Exploring intersections between gender-based violence and adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights in West Africa: A review of the literature produced in the sub-region

This review, commissioned by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), explores the intersection between gender-based violence (GBV) and adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (ASRHR) in the Economic Community of West African States. It is imperative to understand this intersection for research, policy, and practice purposes in a sub-region characterized by high youthful populations with significant reproductive health challenges. A mapping exercise, literature review, and gap analysis were conducted. Findings indicate that several stakeholders and organizations exist, though few are youth-led or centred. Legislation and policies are not comprehensive or necessarily enforced in a context of legal pluralism where institutions and infrastructure in place for providing services are weak. There was minimal knowledge production from the region on the GBV-ASRHR intersections, uneven attention to the issues among countries, and intersections mainly focused on female genital mutilation and child marriage. Opportunities for addressing gaps and implications for research, policy, and practice, arising from the findings are discussed.   Cette revue, commandée par le Centre canadien de recherches pour le développement international (CRDI), explore l'intersection entre la violence sexiste (VBG) et la santé et les droits sexuels et reproductifs des adolescents (ASRHR) dans la Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest. Il est impératif de comprendre cette intersection à des fins de recherche, de politique et de pratique dans une sous-région caractérisée par des populations très jeunes avec des défis importants en matière de santé reproductive. Un exercice de cartographie, une revue de la littérature et une analyse des lacunes ont été menés. Les résultats indiquent qu'il existe plusieurs intervenants et organisations, bien que peu soient dirigés ou centrés sur les jeunes. La législation et les politiques ne sont pas complètes ou nécessairement appliquées dans un contexte de pluralisme juridique où les institutions et les infrastructures en place pour fournir des services sont faibles. Il y avait une production minimale de connaissances de la région sur les intersections GBV-ASRHR, une attention inégale aux problèmes entre les pays et des intersections principalement axées sur les mutilations génitales féminines et le mariage des enfants. Les opportunités de combler les lacunes et les implications pour la recherche, les politiques et la pratique, découlant des résultats sont discutées

‘To Beijing and Back’: Reflections on the Influence of the Beijing Conference on Popular Notions of Women's Empowerment in Ghana

The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was a pivotal moment for legitimating women's rights work in Ghana and served as a powerful framing for women's empowerment. This article explores the Beijing conference and examines its influence on popular notions of and efforts to promote women's empowerment. We argue that the discursive context provided by the conference shaped popular narratives about women directly and also through its influence on the ideas and practices of public institutions and civil society. There is greater acceptance that women have rights that should be promoted and protected, and that there should be institutions and systems to which they have recourse. However, significant work remains to be done in tackling the resistances and tokenism that continue to dominate public discourses and actions to advance gender equality. Further efforts to advance women's empowerment and gender equality in Ghana must therefore build on the legacy of the Beijing conference

Women's Organizing in Ghana since the 1990s: From individual organizations to three coalitions

Dzodzi Tsikata focuses on the progress of women's organizing in Ghana over the last ten years. It argues that although hampered by challenges of state society relations and organizational weaknesses arising from NGOization, women's organizations have experienced growth and enjoyed some successes. These can be attributed to the establishment of three women's rights networks to consolidate their work. Development (2009) 52, 185–192. doi:10.1057/dev.2009.8

Discourses on Women's Empowerment in Ghana

Successive post-independence governments have embraced women's empowerment in one form or another, either because of their own ideological positioning, or because of demands by their ‘donor friends/partners’ and/or organized domestic groups and NGOs. What has emerged is a varied landscape on women's rights and empowerment work comprising the state bureaucracy, multilateral and bilateral agencies, NGOs, and women's rights organizations, with their accompanying discourses. In the Ghanaian context, Nana Akua Anyidoho and Takyiwaa Manuh look at what the discourses of empowerment highlight, ignore or occlude, the convergences and divergences among them, and how they speak to or accord with the lived realities of the majority of Ghanaian women. Given that the policy landscape in Ghana is highly influenced by donors, they ask which discourses dominate, and how are they used for improving women's lives in ways that are meaningful to them.

Africa in contemporary perspective : a textbook for undergraduate students

An important feature of Ghanaian tertiary education is the foundational African Studies Programme which was initiated in the early 1960s. Unfortunately hardly any readers exist which bring together a body of knowledge on the themes, issues and debates which inform and animate research and teaching in African Studies particularly on the African continent. This becomes even more important when we consider the need for knowledge on Africa that is not Eurocentric or sensationalised, but driven from internal understandings of life and prospects in Africa. Dominant representations and perceptions of Africa usually depict a continent in crisis. Rather than buying into external representations of Africa, with its 'lacks' and aspirations for Western modernities, we insist that African scholars in particular should be in the forefront of promoting understanding of the pluri-lingual, overlapping, and dense reality of life and developments on the continent, to produce relevant and usable knowledge. Continuing and renewed interest in Africa's resources, including the land mass, economy, minerals, visual arts and performance cultures, as well as bio-medical knowledge and products, by old and new geopolitical players, obliges African scholars to transcend disciplinary boundaries and to work with each other to advance knowledge and uses of those resources in the interests of Africa's people

Co-Wives

Aikins JK, Manuh T. Co-Wives. In: Smith BG, ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Vol 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2007: 503-505

PROTOCOL: The impact of infrastructure on low‐income consumers' nutritious diet, women's economic empowerment, and gender equality in low‐ and middle‐income countries: An evidence and gap map

Abstract This is the protocol for an evidence and gap map. The objectives are as follows: this evidence and gap map (EGM) aims to identify, map, and provide an overview of the existing evidence and gaps on the impact of different types of physical infrastructure on various outcomes of low‐income consumers' nutritious diet, women's economic empowerment, and gender equality in low‐ and middle‐income countries. The specific objectives of the EGM are: (1) identify clusters of evidence that offer opportunities for evidence synthesis and (2) identify gaps in evidence where new studies, research, and evaluations are needed