Pan-Africanism in French-speaking West Africa, 1945-1960

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 5

Factors affecting smallholder paddy rice farmer's choice of marketing channel in the northern region of Ghana : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of AgriCommerce at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The scientific community advocates that enhancing smallholder farmers’ access to reliable, ready and direct market channel is a prerequisite to the attainment of sustainable food supply and poverty reduction in the developing world including Ghana. However, the smallholder farmers' access to direct marketing channels in Ghana has been a critical challenge; therefore, this study aims to analyse the factors that influence smallholder paddy rice farmers’ decision to participate in either the direct marketing channel specifically processors or the indirect marketing channel specifically, middlemen in the Northern Region of Ghana. Purposive sampling was used to select farmers from three rice growing districts in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study employed the Binary Logit regression model in the analysis of the factors affecting farmers’ choices of marketing channel. A t-test was also used to compare the mean yields and revenues generated by farmers who marketed their paddy rice outputs in the direct and indirect marketing channels. A five-point Likert scale was used to rank the constraints that affect the production and marketing of rice output among rice farmers. The study revealed that a lower percentage of farmers sold their paddy rice output to processors (direct channel). The Logit model showed that farm size, the price of paddy rice output per 85kg bag, access to market information and access to credit increased the farmers' participation in the direct marketing channel whereas payment period and ownership of bicycle reduced farmers' their participation. The t-test result revealed that the participation in the direct marketing channel raised farmers' revenue. The study further showed that limited access to credit, poor climatic condition, the high cost of labour, the high cost of farm inputs and low mechanisation were the top five production challenges they encountered in their rice production. Low market prices, post-harvest losses, the high cost of transportation, limited market option and low demand for local rice were the top-ranked marketing constraints reported by farmers. The study concludes that it is more profitable for farmers to sell their paddy rice output to processors instead of middlemen. Therefore, policymakers need to incorporate the significant factors of farmers’ choices of marketing channels in the formulation of agricultural policy that seeks to promote farmers’ access to direct marketing channels in developing countries including Ghana

Marginal employment and health in Germany and the United Kingdom: Does unstable employment predict health?

This study examines the possible health impact of marginal employment, including both temporary and part-time employment schemes. It addresses a growing concern in Europe that fixed-term employment and other forms of marginal employment may generate social inequality. Logistic regression models were used to analyze panel data from Germany and the U.K. (1991-93), available in the Household Panel Comparability Project data base. We included 11,980 respondents from Germany and 8,729 from the United Kingdom. The health dependent variable used was a single measure of perceived health status. -- In der Studie werden potentielle gesundheitliche Folgen prekärer Beschäftigungsverhältnisse einschließlich Zeitarbeit und Teilzeitbeschäftigung untersucht. Ausgangspunkt sind die wachsenden Befürchtungen in Europa, daß befristete Beschäftigungsverhältnisse und andere Formen prekärer Beschäftigung soziale Ungleichheit befördern könnten. Daten der Jahre 1991 bis 1993 des Household-Panel-Comparability-Projekts wurden mittels logistischer Regressionsmodelle für Deutschland (11.980 Personen) und Großbritannien (8.729 Personen) analysiert. Die Kategorie Gesundheit wurde als einzige Variable des von den Befragten selbstwahrgenommenen Gesundheitszustands herangezogen.

Branding Ghana

Ghana being a developing nation should embark on a national rebranding campaign to change its image domestically and internationally. This paper focuses on ways in which the Ghanaian government can achieve its goals, where the campaign wouldn’t just be another governmental propaganda, but prove worthy of taxpayers’ money, with the effects witnessed by all.Ghana; country branding; tourism

Structural Adjustments And Their Effects: Is There A Way Out For Africa?

The IMF and World Bank have over the years gained a stronghold in African economic policies. This is mainly due to the borrowing and lending relationship between the continent and these sister organizations. This paper seeks to address the negative effects that the IMF imposed Structural Adjustment policies have on the struggling economies of African countries and propose a solution to this problem. The paper also seeks to explore possible alternatives to taking IMF, World Bank loans and gives examples of countries who have explored such options successfully.International Monetary Fund (IMF); the World Bank(WB); Structural Adjustment Programs; loans.

The Early Years Professional: holding a mirror up to policy makers

The importance of the early years for later life outcomes is increasingly being recognised. The former Labour Government (1997-2010) in England introduced a raft of policies aimed at raising the quality of early years provision and outcomes for the youngest children. As part of the changes a new graduate professional role and status, the Early Years Professional, was introduced evidencing a new era of involvement by policy makers in the professions. Government involvement in imposing and shaping the development makes the Early Years Professional vulnerable to political change; it was developed by government and could be removed. Indeed, political change in 2010 brought considerable uncertainty about whether the Coalition Government would continue to support the development, though they have now provided funding until 2015. Alongside this uncertainty, commissioned research evidence is emerging of the positive impact of the policy agenda of the former government. A situation that has not been formally recognised, rather it appears to have gone unnoticed by policy makers. Indeed, the current government have taken a range of actions to dismantle changes previously made and there is an emerging discourse reframing the early years as a period that supports the youngest children being ‘prepared’ for education. This paper aims to address the challenges of this change of emphasis by drawing upon doctoral research critiquing the concept, implementation and impact of Early Years Professional Status as a new professional model. The research design was underpinned by Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory of Human Development and rather than being a linear development it has been impacted upon at every stage of development by instability in wider systems, therefore providing evidence that supports his under theorised ‘Chaotic System’ and that childhood is not only a development phase but one shaped by political ideolog

Universities with a commitment to social change can shape the Post-2015 agenda

The University of Northampton is the only university in the UK to achieve a 'Changemaker Campus' status from Ashoka U. As a 'Changemaker Campus', the University of Northampton is at the forefront of social innovation and entrepreneurship in the UK and Europe, and in an elite consortium of 24 universities and colleges from around the world, including institutions such as Brown University and Duke University. That means in reality that we, as staff, have taken on board the underlying philosophy of social enterprise and believe that both ourselves and our students have the ability, and indeed a responsibility, to promote change for social good. And where better to start than Early Years

The mincut graph of a graph

In this paper we introduce an intersection graph of a graph $G$, with vertex set the minimum edge-cuts of $G$. We find the minimum cut-set graphs of some well-known families of graphs and show that every graph is a minimum cut-set graph, henceforth called a \emph{mincut graph}. Furthermore, we show that non-isomorphic graphs can have isomorphic mincut graphs and ask the question whether there are sufficient conditions for two graphs to have isomorphic mincut graphs. We introduce the $r$-intersection number of a graph $G$, the smallest number of elements we need in $S$ in order to have a family $F=\{S_1, S_2 \ldots , S_i\}$ of subsets, such that $|S_i|=r$ for each subset. Finally we investigate the effect of certain graph operations on the mincut graphs of some families of graphs

Mimetic gravity: mimicking the dynamics of the primeval universe in the context of loop quantum cosmology

Mimetic gravity can be described as a formulation capable of mimicking different evolutionary scenarios regarding the universe dynamics. Notwithstanding its initial aim of producing a similar evolution to the one expected from the dark components of the standard cosmology, a recent association with loop quantum cosmology could also provide interesting results. In this work, we reinterpret the physics behind the curvature potential of mimetic gravity description of loop quantum cosmology. Furthermore, we also test the compatibility of our formulation for a Higgs-type field, proving that the mimetic curvature potential can mimic the dynamics from a Higgs inflationary model. Additionally, we discuss possible scenarios that emerge from the relationship between matter and mimetic curvature and, within certain limits, describe results for the primeval universe dynamics obtained by other authors.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure