Promoting behavioural interventions to control non-communicable diseases among children in resource-constrained settings

No Abstract

Examining Preschool and Kindergarten Teachers’ Beliefs about Play in Ghana

Children all over the world engage in play. However, there are variations in their play activities. Play is present in all cultures (Singer & Singer, 1990), involves a wide array of behaviors from decisive to indecisive, and continues to be a key area of study from diversified viewpoints, ranging from ecological to cognitive (Sutton-Smith, 1993; Wolfberg & Schuler, 1993). Though categorical, criteria, and continuum approaches have assisted in organizing and classifying play activities, no definition or approach has accurately captured the range of behaviors that could be construed as play (Howard, Jenvey & Hill, 2006; Moyles, 2001). Even though play is defined variously by different authors, The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has recognized it as a fundamental right of every child because it is a natural universal phenomenon that is essential for children’s optimal learning and development (Frost & Norquist, 2007; Ginsburg, 2007; Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1989

Foreign ownership, financial contraints and financing decisions: evidence from Ghana and China

Firms playa pivotal role in every economy. Therefore their financial standing should be of great concern to policy-makers, as this may directly affect the overall performance of the economy. Corporate finance literature however suggests that market imperfections resulting from conflicts of interest and informational asymmetries, between different economic agents, limit firms in their ability to finance investment projects. Yet, the extent to which firms are limited depends greatly on their size, ownership, exporting status, risk level and even location. In fact, many studies believe that unless by some policy directives pertaining to a particular country, foreign, exporting, large, less risky and firms in developed regions will under normal circumstances be less financially constrained than their counterparts, domestic, non-exporting, small, more risky and firms in undeveloped regions respectively. For domestic firms, some evidence exists that their financial constraints can be alleviated by the entrance of foreign firms. In this thesis, we try and incorporate as many of these determinants as possible bearing in mind data availability. As a result, in the first part of this study, we address the issue of financial constraints of foreign and domestic firms as well as crowding out effects of domestic firms in Ghana. To the best of our knowledge, no study has attempted to address this particular issue on Ghana. We then move a step higher in the second part of our study by considering this same topic in China but then looking at it using firms with different degrees of foreign ownership. Not only do we do this, but we also carry out regional analysis in this respect. All these are made possible by the quality of dataset that we use in our analyses. Again, to the best of our knowledge, no study has addressed this issue on China in this manner. In the last part of our study, we take a different tum altogether and examine mainly the sensitivities of both long-term debt and short-term debt to cash flow and collateral respectively for globally-engaged firms (foreign-owned and exporting firms) as well as firms in the coastal and non-coastal regions of China. We find very interesting results from these analyses. With regards to evidence on firm financial constraints in Ghana, we find that domestic firms are more financially constrained than foreign firms and that foreign firms' presence has no impact on domestic firms in Ghana. For the results on China, while we find no difference between the financial constraints of purely domestic firms and joint ventures, we find that wholly-foreign owned firms are less financially constrained than purely domestic firms. We however find that the presence of foreign firms help alleviate purely domestic firms from their financial constraints. For the regional analysis, estimates based on this suggest firms in the coastal region are less financially constrained than firms in the non-coastal region. Regarding the sensitivities of both short-term debt and long-term debt to cash flow and collateral, whilst we find that highly globally engaged firms have a higher sensitivity of long-term debt to cash flow than non-globally engaged firms, we find that globally engaged firms' short-term debt have a lower sensitivity to collateral than non-globally engaged firms. As for the regional analysis, our result show that both the short-term debt and long-term debts of firms in the coastal region have a higher sensitivity to collateral and cash flow respectively than the sensitivities of short-term debt and long-term debt to cash flow and collateral of firms in the non-coastal region

Foreign ownership, financial contraints and financing decisions: evidence from Ghana and China

