Scaling up women’s agripreneurship through public-private linkages to improve rural women’s income, nutrition and the effectiveness of institutions in rural Ghana (Linking Up : women’s agripreneurship sustainability and scale-up project)

Over one-third of rural Ghanaians live below the poverty line, with women and children living in poverty having the highest risk of poor nutrition and health. Sustained integrated approaches that increase agricultural productivity and value addition, diversify incomes, and enhance knowledge and skills among all stakeholders, notably women are required to improve the well-being of rural communities. The Scaling up women’s agripreneurship through public-private linkages to improve rural women’s income, nutrition, and the effectiveness of institutions in rural Ghana project (Linking Up) is a follow-up study to build on the results of the Nutrition Links project (NLP) funded by the Canadian Government (2013-18). The NLP’s multi-sectoral integrated livelihoods, nutrition, agriculture and health intervention with rural women groups in the Upper Manya Krobo District (UMKD) of the Eastern Region decreased household food insecurity, increased women’s access to income and improved young children’s diets and nutritional status. However, efforts to sustain the intervention through multisectoral collaborations by local institutions were unsuccessful due primarily to the lack of integration of sustainability mechanisms into the regular operations of the local institutions. In this report we note factors identified that facilitate or impede women’s participation in farming and agri-food entrepreneur associations supported by local institutions

The conditionality of norms: The case of bridewealth

Social norms are rules that prescribe and proscribe behavior. The application of norms is conditional. But scholars have little systematic understanding of the factors that affect conditionality. We argue that understanding norms requires assessing the costs and benefits of focal and nonfocal behaviors for norm targets, beneficiaries, and enforcers. We develop hypotheses about two combinations of these factors; we hypothesize that costs to the norm target of complying with the norm and behavior by the norm beneficiary that hurts the norm target weaken the norm. We use a vignette experiment to test our hypotheses in the context of bridewealth norms in Africa. The results are consistent with the predictions. The study contributes to literature on norms by suggesting a systematic approach to understanding norm conditionality

Household food sources and diarrhoea incidence in poor urban communities, Accra Ghana.

Diarrhoeal diseases remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in poor urban communities in the Global South. Studies on food access and safety have however not considered the sources of discrete food categories and their propensity to harbour and transmit diarrhoeal disease pathogens in poor urban settings. We sought to contribute to knowledge on urban food environment and enteric infections by interrogating the sources and categories of common foods and their tendency to transmit diarrhoea in low-income communities in Accra. We modelled the likelihood of diarrhoea transmission through specific food categories sourced from home or out of home after controlling for alternate transmission pathways and barriers. We used structured interviews where households that participated in the study were selected through a multi-stage systematic sampling approach. We utilized data on 506 households from 3 low-income settlements in Accra. These settlements have socio-economic characteristics mimicking typical low-income communities in the Global South. The results showed that the incidence of diarrhoea in a household is explained by type and source of food, source of drinking water, wealth and the presence of children below five years in the household. Rice-based staples which were consumed by 94.5% of respondents in the week preceding the survey had a higher likelihood of transmitting diarrhoeal diseases when consumed out of home than when eaten at home. Sources of hand-served dumpling-type foods categorized as "staple balls" had a nuanced relationship with incidence of diarrhoea. These findings reinforce the need for due diligence in addressing peculiar needs of people in vulnerable conditions of food environment in poor urban settlements in order to reap a co-benefit of reduced incidence of diarrhoea while striving to achieve the global development goal on ending hunger

Sense of community and willingness to support malaria intervention programme in urban poor Accra, Ghana

Abstract Background The extensive research on community members’ willingness to support malaria interventions ignores the role of psychosocial determinants. This study assesses the impact of individuals’ sense of community (perceptions of community cohesion, altruism, seeking help from neighbours and migrant status) on their willingness to participate in a mosquito control programme using data on 768 individuals from the 2013 RIPS Urban Health and Poverty Survey in poor coastal communities in Accra, Ghana. A contingent valuation experiment was employed to elicit individuals’ willingness to support the programme by contributing nothing, labour time/money only or both. Results Findings show that different dimensions of sense of community related differently with willingness to support the programme. Perceived community cohesion was associated with lower odds while help-seeking from neighbours and being a migrant were associated with higher odds of supporting the programme. Altruism was the only dimension not linked to willingness to participate. Conclusions Different dimensions of sense of community are associated with community members’ willingness to provide labour, time or both to support the malaria eradication programme. The findings of this study have implications for targeting social relational aspects, in addition to geographical aspects, of communities with malaria-resilient policy and intervention. They also warrant further research on psychosocial factors that predict willingness to support health programmes in urban poor settings

Community and individual sense of trust and psychological distress among the urban poor in Accra, Ghana.

BACKGROUND:Mental health disorders present significant health challenges in populations in sub Saharan Africa especially in deprived urban poor contexts. Some studies have suggested that in collectivistic societies such as most African societies people can draw on social capital to attenuate the effect of community stressors on their mental health. Global studies suggest the effect of social capital on mental disorders such as psychological distress is mixed, and emerging studies on the psychosocial characteristics of collectivistic societies suggest that mistrust and suspicion sometimes deprive people of the benefit of social capital. In this study, we argue that trust which is often measured as a component of social capital has a more direct effect on reducing community stressors in such deprived communities. METHODS:Data from the Urban Health and Poverty Survey (EDULINK Wave III) survey were used. The survey was conducted in 2013 in three urban poor communities in Accra: Agbogbloshie, James Town and Ussher Town. Psychological distress was measured with a symptomatic wellbeing scale. Participants' perceptions of their neighbours' willingness to trust, protect and assist others was used to measure community sense of trust. Participants' willingness to ask for and receive help from neighbours was used to measure personal sense of trust. Demographic factors were controlled for. The data were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate regressions. RESULTS:The mean level of psychological distress among the residents was 25.5 (SD 5.5). Personal sense of trust was 8.2 (SD 2.0), and that of community sense of trust was 7.5 (SD 2.8). While community level trust was not significant, personal sense of trust significantly reduced psychological distress (B = -.2016728, t = -2.59, p < 0.010). The other factors associated with psychological distress in this model were perceived economic standing, education and locality of residence. CONCLUSION:This study presents evidence that more trusting individuals are significantly less likely to be psychologically distressed within deprived urban communities in Accra. Positive intra and inter individual level variables such as personal level trust and perceived relative economic standing significantly attenuated the effect of psychological distress in communities with high level neighbourhood disorder in Accra