse through policymaking and implementation using the Guidelines on Environmental Assessment and Management of Ghana's offshore oil sector as a case study. I argue that a strong environmental justice frame is required to avert the curse in Ghana. Specifically, I assess the policy process in Ghana's oil sector, the institutional framework for managing the sector, and analyze the perception of environmental justice for policymaking. The outcome of these assessments show that although the policy process requires broadening for full and effective participation, Ghana has checks and balances policies to avert the resource curse and to deliver environmental justice in the oil sector. In addition, Ghana has an institutional framework that requires strengthening, in various way, in order for it to complement the checks and balances policie

Transformative innovation policy approach to e-waste management in Ghana: perspectives of actors on transformative changes

Ghana, as in many African countries, is faced with the challenge of sustainably managing electronic waste (e-waste). The country has a legal framework and is in the process of developing a public policy for e-waste management. However, e-waste management remains a major challenge due to weaknesses in the country’s innovation and policymaking process that include inability to cater for the informal sector. This article argues that the current approach to innovation policymaking in Ghana would be inadequate in delivering the goal of sustainable e-waste management. We examine the country’s evolving e-waste management regime and the multiple perspectives of actors with respect to their perceived transformative changes and show that these perspectives and expectations are critical for an e-waste policymaking process. We conclude that policy processes adopted in developing countries for e-waste management should be guided by inclusive policymaking approaches that consider perspectives from informal actors to co-create solutions

UNT Research Symposium on African Studies

Presentation for the 2015 University of North Texas (UNT) Student and Faculty Research Symposium on African Studies. This presentation discusses avoiding the resource curse and challenges of the policy process in a nascent-oil-producing country in West Africa

Barriers to women’s participation in higher engineering education: a qualitative assessment of the role of social networks of students in a Ghanaian university

Abstract Engineering is critical for socio-economic development, however only a few women participate in engineering education and careers. This study aimed to identify the types of negative information propagated by the social networks of engineering students that could create barriers to students, and particularly women’s retention in engineering education and careers, and assess whether they influence men and women differently. The study was exploratory hence six focus group discussions were conducted with undergraduate engineering students in their second, third, and fourth years of study in a Ghanaian university. An interview guide was used to, among others, examine the perceptions and misconceptions of students’ social networks about engineering and the negative information that circulates within the networks. Demotivating information from students’ social networks were mainly misconceptions such as (1) engineering is too difficult and strenuous for women, and only meant for strong and well-built people, (2) engineering negatively affects women’s beauty and body image, (3) engineering makes women unfashionable and unattractive, and (4) engineering is a threat to marital and family lives. Both female and male students were negatively affected by misinformation about engineering being difficult and having limited job prospects as well as societal preferences for other programmes such as medicine. The misinformation could serve as a barrier, especially for students lacking ‘faith and the spirit of perseverance’ to pursue and graduate from engineering programmes. While efforts are being made to bridge the gender gap in engineering education and careers, there are misconceptions and misinformation that can hinder progress toward achieving the desired gender parity. Educational policies must integrate gender-responsive strategies including addressing the socio-cultural and stereotypical factors and public misconceptions. There is a need to provide strategic counselling services to engineering students to be able to cope with the effects of negative information from their social networks especially during the early years of their studies in the universities