Firms playa pivotal role in every economy. Therefore their financial standing should be of great concern to policy-makers, as this may directly affect the overall performance of the economy. Corporate finance literature however suggests that market imperfections resulting from conflicts of interest and informational asymmetries, between different economic agents, limit firms in their ability to finance investment projects. Yet, the extent to which firms are limited depends greatly on their size, ownership, exporting status, risk level and even location. In fact, many studies believe that unless by some policy directives pertaining to a particular country, foreign, exporting, large, less risky and firms in developed regions will under normal circumstances be less financially constrained than their counterparts, domestic, non-exporting, small, more risky and firms in undeveloped regions respectively. For domestic firms, some evidence exists that their financial constraints can be alleviated by the entrance of foreign firms. In this thesis, we try and incorporate as many of these determinants as possible bearing in mind data availability. As a result, in the first part of this study, we address the issue of financial constraints of foreign and domestic firms as well as crowding out effects of domestic firms in Ghana. To the best of our knowledge, no study has attempted to address this particular issue on Ghana. We then move a step higher in the second part of our study by considering this same topic in China but then looking at it using firms with different degrees of foreign ownership. Not only do we do this, but we also carry out regional analysis in this respect. All these are made possible by the quality of dataset that we use in our analyses. Again, to the best of our knowledge, no study has addressed this issue on China in this manner. In the last part of our study, we take a different tum altogether and examine mainly the sensitivities of both long-term debt and short-term debt to cash flow and collateral respectively for globally-engaged firms (foreign-owned and exporting firms) as well as firms in the coastal and non-coastal regions of China. We find very interesting results from these analyses. With regards to evidence on firm financial constraints in Ghana, we find that domestic firms are more financially constrained than foreign firms and that foreign firms' presence has no impact on domestic firms in Ghana. For the results on China, while we find no difference between the financial constraints of purely domestic firms and joint ventures, we find that wholly-foreign owned firms are less financially constrained than purely domestic firms. We however find that the presence of foreign firms help alleviate purely domestic firms from their financial constraints. For the regional analysis, estimates based on this suggest firms in the coastal region are less financially constrained than firms in the non-coastal region. Regarding the sensitivities of both short-term debt and long-term debt to cash flow and collateral, whilst we find that highly globally engaged firms have a higher sensitivity of long-term debt to cash flow than non-globally engaged firms, we find that globally engaged firms' short-term debt have a lower sensitivity to collateral than non-globally engaged firms. As for the regional analysis, our result show that both the short-term debt and long-term debts of firms in the coastal region have a higher sensitivity to collateral and cash flow respectively than the sensitivities of short-term debt and long-term debt to cash flow and collateral of firms in the non-coastal region

Foreign direct investment spillovers and the Ghanaian local financial environment

Using the bound cointegration test, we examine how Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) influences Ghana’s growth through the financial environment. We use data from different sources including the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank, covering the period 1977-2010 to address this. Our key results are interesting. Specifically, our results show that, both in the short run and in the long run, FDI will have a better influence on growth in a sound financial environment. However, whiles the capital market is important to propel FDI’s influence on Ghana’s growth in the long-run; in the short run, developing the banking sector alone is not sufficient to achieve growth. Banking sector development needs FDI to influence growth. Our results justify enormous efforts made by Ghana to attract FDI and further suggest that the continuation of this policy will be beneficial to the economy given the relative progress made with regards to banking system and capital market development over the past two decades

Who is utilizing anti-retroviral therapy in Ghana: An analysis of ART service utilization

Abstract Introduction The global scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV patients has led to concerns regarding inequities in utilization of ART services in resource-limited contexts. In this paper, we describe regional and sex differentials in the distribution of ART among adult HIV patients in Ghana. We highlight the need for interventions to address the gender-based and geographic inequities related to the utilization of ART services in Ghana. Methods We reviewed National AIDS/STIs Control Program’s ART service provision records from January 2003 through December 2010, extracting data on adults aged 15+ who initiated ART in Ghana over a period of eight years. Data on the number of patients on treatment, year of enrollment, sex, and region were obtained and compared. Results The number of HIV patients receiving ART in Ghana increased more than 200-fold from 197 in 2003, to over 45,000 in 2010. However, for each of six continuous years (2005-2010) males comprised approximately one-third of adults newly enrolled on ART. As ART coverage has expanded in Ghana, the proportion of males receiving ART declined from 41.7% in 2004 to 30.1% in 2008 and to 27.6% in 2010. Also, there is disproportionate regional ART utilization across the country. Some regions report ART enrollment lower than their percent share of number of HIV infected persons in the country. Conclusions Attention to the comparatively fewer males initiating ART, as well as disproportionate regional ART utilization is urgently needed. All forms of gender-based inequities in relation to HIV care must be addressed in order for Ghana to realize successful outcomes at the population level. Policy makers in Ghana and elsewhere need to understand how gender-based health inequities in relation to HIV care affect both men and women and begin to design appropriate interventions.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112797/1/12939_2011_Article_285.pd