Gendered and generational tensions in increased land commercialisation: rural livelihood diversification, changing land use, and food security in Ghana’s Brong-Ahafo region

Many smallholder farmers in Jaman North District, Brong‐Ahafo Region, Ghana are shifting from food crop production to increased cultivation of cashew, an export cash crop. This paper examines gendered and generational tensions in increased commercialisation of land, livelihood diversification, and household food security in the context of globalisation and environmental change. Using qualitative, participatory research with 60 middle‐generation men and women, young people and key stakeholders, the research found that community members valued the additional income stream. Young people and women, however, were apprehensive about the long‐term consequences for food security of allocating so much land to cashew plantations. Young, middle, and older generations were concerned about their weak bargaining position in negotiating fair prices with export companies and intermediaries. Greater integration into the global economy exposed rural actors to multiple risks and inequalities, such as the uneven effects of economic globalisation, rises in food prices, hunger and food insecurity, growing competition for land, youth outmigration and climate change. The shift towards cashew cultivation appears to be exacerbating gender and generational inequalities in access to land and food insecurity and leading to exploitation within the global agri‐food supply chain among already vulnerable rural communities in the global South. With stronger farmer associations and cooperatives, however, cashew farmers stand the chance of benefitting from greater integration into the global economy, through strengthened bargaining positions. Greater understanding is needed about the complex interactions between sustainable food systems, changing land use and gender and generational inequalities in rural spaces

The Soul is Willing but...: Exploring Community Sanitation Preferences for Environmental Sustainability

Sanitation has been identified as an essential aspect of development as it affects the quality of life and productivity of the population. But sanitation facilities are only sustainable when people make their own choices and contribution towards obtaining and maintaining them. This paper therefore examines sanitation preferences of residents of Efutu, a peri-urban settlement in the Central Region of Ghana. Using a descriptive design, data were collected from 154 randomly-selected households using questionnaires, focus group discussions and observation. It was found out that 65% of the respondents mentioned the household water closet (WC) as their most preferred toilet facility, though 58% presently use Kumasi ventilated improved pit (KVIP) public toilets. Least handling of excreta, convenience, security and avoidance of smell represent some of the very important factors that determine respondents' choice of a particular sanitation facility. Additionally, 78% of the respondents wanted their toilet facility to be sited in the house, mainly due to convenience/comfort and the security associated with an in-house toilet facility. The study recommends that since the majority of the people use KVJP public toilets, it will be easier through community consultation, to introduce ecological sanitation, a more sustainable and ecologically friendly sanitation system, in the community. Key words: sanitation, preferences, toilet, ecological sanitation, environment, sustainabilit

Spatial inequality and household poverty in Ghana

Abstract Over time, while some countries have experienced trends of poverty and inequality moving in the same direction, others have witnessed the two developmental issues panning out in opposite directions. The latter is observed in Ghana, where in the last two decades poverty has been reducing and consumption inequality is on the ascendency. Motivated by this observation, we address three objectives in this paper. First, we decompose inequality using administrative districts as the unit of analysis to examine within and between contributions to national inequality. Second, we examine trends of inequality in the only region (Eastern) of Ghana that experienced a reduction in inequality over the period 1991-2006; and, finally, we investigate the relationship between district-level inequality and household poverty. The last three rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey are used for our analysis. We observe that the contribution of within district inequality is higher than inequality between districts. This pattern is observed for other geographical classifications, such as rural-urban, ecological zone and regions. In the Eastern region of Ghana, where overall inequality reduced over the period 1998 to 2005, this was not the case for about 50 percent of the districts in the region. Finally, district-level inequality shows a significant effect on household poverty, but with varying signs, depending on the state of economic activity of the unit of analysis (district) and factors that affect both poverty and inequality. We recommend that districtlevel policy implementers should be tasked with the responsibility of minimising inequality within their district and therefore overall inequality in Ghana. Also, poverty reduction strategies should take into consideration district-level poverty and other factors, such as land size distribution, that jointly affect poverty and inequality.

