Adverse Shocks and Social Protection in Africa: What Role for Formal and Informal Financial Institutions?

This paper presents evidence on the wide range of adverse shocks reported by African households. The current financial and economic crisis adds another layer of risk to al-ready vulnerable households and firms. In responding to an adverse shock, households are involved in a balancing act that is aimed at maintaining consumption and/or assets above critical levels. Households mainly use coping mechanisms that depend on family and other networks and self-insurance. There is limited recourse to public social protection and formal credit and insurance markets. The paper examines some informal financial arrangements. Some of these are not designed to smooth consumption when there is an adverse shock. These informal mechanisms have the potential to be the platform to expand access and utilisation of formal finance particularly in rural communities. There is a clear role for publicly provided interventions. This is because informal risk sharing mechanisms do not cover all shocks. The premium paid may not be adequate to cover the entire financial implications of the shock. Finally, the design of the risk-sharing institutions can result in the very poor being excluded.

Ethnicity and wage determination in Ghana

The authors look at earnings differentials between members ofdifferent ethnic groups, and between employers'relatives, unrelated members of the same ethnic group, and other workers in Ghana's manufacturing sector. They find that a significant proportion of the earnings differentials identified between ethnic groups can be explained with reference to a fairly standard set of observations about workers'characteristics. Labor market segregation along ethnic lines - combined with considerable variation in employers'characteristics (especially educational attainment and family background, possibly because of discrimination in other markets) - accounts for most of the remaining differentials. Northerners earn considerably less than other groups, mainly because they are less educated. The Other Akan earn much more than the relatively low-earning Asante, Fante, and Ewe. There is no evidence of discrimination between ethnic groups, although there is evidence of discrimination in favor of inexperienced workers from the same ethnic group, who can be assessed, and matched with jobs more easily than similar workers from other ethnic groups. Finally, workers who are related to their employers, earn a considerable premium, possibly because they contribute more to productivity than their fellow workers (perhaps through an effect on"esprit de corps"). The authors'results draw attention to some startling differences in educational, and labor market attainment between groups. A strong case can be made for including such issues in the policy debate.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Educational Sciences,Gender and Social Development,Anthropology,Education and Society

Ethnicity and wage determination in Ghana.

This paper looks at earnings differentials between (1) members of different ethnic groups and (2) employers’ relatives, unrelated co-ethnics, and other workers, in the Ghanaian manufacturing sector. We find that a significant proportion of the identified earnings differentials between ethnic groups can be explained with reference to a fairly standard set of observed workers’ characteristics. Labour market segregation along ethnic lines combined with considerable variation in employer characteristics (possibly due to discrimination in other markets) accounts for most of the remaining differentials. There is no evidence of statistical discrimination between ethnic groups, although there is evidence of such discrimination in favour of inexperienced co-ethnic workers, who can be more easily assessed and matched to jobs than similar workers from other ethnic groups. Finally, workers who are related to their employers earn a considerable premium, possibly because they contribute more than their fellow workers to productivity.

Changes in Beliefs and Perceptions about the Natural Environment in the Forest-Savanna Transitional Zone of Ghana: The Influence of Religion

The potential of traditional natural resources management for biodiversity conservation and the improvement of sustainable rural livelihoods is no longer in doubt. In sub-Saharan Africa, extensive habitat destruction, degradation, and severe depletion of wildlife, which have seriously reduced biodiversity and undermined the livelihoods of many people in rural communities, have been attributed mainly to the erosion of traditional strategies for natural resources management. In Ghana, recent studies point to an increasing disregard for traditional rules and regulations, beliefs and practices that are associated with natural resources management. Traditional natural resources management in many typically indigenous communities in Ghana derives from changes in the perceptions and attitudes of local people towards tumi, the traditional belief in super natural power suffused in nature by Onyame, the Supreme Creator Deity. However, this is closely entwined with ecological, demographic and economic factors. Whilst these factors have driven the need to over-exploit natural resources, a situation which threatens the sustainability of community forests including sacred groves, religion has been used to justify such actions. This paper explores changes in tumi and the sustainability of sacred groves in the forest-savanna transitional zone in Ghana. It would confirm that changes in traditional animist beliefs, such as tumi, which informs the worldview of local people and underlies traditional natural resources management, is mainly due to the advances made by Christianity and Islam.Tumi, Sacred Groves, Forest-Savanna Transition, Sustainability, Traditional, Christianity, Islam

The Travail of the Freedmen’s Daughters.

This essay analyzes Robert Colescott’s ability to visualize the emotional and psychological burden of racism using his rendition of Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (d’Avignon), Les Demoiselles d’Alabama: Vestidas, a 96 x 92 in. acrylic on canvas painting. Created in 1985, but based in 1960s America, Colescott’s satirical rendition of one of Picasso’s most famed works, and a work in high regard in the art canon, illuminates racist attitudes perpetuated by Picasso’s d’Avignon. This essay was also inspired by the Museum of Modern Art’s wall text about d’Avignon, which failed to mention the racism embedded in primitivism. I focus on how Colescott’s critical look at who is painting and being painted calls artists and institutions to wake up to the ideologies they perpetuate. I come to these conclusions through analyzing Colescott’s use of satire, stereotyping, cartoonish coloring, symbolism, and spatial grotesque, and through comparison to Picasso’s d’Avignon. During my research, I often paired Black artists’ works with literary ones, particularly WEB Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk. Inspired by the myriad of ways Black people produce works that push against the tides of racism, I conclude my essay and name inspired by a quote from Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk: “The spiritual striving of the Freedmen’s sons is the travail of souls whose burden is almost beyond the measure of their strength, but who bear it in the name of an historic race, in the name of this the land of their fathers’ fathers, and in the name of human opportunity.

An investigation into poverty, educational attainment and outcomes in Ghana

This paper provides a preliminary survey of the educational attainment of Ghana's adult population. It describes patterns and trends and makes some allusions to possible associations between educational attainment and outputs and outcomes

Geneseo’s Diversity Efforts and Its Missing Link

As a result of segregated school environments, largely due to differences in socioeconomics, college may be the first place where some students learn to work with people from different races and ethnicities (Park, 2014). Interracial friendships not only help to develop the racial climate of a campus, but also help students develop positive learning, increase critical thinking, and enhance college experiences (Tanaka, 2003). Students do not benefit if homophily forms; homophily is the “tendency of like to attract like” (McPherson et al., 2001; Park, 2014). Homophily can occur if students lack precollege experience of interacting with students of other ethnicities and races or if the college’s racial climate does not encourage students to interact with others from different racial groups. In this presentation, I will present data on whether homogeneity on the Geneseo campus is influenced by racial climate and/or homophily in students’ precollege experiences