Understanding Statutory ‘Regional management’ Functions and Assessing the Effectiveness of Regional Planning Management Practices in the Central Region of Ghana

Provisions of section 146 of the Local Government Act, 1993 (Act 462) on statutory ‘Regional management’ functions are not easily understandable in terms of what this actually entails. However, in effect, elements of the provisions are wider than stated. It does take some harrowing through to grasp the details. Moreover, other regional management functions are ‘indirectly’ provided in the Local Government Service Act, 2003 (Act 656). Identifying and putting all these together creates a full picture of regional management functions. Another issue is related to the effectiveness of regional planning management, at all. This study aims at identifying and understanding the details of statutory regional management and assessing the effectiveness of regional planning management practices, using the Central Region as a case. The effort and exercise corroborate formal field interactions and interviews with a representative Development Planner of the Regional Planning Co-ordinating Unit (RPCU) of the Central Regional Co-ordinating Council (CRCC). The overall details are, then, seen in terms of formal and professional management knowledge and both the tacit and enacted knowledge refocused into four main dimensions of management: ‘planning’, ‘organising’, ‘leading’ and ‘controlling’ functions. Effectiveness of regional planning management practices in the Central Region is assessed in terms of these dimensions and the contextual meaning of ‘management’. A number of proposals are made for resolving or ameliorating identified constraints and challenges. Keywords: Statutory Regional Management; Regional Planning Management Assessment; Regional Planning Management Effectiveness; Formal Management Knowledge; ‘Planning, ‘Organising’, ‘Leading’ and ‘Controlling’ Management Functions

A Narrative and Reflective Assessment of the Institutional Contexts of Strategic Regional Development Programmes and Actor-agency Roles in the Central Region of Ghana

Evolvement, initiation and implementation of regional development programmes implemented over the period 1990-2001 in the Central Region of Ghana involved a maze of institutions of international, national, regional and local stature. These programmes include the Central Regional Integrated Development Programme (CERIDEP), Tourism Development Strategy for the Central Region (TODSCER) and particularly the Natural Resource Conservation and Heritage Preservation (NRCHP) Project (NCRHPP). The Central Regional Co-ordinating Council (CRCC) and its endogenous regional agency, Central Region Development Commission (CEDECOM) designed and proposed these in agreement with their relevant stakeholders and partners. Therefore, all the relevant institutions were involved in the developments to various extents. In the post-project era, some of these institutions continue to be engaged in the successive extension and expansion of the NRCHPP’s achievement. Therefore, the institutional framework and policy contexts of these programmes remain an imperative attraction. This study is aimed at appraising and assessing the roles, effectiveness and relevant successive sustainability of the institutional contexts and framework of the regional programmes. Practical assessment approaches, mainly the narrative form and reflective learning are emphasised. A number of challenges are also identified and policy proposals made for the amelioration of these. Keywords: Strategic Regional Development Programmes; Institutional Effectiveness; Actor-agency Roles and Relationships; Practical Assessment Approaches; Narrative Form; Reflective Learning

The Challenge of Slums in the Global South and Community-led Settlement Planning and Design under UN-HABITAT’s Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme in Ga Mashie in Accra

Initially, colonial urbanisation and subsequently, spontaneous urbanisation and the growth related to both trends, as well as the post-colonial challenge of managing these, resulted in the phenomenal development of slums in the towns and cities of the developing countries, especially in Africa. Previously, slums were seen as undesirable and became targets of brutal, violent demolitions, removals and unfair relocation practices. However, global responses included the general acceptance and recognition of slum upgrading, in situ, and as an integral part of citywide scale-up. UN-HABITAT piloted its Slum Upgrading Facility (SUF) in four developing countries and upon its success, initiated the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP), which, in Ghana, was piloted in the indigenous community of Ga Mashie/Old Accra, where its residents took up their own settlement planning and design; their experience was unique, innovative and exemplary. The study appraised this initiative in terms of the PSUP phases, objectives of the participatory community settlement planning and design process, stakeholders, consultative approaches and planning techniques, proposals, implementation roadmap and the planning administration procedures involved, identified issues and challenges and made suggestions for improvement of slum settlement planning and design practices and amelioration of the conditions of the Ga Mashie community. Keywords: Inner-city slum conditions, slum upgrading initiatives, participatory community settlement planning processes, local spatial design, Ga Mashie, Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme DOI: 10.7176/HRL/54-03 Publication date:September 30th 202

