ESCALATION OF ISLAMIST INSURGENCY IN WEST AFRICA: PREVENTING THE SPREAD OF THE PHENOMENON TO THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF GHANA

The Islamist insurgency in West Africa has evolved into a cause for substantial alarm as the phenomenon escalates across international borders. The affiliation of the insurgent groups with global extremist organizations, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Islamic State (IS), indicates the groups’ ambition to form a caliphate in the region. This study aims to assess the possibility of Islamist insurgency in West Africa spreading to Ghana’s territory and to suggest how to enhance the government’s strategy for preventing the insurgency phenomenon. The study confirms that Ghana is not currently facing any form of insurgency or terrorist attacks. However, conditions that gave rise to insurgencies in other West African countries exist in Ghana. The situation could spread to Ghana since the overarching objective of the Islamist insurgents is to form a caliphate in the West African region. Additionally, the strategy being used by Ghana to prevent the spread of Islamist insurgency to its territory has some gaps such as ineffective surveillance and intelligence gathering, competition and turf war among the security agencies, and reliance on military operations at the detriment of resolving the root cause of insurgency, among others. These gaps could be exploited by the insurgents to infiltrate the country. The study recommends that the Ghanaian government strive to address the root causes of insurgency and establish a cordial relationship with the populace.Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.Lieutenant Colonel, Ghana Arm

Beyond the glass ceiling: an exploration of the experiences of female corporate organizational leaders in Ghana

Although an increase in the inclusion of women in the global labor market has been reported in recent times, existing literature show that women are still heavily underrepresented in organizational leadership positions. Many studies in this area mainly focused on perceived barriers to women’s ascend to leadership positions, while little attention is paid to insights into the lived experiences of women who have already managed to assume leadership positions. This study was conducted to plug this gap in the literature. We interviewed 10 women corporate organizational leaders in Ghana to share their lived experiences as female leaders within the Ghanaian context. Our findings reveal that women still face several challenges even after breaking the glass ceiling to attain leadership positions in corporate organizations in Ghana. The main challenges were raised around the issue of gender, discrimination, age, their roles as mothers and wives. On the other hand, their positions also came with benefits and opportunities such as improved financial status, a command for respect as well as increasing their social and business networking capacity. More importantly, age although a disadvantage for the young women leaders, it was seen as a resource for older women as it enhances their respect and seen as performance of motherhood roles in this Ghanaian context. The study concludes that although women leaders’ experiences are largely negative, older women leaders seemed to utilize their positions actively and creatively and perform pseudo-motherhood roles which in turn helps them in the performance of their leadership roles.publishedVersio

Caregiver perceptions of children in their care and motivations for the care work in children's homes in Ghana: Children of God or children of white men?

The perceptions and motivations that workers have in their work and work environment are important determinants of the quality of work they do. For people who work in residential institutions where children who have lost the care of their parents receive care, these perceptions and motivations become a crucial part in determining the quality of services or care the children are given. This study set out to explore the perceptions and motivations of caregivers in the institutional context in Ghana. Adopting a qualitative, phenomenological approach, data were collected from 35 caregivers in two children's homes in Ghana through participant observations, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. It emerged that caregivers perceived the children in their care first as children of God and then as children of white men and were predominantly motivated by their religious convictions to keep doing ‘the work of God’. Other motivations included personal life situations and economic aspects of the job. Implications for the workers and children in this environment are discussed.publishedVersio

Covariates and Spatial Interpolation of HIV Screening in Mozambique:Insight from the 2015 AIDS Indicator Survey

We examined the factors associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening and developed a HIV screening prevalence surface map using spatial interpolation techniques to identify the geographical areas with the highest and lowest rates of HIV screening in Mozambique. We analyzed the cross-sectional 2015 Mozambique AIDS Indicator Surveys with an analytic sample of 12,995 participants. Analyses were conducted on SPSS-21, STATA-14, and R freeware 3.5.3. We adjusted for the sample design and population weights. Results indicated that 52.5% of Mozambicans had undergone HIV screening. Mozambicans with these characteristics have a higher probability of undergoing HIV screening: females, those with a primary education or higher, urban dwellers, residents of wealthy households, having at least one lifetime sexual partner, and dwelling in these provinces—Niassa, Tete, Manica, Sofala, Inhambane, Gaza, Maputo Provincia, and Maputo Cidade. The spatial map revealed that the national and regional estimates mask sub-regional level estimates. Generally, zones with the highest HIV screening prevalence are found in southern provinces while the lowest prevalence was found in the northern provinces. The map further revealed intraregional differences in HIV screening estimates. We recommend that HIV screening be expanded, with equitable screening resource allocations that target more nuanced areas within provinces which have a low HIV screening prevalence

