INCLUDING MEN AND BOYS IN PROGRAMMING OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: A CASE STUDY OF THE SAFE SCHOOLS PROGRAM IN GHANA AND STEPPING STONES PROGRAM IN UGANDA

Violence against women and girls and its potential solutions increasingly garner international attention in the media and find themselves at the center of development agency portfolios. Program interventions aimed at eradicating violence against women and girls must create solutions that examine the socio-cultural values and normative expectations that boys and girls, men, and women place on one another. Many scholars argue that changing social norms or beliefs is an inter-generational process, as they are entrenched in and reproduced through social institutions such as the family, schools and religion (Enloe, 2013). Over the past decade, scholars and practitioners have noted violence against women and girls will not cease unless men and boys are part of the solution (Chant & Guttman, 2000). This qualitative case study assesses how contemporary interventions conceptualize social and cultural norms as constraints, opportunities or both, boys and men’s relative role in reproducing normative expectations, and how programs then attempt to address them. I focus on UN Women and USAID programming guidelines reports that detail the hard work that assists efforts to challenge attitudes, norms, and beliefs. I analyze key activities laid out in two specific case studies profiling programs designed to challenge violence against women and girls by incorporating the help of men and boys. These programs include The Safe Schools Program in Ghana and The Stepping Stones Program in Uganda. I examine how implementers design activities that boys and girls, men and women engage in. In so doing, I show advances in bringing men and boys into the dialogue and as such, this paper will be of interest to international development researchers, policymakers, and practitioners

Technical-Economic Prefeasibility Assessment of an off-grid Mini-Hydro Power Plant for an Agribusiness Resort in Kaduna Nigeria

Clean energy technologies are beginning to receive attention in Nigeria to offset the increasing greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are associated to the wide use of small-scale fossil-fuel-powered generators by about 55% of its 180-million people yet to be connected to the grid. While a large hydropower potential exists in Nigeria, even above the total electricity demand of the country, by 2013 this technology only accounted for about 32% of the total installed generation capacity connected to the grid. Previous studies have limited results in terms of technical, economic and environmental evidences that can drive choices towards small hydro and other clean energy projects for users and technology providers in Nigeria. This study uses the RETScreen Software to analyse the technical, economic and environmental aspects of a proposed mini-hydro power plant on the Tuwan River, to supply part of the energy needs of Tuwan Agribusiness Resort (TAR) located in Madakiya district, a rural community in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The volumetric flow and gross head of the chosen river were measured and the power generation system design yielded a 21kW power output, capable to partially offset the present use of diesel generators and achieve a 307.4 tCO2 equivalent GHG emission reduction. The financial analysis showed an attractive Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 68.1% and NPV of 568,178 USD (11% discount rate), owing to the high potential of the project to attract grants and tax rebates, which were put into consideration in the financial analysis. This study is important for Tuwan Agribusiness Resort, an agribusiness service provision outfit with a potential to create over 1000 jobs when fully operationa

Technical-Economic Prefeasibility Assessment of an off-grid Mini-Hydro Power Plant for an Agribusiness Resort in Kaduna Nigeria

Clean energy technologies are beginning to receive attention in Nigeria to offset the increasing greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are associated to the wide use of small-scale fossil-fuel-powered generators by about 55% of its 180-million people yet to be connected to the grid. While a large hydropower potential exists in Nigeria, even above the total electricity demand of the country, by 2013 this technology only accounted for about 32% of the total installed generation capacity connected to the grid. Previous studies have limited results in terms of technical, economic and environmental evidences that can drive choices towards small hydro and other clean energy projects for users and technology providers in Nigeria. This study uses the RETScreen Software to analyse the technical, economic and environmental aspects of a proposed mini-hydro power plant on the Tuwan River, to supply part of the energy needs of Tuwan Agribusiness Resort (TAR) located in Madakiya district, a rural community in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The volumetric flow and gross head of the chosen river were measured and the power generation system design yielded a 21kW power output, capable to partially offset the present use of diesel generators and achieve a 307.4 tCO2 equivalent GHG emission reduction. The financial analysis showed an attractive Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 68.1% and NPV of 568,178 USD (11% discount rate), owing to the high potential of the project to attract grants and tax rebates, which were put into consideration in the financial analysis. This study is important for Tuwan Agribusiness Resort, an agribusiness service provision outfit with a potential to create over 1000 jobs when fully operationa

‘To Beijing and Back’: Reflections on the Influence of the Beijing Conference on Popular Notions of Women's Empowerment in Ghana

The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was a pivotal moment for legitimating women's rights work in Ghana and served as a powerful framing for women's empowerment. This article explores the Beijing conference and examines its influence on popular notions of and efforts to promote women's empowerment. We argue that the discursive context provided by the conference shaped popular narratives about women directly and also through its influence on the ideas and practices of public institutions and civil society. There is greater acceptance that women have rights that should be promoted and protected, and that there should be institutions and systems to which they have recourse. However, significant work remains to be done in tackling the resistances and tokenism that continue to dominate public discourses and actions to advance gender equality. Further efforts to advance women's empowerment and gender equality in Ghana must therefore build on the legacy of the Beijing conference