Appraising Appropriate Urban Design Models in Developing Countries: An Integrated Builtscape Approach and the Case of Secondary Cities in Ghana

Urban design is increasingly becoming important in urban regeneration, development and beautification transformations in the global South, as it has been in the North. However, while urban design is an established and explicit part of the planning systems in the latter, it is far less so in the former. And a real difficulty is the tendency to apply urban design models developed in the global North in the South. While this is an inertia of colonial urbanisation and Westernism, generally, these approaches tend not to be appropriate, en masse, in the context of developing countries. This study, therefore, aimed to explore and appraise an appropriate urban design model by reviewing selected existing ones and proposing an approach considered more relevant to the built environment in a developing country like Ghana: the Integrated Builtscape model. And this was applied to appraise the impact of urban regeneration and development programmes on urban design in the two secondary cities of Cape Coast and Elmina in Ghana. Results of the routscaping, buildscaping, plantscaping, formscaping, varietyscaping, personalisascaping and legibilityscaping modeled demonstrated a basis for making relevant and respective recommendations for improving urban design, within the planning system, in Ghana and the global South generally. Keywords: Urban design approaches, Integrated Builtscape design model, urban regeneration and development, beautification, urban policy and planning, development control, secondary cities DOI: 10.7176/DCS/14-1-04 Publication date: January 31st 202

A Conceptual Risk Management Framework in the Construction of Mega Housing Projects in Egypt

Recent years have seen an increase in the number of Mega housing Projects around the world. This increase was to cater for increased population and urbanization. Construction of mega housing projects in Egypt faced a lot of challenges during the construction phase. There is no targeted framework that allows contractors to improve their risk management practice and project success during the construction of mega housing projects in Egypt. The aim of the paper is to design a conceptual Risk Management Framework for Mega Housing Projects in Egypt to improve risk practices and project success during the construction phase. The objective of the paper is to design a conceptual risk management framework to guide contractors to an efficient risk management practice during construction of mega housing projects in Egypt. The study is to review risk standards, to recognize developed risk frameworks, and to design a conceptual risk management framework (CRMF). The framework guide contractors’ in Egypt towards successful risk management practice. The CRMF included steps of risk identification, assessment, response, and risk control. Risk identification adopted risk principles from the International Standardization (ISO31000, 2018). Principles of risk management included knowledge, risk skills, challenges, and opportunities. Interviews and NVivo analysis are used as a technique of risk identification. Qualitative risk analysis included risks obtained from the identification process as input. Technique of questionnaire can guide contractors to prioritize risks based on their significance. Contractors can use Monte Carlo simulation as a quantitative technique to obtain time and cost contingency before and after adding responses. The technique of Monte Carlo analysis is used in the risk control process to highlight new contingencies after adding responsive strategies. The literature of risk management and standards were used as a backdrop to design a CRMF. The framework recognized contractors’ recent knowledge and skills and improves risk management practices during construction of mega housing projects. Contractors can use the designed conceptual risk management framework in reporting and communicating risk activities during construction of mega housing projects in Egypt