Caring for "parentless" children: An exploration of work-related experiences of caregivers in children's homes in Ghana

Background: Child caregiving work is an essential occupational activity that makes important contributions to the wellbeing of children in the global community. In residential institutions that provide care for children without parental care (CWPC), the often difficult backgrounds of the resident children imply that people signing up for employment as caregivers face challenging work tasks. In the context of Ghana, West Africa, the nature of the socio-cultural and political landscape for raising children adds to the backgrounds of the children to suggest that the work situation could be even more complicated for people entering this occupation. Interestingly, when research is initiated into this complex world of care, the focus tends to be on outcomes for the children. Policy and research priorities have often been to understand the various ways in which the lives and development of the children are affected by that environment. In this sense, attention is rarely paid to the experiences of the employees whose job it is to look after the children. How caregivers experience and navigate this work environment and the impacts that their work has on their health, wellbeing and work practices is therefore largely unknown. This lack of knowledge bodes for scientific understanding and evidence-based occupational intervention to support caregivers on whose successes the children’s growth and wellbeing depend. Purpose: This project was designed to explore this largely unknown area of work. The idea was to generate insights regarding the work-related experiences of employed caregivers in children’s homes (CHs) in a context like Ghana. Using the standpoint of the health promotion theory of Salutogenesis, the project aim was specifically to generate knowledge about caregiver perception of the CWPC in their care, the care work itself and their motivation for doing what they do in the context where they do it. It was also to try to understand the types, nature and sources of possible stressors confronting caregivers in their work and the resources that they draw on to manage their work situation. Finally the project was intended to explore in-depth, the implications that the structuring and funding of CHs have for caregiver work performance and health. Methodology: A qualitative approach with phenomenological design was adopted for this exploration. This approach and design were chosen because of the interest in obtaining in-depth insight into caregivers’ subjective as well as shared lived experiences and meaning making of the phenomenon of caregiving as a job within the children’s home context in Ghana. A combination of participant observation, focus group discussions and individual interviews was used to collect data. The final textual data were analyzed using thematic network analyses. Findings: It was found that caregivers perceived the residential children as children of God, belonging to ‘white men’ (due to the use of children’s rights laws to raise them) and difficult to raise. Caregivers were mainly motivated by faith or religion, personal social circumstances (such as childlessness) and economic gain. Interestingly, it emerged that aspects of the work environment that were identified as stressors also tended to be resources for caregivers. These included the children, issues related to child rights, the job itself, the work environment, institution-community relations and relationships between caregivers and their own families. Caregiver faith and intrinsic motivation stood out as the primary reported resources. It was also found that the structure adopted by children’s homes impacts caregiver work performance by increasing work stress levels, complicating some caregivers’ ability to bond with the children and limiting the amount of time that some caregivers have to spend with their own families. These impacts then exposed caregivers to physical, mental and social health risk factors including injuries from slips and falls, mental strain, and loss of social support. Further, it emerged that funding source impacts the frequency of training caregivers receive, the extent of help caregivers receive with their own healthcare costs as well as the extent to which caregivers utilize international regulations like child rights principles in doing their jobs. Conclusion: Caregiver perceptions of the CWPC in their care and motivations for the care work are primarily influenced by their belief systems, cultural values, personal social desires and interpretation of international children’s rights laws. While certain perceptions of CWPC (e.g. as “God’s children”) lead caregivers to show a willingness to engage perceived difficulties in the work, interpretations of international children’s rights laws as “foreign”, spoiling of children, threatening to their jobs and non-fitting to the Ghanaian socio-cultural context affects their attitudes and behaviours towards their jobs and the children. Caregivers experience stress from multiple sources in their work and rely primarily on religion and personal strength as resources to deal with the stressors with little support from their institutions. The structuring of the institutions further complicates the stress situation for caregivers with sources of funding sometimes adding to caregiver stress and other times buffering caregivers against stress. The findings suggest a need for stakeholders’ careful attention to work design and strategizing for residential institutions like children’s homes taking into account caregiver health and well-being. Careful attention to education and the strategies adopted for the implementation of international law and principles in local contexts is also suggested by the findings