Informalising the formal: The conditions of female agency workers in Ghana’s banking sector

The informal sector in Ghana is characterised by precarious conditions of work and high rates of poverty and, for these reasons, Ghanaian women’s participation in the sector has received sympathetic attention in the literature. By contrast, their work in the presumably more secure and rewarding formal sector—including the banking industry—has been relatively neglected. However, our research into the experiences of female bank workers hired through employment agencies reveal conditions of work that resemble those in the informal economy, with regards to contracts, wages, security of tenure, and channels of negotiation and redress.  We link the situation of these workers to processes of economic liberalisation in Ghana and globally, which encourage the informalisation of labour relations to the detriment of workers generally, and female workers in particular. RésuméLes femmes ghanéennes constituent la population majoritaire de l’économie informelle caractérisée par des conditions de travail précaires et par des taux de pauvreté élevés. Pour ces motifs, le travail informel des femmes ghanéennes a reçu une attention sympathique dans la documentation.  Notre étude du travail « formel » réalisée auprès des banques, cependant, montre que les salariées du secteur bancaire embauchées à travers les sociétés de recrutement vivent des conditions de travail semblables aux conditions de l’économie informelle en ce qui concerne les contrats, la sécurité du mandat, les salaires, les moyens de négociations et de résolution des litiges. Nous relions la situation de ces salariées aux procédés de la libéralisation économique au Ghana et, sur le plan mondial, aux conditions dans lesquelles  l’emploi formel devient de plus en plus informalisé. Ainsi, nous nous opposons à la notion qui fait croire que l’entrée des femmes dans le secteur formel  est une condition suffisante en elle-même pour leur autonomisation. 

Ghana’s retrogressive Public University Bill

The global coronavirus pandemic has compelled universities around the world to re-examine current forms of teaching and learning, and importantly, to envision a future for higher education that is more equal, more effective and less pervious to shocks. By contrast, in Ghana, a new piece of legislation proposes to set higher education back several decades. It has compelled Ghanaian academics to move to defend basic academic freedoms that have long been taken for granted, even while grappling with the institutional, professional and personal impacts of a global pandemic

Formalizing the informal and informalizing the formal? : analyzing changes in women's work in the domestic service and the banking sector in Ghana; final technical report

The study examines women’s work in two sectors- banking and paid domestic work; the formal and informal economy sectors are illustrative of some important developments in the character of women’s work. Three decades of economic liberalization have changed the structure of the labour force and women’s place within it as well as employment relations. The research provided the opportunity for strengthening local networking with the Trade Unions and civil society organizations such as LAWA Ghana who have done pioneering work on domestic labour. The research provided information for dissemination and towards policy making and strengthened research capacity

Mathematical modelling of decision making: the case of motor insurance choices

Abstract This paper employs a statistical mechanical model as a framework to investigate how socioeconomic factors of individuals such as gender and place of residence influence their decision when deciding between comprehensive and third-party motor insurance policies in Ghana. Data from a general insurance firm was used for this investigation taking five years’ worth of transactions into account. The methods of partial least squares and the ordinary least squares are, respectively, used to estimate the parameters of the interacting and the non-interacting models in the Multipopulation Currie-Weiss model in a discrete choice framework. The findings showed that both location and gender have discernible influences on how people choose their motor insurance. We encourage insurance companies to intensify their campaign on the importance of motor insurance to all vehicle/car owners, especially those in rural areas in order to reduce the risk and associated losses in vehicular accidents on Ghanaian roads

Emergence of HIV-1 drug resistance mutations in mothers on treatment with a history of prophylaxis in Ghana

Abstract Background Antiretrovirals have been available in Ghana since 2003 for HIV-1 positive pregnant women for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). Suboptimal responses to treatment observed post-PMTCT interventions necessitated the need to investigate the profile of viral mutations generated. This study investigated HIV-1 drug resistance profiles in mothers in selected centres in Ghana on treatment with a history of prophylaxis. Methods Genotypic Drug Resistance Testing for HIV-1 was carried out. Subtyping was done by phylogenetic analysis and Stanford HIV Database programme was used for drug resistance analysis and interpretation. To compare the significance between the different groups and the emergence of drug resistance mutations, p values were used. Results Participants who had prophylaxis before treatment, those who had treatment without prophylaxis and those yet to initiate PMTCT showed 32% (8), 5% (3) and 15% (4) HIV-1 drug resistance associated mutations respectively. The differences were significant with p value < 0.05. Resistance Associated Mutations (RAMs) were seen in 14 participants (35%) to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs). The most common NRTI mutation found was M184 V; K103 N and A98G were the most common NNRTI mutations seen. Thymidine Analogue Mutations (TAMs) such as M41 L, K70R and T215Y were found in all the groups; the most common of the TAMs found were M41 L and T215Y. Majority of the subtypes were CRF02_AG (82%). Conclusion In Ghana initiation of uninterrupted treatment upon diagnosis, coupled with drug resistance testing, would produce a better treatment outcome for HIV-1 positive pregnant women

Demographic characteristics of study participants.

Demographic characteristics of study participants.</p