Young adults' experiences of dialysis or kidney transplant decision-making

Young adults with kidney failure experience disruptions in their education, growth development, building relationships and face employment problems during the journey of the disease (Murray et al., 2014). Once their kidneys fail, they need to make a choice about which dialysis treatment to have or whether they prefer the option of kidney transplant. So, they have to work with their health care professionals to make decisions to select their preferred dialysis or kidney transplant choice. This is known as shared decision-making. The three-talk model of shared decision making shown on the screen is used as a guide by health care professionals to encourage discussions of treatment options with patients during the shared decision-making process (Elwyn et al., 2018). A recent report by the renal registry highlighted that over 50% of young adults with kidney failure started haemodialysis as their first treatment option and less of them (14.1%) received a kidney transplant, although kidney transplantation is recommended as the best treatment (NICE, 2014). Evidence suggests that among adults with kidney failure, not all patients receive timely information on kidney failure treatment options to enable them share in the decision-making or make an informed choice, which falls short of the recommended guidelines. It matters because little is known about young adults with kidney failure experiences of dialysis or kidney transplant decision-making and how the decision to select a dialysis or kidney transplant choice may have impacted on their psychosocial and mental well-being. This is where my study plays an important role. Our involvement group who have dialysis and kidney transplant experiences as children and young adults, suggested that the study should focus on the impact of decision-making on the psychosocial and mental well-being of young adults as it was a neglected area and their views incorporated. My study will explore young adults’ experiences of decision-making to select a dialysis or kidney transplant choice. It will examine the impact of dialysis or kidney transplant decision-making on young adults psychosocial and mental well-being. Lastly it will seek to understand how young adults can be better supported during the decision-making process to enhance their coping abilities and participation in the decision-making process

Theorising theory – reflections on the BJS annual lecture

MSc student Jalal Pour, in collaboration with Naveen Khan and Ruth Ofori-Danso, offers his reflections on the recent British Journal of Sociology (BJS) Annual Lecture. The 2015 British Journal of Sociology Annual Public Lecture, entitled “Before Theory Comes Theorising or How to Make Social Science More Interesting,” took place on the 15th October in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, LSE. The talk was given by Professor Richard Swedberg, of Cornell University. In his lecture Swedberg sought to make the case that we should rethink our relationship to one of the fundamental features of sociology and the social sciences: theory. In particular, and perhaps this was aimed more at those in the academy, he was critical of the way in which theory is practiced and taught. In the following, I offer a brief summary of his central argument as well as some reflections on it

Anti-Plasmodial activities of some plants extracts used in traditional malaria therapy in Kano-Nigeria

This work was set to evaluate the antiplasmodial activities of some plants used in traditional malaria therapy in Kano State, Nigeria. Nine medicinal plants, distributed into eight families, used for treatment of malaria fever by the Hausa people of Kano-Nigeria were selected based on the traditional claims of the folks. These were collected and extracted using aqueous and organic solvents. A total of nineteen extracts and forty four extract-fractions were obtained. Thirty extracts (7 aqueous extracts, 12 ethanol extracts and 11 methanol extracts-fraction) were selected and screened for their in vitro anti-plasmodial activities against laboratory adapted chloroquine susceptible Plasmodium falciparum strain 3D7. Seven (23.33%) of these extracts that exhibited 70% or more inhibition at 50μg/mL concentration were further evaluated to establish their potency levels. The respective IC50 values obtained ranged between 0.361±0.15μg/ml and 37.67±4.20μg/ml. CALF1 from the leaves of C. aurantifolia (Rutaceae) and CBLF1 (a combination of the leaves of C. aurantifolia, Carica papaya, Mangifera indica and Psidium guajava) were further screened against a clinical isolate of P. falciparum and recorded IC50 values similar to those obtained earlier against the laboratory strain, 12.42±3.94 μg/ml for CBLF1, and 29.69±0.65μg/ml for CALF1 respectively. It could be concluded that majority of the plants have demonstrated appreciable concentration dependent in vitro anti-plasmodial effects against the laboratory adapted and field strains P. falciparum.Keywords: Plants Extracts, Traditional Malaria Therapy, Hausa people, Kano, Nigeri