Strategic Lay Leadership Involvement in the Social Mission of a Western Ontario Denomination

Several Ontario communities face challenges requiring harnessing multisectorial partnerships to bring about community transformation. The church has the capacity to contribute to the community transformation needs of its community, but a particular denomination in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) appeared to be unaware of how to fulfil its social mission of community transformation. The purpose of this case study was to understand how members of the clergy perceived the lay leadership vacuum in the denomination and how these perceptions appear to inhibit the denomination\u27s achievement of its social mission. The theoretical framework was Akingbola\u27s strategic nonprofit human resource management theory. A qualitative case study was employed, using semistructured interviews of 10 clergy in the GTA. Data from the interviews were coded and categorized for thematic analysis and constant comparison. Findings indicated a lay leadership vacuum in the studied denomination. Participants concurred that the vacuum was influenced by the perceptions of the clergy, which inhibit the denomination\u27s capacity to address the needs of the community. The results of this study could lead to positive social change through providing an understanding of the obstacles denominations and similar nonprofit organizations may need to overcome to effectively identify, nurture, and deploy their volunteers for the benefit of community transformation

Agricultural Decisions after Relaxing Credit and Risk Constraints

AbstractThe investment decisions of small-scale farmers in developing countries are conditioned by their financial environment. Binding credit market constraints and incomplete insurance can limit investment in activities with high expected profits. We conducted several experiments in northern Ghana in which farmers were randomly assigned to receive cash grants, grants of or opportunities to purchase rainfall index insurance, or a combination of the two. Demand for index insurance is strong, and insurance leads to significantly larger agricultural investment and riskier production choices in agriculture. The binding constraint to farmer investment is uninsured risk: when provided with insurance against the primary catastrophic risk they face, farmers are able to find resources to increase expenditure on their farms. Demand for insurance in subsequent years is strongly increasing with the farmer’s own receipt of insurance payouts, with the receipt of payouts by others in the farmer’s social network and with recent poor rain in the village. Both investment patterns and the demand for index insurance are consistent with the presence of important basis risk associated with the index insurance, imperfect trust that promised payouts will be delivered and overweighting recent events.</jats:p

Youth and Their Health in Ghana

Youth and Their Health in Ghan

Impact of Reinforcing Agro Dealer Networks on Agricultural Productivity in Niger

Agricultural production in Niger has been plagued with low productivity and, as such, low incomes for the majority of the country’s small-scale farmers, due largely to poor soil quality and arid climate conditions. Input-use is a crucial part of the solution to these problems. However, the rate of adoption remains low among farmers in Niger. One way in which they hoped to deal with this challenge was to train agro-dealers in three regions in Niger namely, Maradi, Tahoua and Zinder. This study sought to evaluates the effect of agro-dealer training in input use and handling, and crucial business practices, on the behaviours of the small-scale farmers that they serve. The evaluation looked at the performance of two treatment groups, who received training only or training plus demonstration, randomly assigned to agro-dealers. Though the design of the study followed a randomized phased-in approach and an IV approach in estimating the impact. The main findings of the study were Training plus demonstration plots increased adoption of improved seed, showing the added value of the demonstration component in the intervention, in encouraging seed use

Youth in the Ghana Experiment: Characteristics and Living Conditions

Youth in the Ghana Experiment: Characteristics and Living Condition

Financial Knowledge and Attitudes of Youth in Ghana

Financial Knowledge and Attitudes of Youth in Ghan

Product Pilot Report: Youth Savings Performance in Ghana, Kenya, and Nepal

Product Pilot Report: Youth Savings Performance in Ghana, Kenya, and Nepa

Youth Savings Patterns and Performance in Ghana: A Supplementary Report

This report provides findings on youth savings patterns and performance of youth who opened formal savings accounts through Ghana’s HFC Bank. This report supplements a larger study on youth savings patterns and performance in Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, and Colombia through the YouthSave project

Examining graphemic and lexical anglicisms in Twi for academic purposes in textbooks written in Twi

This paper examines graphemic and lexical borrowings in Twi for Academic Purposes (TAP). Textbooks written in Asante Twi by some renowned scholars in the language constituted the dataset for this study. The textbooks were read and all instances of anglicisms or English features borrowed into Twi were collected. The borrowed-features were identified by drawing on our native speaker and scholarly competencies. The dataset was analyzed by drawing on Clyne’s (1977) Borrowing Typology and Haugen’s (1950) Borrowability Scale. Three key findings emerged from the analysis. First, the study yielded that in TAP two letters (&lt;v&gt;,  and &lt;j&gt;) are borrowed towards empowering Asante Twi to enable it to account for words that contain these letters. Second, at the lexical level, it was found that the borrowed words were either integrated or adapted into Asante Twi linguistic environment. The final point was that all the lexical items realized were nominals affirming the primacy of noun on borrowability scales. The findings have implications for developing Ghanaian languages for academic purposes.This paper examines graphemic and lexical borrowings in Twi for Academic Purposes (TAP). Textbooks written in Asante Twi by some renowned scholars in the language constituted the dataset for this study. The textbooks were read and all instances of anglicisms or English features borrowed into Twi were collected. The borrowed-features were identified by drawing on our native speaker and scholarly competencies. The dataset was analyzed by drawing on Clyne’s (1977) Borrowing Typology and Haugen’s (1950) Borrowability Scale. Three key findings emerged from the analysis. First, the study yielded that in TAP two letters (&lt;v&gt;, &nbsp;and &lt;j&gt;) are borrowed towards empowering Asante Twi to enable it to account for words that contain these letters. Second, at the lexical level, it was found that the borrowed words were either integrated or adapted into Asante Twi linguistic environment. The final point was that all the lexical items realized were nominals affirming the primacy of noun on borrowability scales. The findings have implications for developing Ghanaian languages for academic purposes

Youth and Saving in Ghana: A Baseline Report From the YouthSave Ghana Experiment

Youth and Saving in Ghana: A Baseline Report From the YouthSave Ghana Experimen