Sexuality, migration and AIDS in Ghana

Sexual behaviour in Ghana characterizes a society in transition. Although cultural restrictions against sexuality are no longer strictly enforced, the very nature of the social organization puts a brake on some excesses. Migration removes people from these restrictions into a situation where sexual fulfilment is enhanced. This paper explores the risk factors associated with migration. Results of a large survey across Ghana indicate widespread sexual networking. There is, however, an apparent decline in the number of sexual partners in recent periods which may be related to the AIDS campaign. Yet migration acts to increase the extent of sexual networking. While many migrants have regular sexual partners, there are a substantial number of encounters with casual partners. The circular nature of migration and the maintenance of links with home through frequent visits puts people at risk at both ends of the migratory movement. This risk is increased with international migration, associated with higher than average numbers of sexual partners. An appropriate policy for the control of the spread of AIDS in Ghana, therefore, would be one which combines educational programs with strategies for removing the factors which compel young people to migrate

The conditions and care of AIDS victims in Ghana: AIDS sufferers and their relations

So far substantial effort has been devoted to the basic research necessary for AIDS prevention and rightly too. What to do with the AIDS patients, the ultimate victims of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), until very recently, had remained almost exclusively the concern of health workers. Sufferers continue to be 'guinea pigs' in the hands of scientific and medical researchers in their frantic efforts to find a cure for the disease. But the long incubation period of the disease means that, even if all HIV transmission were to halt immediately, the number of AIDS cases would continue to grow during the next decade at an average rate of ten per cent a year (Panos Dossier 1992). That aside, the number of AIDS related deaths in some places has already reached alarming proportions, and the impact on families is already manifesting itself in many ways: increasing numbers of orphans, broken families, collapsing family enterprises, loss of family income, growing number of childheaded households, etc. (see Barnett and Blaikie 1992). In economically depressed countries the strain on limited resources has begun to show as inadequate personnel and facilities have to be syphoned off to take care of AIDS patients. The message is quite clear: it is time to look at the other end of the continuum - the AIDS sufferers. It has, thus, become important now to expand discussion of AIDS to include its more general social consequences. In the early years of the epidemic in Africa, Jonathan Mann, the first co-ordinator of WHO's worldwide AIDS program, commented in an interview on German television that African societies had some advantages over Western industrial countries in that AIDS patients would not be isolated, and that their families would look after them. Thus in Africa, the condition of the AIDS sufferer will be better appreciated if it is looked at within the framework of the family

Street youth in Accra city: sexual networking in a high-risk environment and its implication for the spread of HIV/AIDS

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Postpartum sexual abstinence in the era of AIDS in Ghana: prospects for change

Postpartum sexual abstinence for females has been identified as one of the socio-cultural factors with the potential for creating conditions for the sexual spread of HIV in areas where it is practised. In general, women are expected to abstain from sex after childbirth in order to ensure the survival of the mother and child. Men are not similarly expected to abstain and that has been used to rationalize polygyny. With changes in socio-economic conditions making it more difficult now than before to maintain two or more wives, particularly in urban areas, some men will abstain like their wives for fear of HIV infection; but such men may press their wives to resume sex early. Some women, on the other hand, may give in to the demands of their husbands by reducing the prescribed duration of postpartum abstinence. If this happens without the use of effective modern contraception, fertility may be affected. Some may also enter short or long-term relationships outside marriage, hoping that they will be safe from sexually transmitted infection. Using data from the Ghana segment of the Social Dimensions of AIDS Infection Survey, the study examines the responses of women who reported postpartum sexual abstinence and that of their partners. Both men and women reported abstaining, but some women were aware that their partners did not abstain as they did. Some of the women knew the sexual partners of their partners. Mostly it was men who made the first move to resume sex. For any behavioural change to occur, attitudes towards socially-constructed practices such as postpartum sexual abstinence will need to be changed by intensive education of both men and women and also through community support

Towards an African perspective of urban sustainability: evidence from Ghana.