Beyond the glass ceiling: an exploration of the experiences of female corporate organizational leaders in Ghana

Although an increase in the inclusion of women in the global labor market has been reported in recent times, existing literature show that women are still heavily underrepresented in organizational leadership positions. Many studies in this area mainly focused on perceived barriers to women’s ascend to leadership positions, while little attention is paid to insights into the lived experiences of women who have already managed to assume leadership positions. This study was conducted to plug this gap in the literature. We interviewed 10 women corporate organizational leaders in Ghana to share their lived experiences as female leaders within the Ghanaian context. Our findings reveal that women still face several challenges even after breaking the glass ceiling to attain leadership positions in corporate organizations in Ghana. The main challenges were raised around the issue of gender, discrimination, age, their roles as mothers and wives. On the other hand, their positions also came with benefits and opportunities such as improved financial status, a command for respect as well as increasing their social and business networking capacity. More importantly, age although a disadvantage for the young women leaders, it was seen as a resource for older women as it enhances their respect and seen as performance of motherhood roles in this Ghanaian context. The study concludes that although women leaders’ experiences are largely negative, older women leaders seemed to utilize their positions actively and creatively and perform pseudo-motherhood roles which in turn helps them in the performance of their leadership roles

Care-‘less’: exploring the interface between child care and parental control in the context of child rights for workers in children’s homes in Ghana

Abstract Background This study explored how employed caregivers experience the interface between child care, parental control and child rights in the context of Children’s Homes in Ghana. The focus was on investigating caregiver perceptions of proper child care, their experiences with having to work with child rights principles and the implication of these for their relationships with the children and the care services they deliver. Methods Adopting a qualitative approach with phenomenological design, data were collected from 41 caregivers in two children’s homes in Ghana using focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. Results It emerged that caregivers experienced frustrations with perceived limitations that child rights principles place on their control over the children describing it as lessening and, at the same time, complicating the care services they provide. Conclusions The findings suggest a need for a review of the implementation strategies of the child rights approach in that context. A re-organization of the children’s homes environment and re-orientation of caregivers and children regarding their relationship is also suggested

Correlates of blood pressure and blood glucose screenings in Cameroon: insights from the 2018 Demographic and Health Survey.

BackgroundHypertension and diabetes, two major risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases, are associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. Early detection through screening can initiate early treatment to reduce adverse outcomes. The current study sought to investigate the correlates of blood pressure and blood glucose screenings in Cameroon.MethodsWe used secondary data from the 2018 Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey. Adjusting for a complex sample design, we performed multivariate prevalence ratio estimates of the blood pressure and blood glucose screenings.ResultsApproximately 60% and 30% of Cameroonians had undergone blood pressure and blood glucose screenings, respectively. More females (68%) had undergone blood pressure screenings compared with their male counterparts (44.1%). In the multivariate model, gender, age, education, marital status, household wealth index and region of residence were significantly associated with both blood pressure and blood glucose screenings in the full sample. Previous blood pressure screening was associated with an increased likelihood of blood glucose screening and vice versa. A modification effect of gender was observed in the association between the correlates and both outcomes.ConclusionOur findings uncovered individuals with a decreased likelihood for blood pressure and blood glucose screenings and this can inform policy decisions to ensure targeted screening aimed at early detection and management

Correlates of blood pressure and blood glucose screenings in Cameroon: insights from the 2018 Demographic and Health Survey.

BackgroundHypertension and diabetes, two major risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases, are associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. Early detection through screening can initiate early treatment to reduce adverse outcomes. The current study sought to investigate the correlates of blood pressure and blood glucose screenings in Cameroon.MethodsWe used secondary data from the 2018 Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey. Adjusting for a complex sample design, we performed multivariate prevalence ratio estimates of the blood pressure and blood glucose screenings.ResultsApproximately 60% and 30% of Cameroonians had undergone blood pressure and blood glucose screenings, respectively. More females (68%) had undergone blood pressure screenings compared with their male counterparts (44.1%). In the multivariate model, gender, age, education, marital status, household wealth index and region of residence were significantly associated with both blood pressure and blood glucose screenings in the full sample. Previous blood pressure screening was associated with an increased likelihood of blood glucose screening and vice versa. A modification effect of gender was observed in the association between the correlates and both outcomes.ConclusionOur findings uncovered individuals with a decreased likelihood for blood pressure and blood glucose screenings and this can inform policy decisions to ensure targeted screening aimed at early detection and management