With over half of the world’s population living in cities, rapid urbanisation has significant implications for urban sustainable development. While urban areas drive national economies and provide opportunities for improved standards of living, they also face significant sustainable development challenges which include socio-economic inequalities, increasing poverty and informal settlements, urban sprawl, natural resource depletion and environmental degradation, and climate change impacts. Therefore, assessing the interactions between urbanisation and sustainable development at the local level is fundamentally important for guiding more sustainable urban development. There is, however, limited empirical research and understanding of the interactions between urbanisation and sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) due to a paucity of data on urban areas. This paucity of data is further exacerbated by the lack of a theoretical framework for evaluating the interactions between urbanisation and sustainable development due to the disparate nature of the two processes. To address the challenges highlighted above, this study applies a Driver-Pressure- State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) conceptual framework to explore the relationship between urbanisation and sustainable development in the context of Ghana, in order to make recommendations for urban sustainability, and to develop a conceptual model that could facilitate decision-making for the transition to sustainability in Ghanaian urban areas. This study adopted a mixed-method approach which involved collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data. A case study strategy was adopted to derive data from both secondary and primary research, with Ghana as the overarching case study. Beneath the Ghana case study were sub-case studies which explored the interactions between urbanisation and sustainable development comparatively in two urban areas (Kumasi and Obuasi), and sustainable city development in Ghana (Appolonia City project). In order to achieve the aim of the study, published data were used to assess overall sustainable development and urbanisation patterns in Ghana. In doing so, sustainable development in Ghana was assessed based on four primary dimensions of sustainable development: (i) safeguarding long-term ecological sustainability; (ii) satisfying basic needs; (iii) promoting inter-generational equity, and (iv) promoting intra-generational equity. The following processes were followed in order to assess the interactions between urbanisation and sustainable development at the local urban level in Kumasi and Obuasi: (i) spatio-temporal analysis of land cover change was undertaken using remotely-sensed satellite data to assess landscape urbanisation, with published data used to assess demographic urbanisation; (ii) data from the literature were used to assess sustainable development based on selected socio-economic indicators which covered aspects of life expectancy, education and standard of living; and (iii) a citizen perception survey (n=624) was conducted to explore the subjective experiences of respondents in the context of urbanisation and sustainable development. To explore policy response to urbanisation and sustainable development in Ghana, the country’s National Urban Policy (NUP) and Action Plan (AP) were analysed to ascertain alignment with sustainability. To assess sustainable city development (as a response to sustainable urbanisation) in Ghana, the Appolonia City project was examined to assess how it contributes to a sustainable urban form. The findings of the study have confirmed the unsustainability of overall development and the rapid pace of urbanisation in Ghana. In Kumasi and Obuasi, the findings have confirmed that landscape urbanisation has led to significant urban expansion at the expense of natural vegetation, and consistent with national patterns of urbanisation, demographic urbanisation in the two urban areas has been rapid. As a result, the population density in Kumasi decreased from 11,491 people / km2 in 1984 to 4,135 people / km2 in 2019, compared with Obuasi where the population density increased from 2,569 people / km2 in 1984 to 3,529 people / km2. The findings have confirmed that urbanisation has contributed to improvements in some aspects of sustainable development in Kumasi and Obuasi compared with overall national performance. For example, 86% and 68% of citizens in Kumasi and Obuasi respectively had access to improved sanitation in 2017, compared with the national coverage of 15%. The findings have also established the importance of citizens’ subjective experience in the context of urban sustainability and have highlighted the need to consider group differences (including Gender and economic groups) in urban sustainability decision-making. In general, the findings on Kumasi and Obuasi showed that development in the two areas was unsustainable when the trade-offs between positive impacts and challenges are considered. The findings showed that Ghana’s NUP provides useful initiatives to manage urbanisation in Ghana. However, in the current state, the contribution of the NUP to sustainability in Ghana’s urban areas is limited. The findings showed that while the Appolonia City project contributes to sustainable city development through innovative features such as mixed land-use and solar panel designs, the overall design of Appolonia City undermines diversity and wider urban sustainability by potentially creating an elite enclave. The findings confirmed that the transition to a trajectory of sustainability in Ghana’s urban areas is in a nascent stage (if a transition exists at all). The study proposes that a radical shift in policy and practice at the institutional and community levels is required to manage urbanisation at the local level into more sustainable outcomes. A DPSIR-based conceptual model is proposed to facilitate decision-making for a transition to a trajectory of urban sustainability. Overall, the findings of the study generate direct implications for policymakers in Ghana and also provide lessons for the wider SSA region

Experimental research on sexual networking in some selected areas of Ghana

Despite increasing evidence that West Africa is at a critical stage in its experience of the AIDS pandemic, there is a lack of specific information about the sexual behaviour of people in the society. To provide such information, 360 individuals were surveyed. Results indicate that the nature of sexual contacts within Ghanaian society has the potential to promote the spread of STDs and AIDS. Polygyny, central in Ghanaian socio-cultural organization, underlies the male tendency to seek multiple sexual partners. Early widowhood, the general instability of marriage and the high level of remarriage, also suggest that there is a high level of sexual networking within the society. Although Ghanaian society accepts sexual networking, and some people are even casual about the AIDS scare, it appears that people are changing their sexual habits in response to the campaign on AIDS, which seems to have succeeded in instilling fear

Livelihood and the risk of HIV/AIDS infection in Ghana: the case of female itinerant traders

Itinerant trading is the second major economic activity for women who constitute an important chain in the distribution of goods in West Africa. Historically they have played important roles in the political economy of Ghana. With the outbreak of AIDS these women, some of whom move far away from home sometimes for days or even weeks, stand the risk of being infected with HIV through their activities. Using a combination of methods including a survey, focus-group discussions and conversations with key informants, we examine how the trade is organized, the characteristics of the traders, and the risk factors that are likely to predispose them to contracting the AIDS virus. Itinerant women traders appear highly vulnerable, as women and as highly mobile people. This state of affairs, occasioned by the extremely difficult conditions in which the women work, is exploited for the sexual gratification of the men with whom they come into contact. The attempt to reduce the spread of AIDs through education has to target itinerant women traders at the points of transaction

African families and AIDS : context, reactions and potential interventions

This paper reviews publications and research reports on how sub-Saharan African families have been affected by, and reacted to, the AIDS epidemic. The nature of the African family and its variation across the regions is shown to be basic to both an understanding of how the epidemic spread and of its impact. The volume of good social science research undertaken until now on the disease in Africa is shown to be extremely small relative to the need

African families and AIDS : context, reactions and potential interventions

This paper reviews publications and research reports on how sub-Saharan African families have been affected by, and reacted to, the AIDS epidemic. The nature of the African family and its variation across the regions is shown to be basic to both an understanding of how the epidemic spread and of its impact. The volume of good social science research undertaken until now on the disease in Africa is shown to be extremely small relative to the need