The impact of gender and physical environment on the handwashing behaviour of university students in Ghana.

Objectives  To establish levels of handwashing after defecation among students at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, and to test hypotheses that gender and washroom environment affect handwashing behaviour. Methods  Data on students’ handwashing behaviour after defecation were collected by structured observations in washrooms. Eight hundred and six observations were made (360 female students and 446 males) in 56 washrooms over 496 observation periods. Observers recorded gender, duration of handwashing, use of soap, and physical characteristics of the washroom (cleanliness, availability of soap, tap flow and presence of handwashing posters). Results  Fewer than half the students observed washed their hands or bathed after defecation. Of these, only two-thirds washed both hands and a minority (20%) used soap; only 16 students (all men) washed their hands for the recommended 15 s or longer. Female students were more likely to wash their hands at all, and were more likely to wash both hands, than males. Cleanliness of the washroom was strongly associated with improved handwashing behaviour for both women and men, as was tap flow quality for female students. Conclusions  Handwashing behaviour is generally poor among UCC students, mirroring results from North American Universities. The findings underline the plasticity of handwashing behaviour among this population, and highlight the need for ensuring that the physical environment in washrooms on university campuses is conducive to handwashing

The impact of Covid-19 on antimalarial supply chains in Ghana

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Role of trust in a self-organizing pharmaceutical supply chain model with variable good quality and imperfect information

We present an Agent-Based Model (hereafter ABM) for a pharmaceutical supply chain operating under conditions of weak regulation and imperfect information, exploring the possibility of poor quality medicines and their detection. Our interest is to demonstrate how buyers can learn about the quality of sellers (and their medicines) based on previous successful and unsuccessful transactions, thereby establishing trust over time. Furthermore, this network of trust allows the system itself to evolve to positive outcomes (under some but not all circumstances) by eliminating sellers with low quality products. The ABM we develop assumes that rational and non-corrupt agents (wholesalers, retailers and consumers) learn from experience and adjust their behaviour accordingly. The system itself evolves over time: under some - but not all - circumstances, sellers with low-quality products are progressively eliminated. Three distinct states of the supply chain are observed depending on the importance of trust built up from past experience. The 'dynamic' state is characterised by a low level of trust leading to a continually changing system with new drugs introduced and rejected with little regard to quality. The 'frozen' state arises from high levels of reliance on past experience and locks the supply chain into a suboptimal state. The 'optimising' state has moderate reliance on past experience and leads to the persistence of suppliers with good quality; however, the system is still 'invadable' by better quality drugs. Simulation results show that the state reached by the system depends strongly on the precise way that trust is established: Excessive levels of trust make it impossible for new, improved treatments to be adopted. This highlights the critical need to understand better how personal experience influences consumer behaviour, especially where regulation is weak and for products like medicines whose quality is not readily observable

The Role of Trust in a Self-Organizing Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Model with Variable Drug Quality and Imperfect Information

We present an Agent-Based Model (hereafter ABM) for a pharmaceutical supply chain operating under conditions of weak regulation and imperfect information, exploring the possibility of poor quality medicines and their detection. Our interest is to demonstrate how buyers can learn about the quality of sellers (and their medicines) based on previous successful and unsuccessful transactions, thereby establishing trust over time. Furthermore, this network of trust allows the system itself to evolve to positive outcomes (under some but not all circumstances) by eliminating sellers with low quality products. The ABM we develop assumes that rational and non-corrupt agents (wholesalers, retailers and consumers) learn from experience and adjust their behaviour accordingly. The system itself evolves over time: under some - but not all - circumstances, sellers with low-quality products are progressively eliminated. Three distinct states of the supply chain are observed depending on the importance of trust built up from past experience. The 'dynamic' state is characterised by a low level of trust leading to a continually changing system with new drugs introduced and rejected with little regard to quality. The 'frozen' state arises from high levels of reliance on past experience and locks the supply chain into a suboptimal state. The 'optimising' state has moderate reliance on past experience and leads to the persistence of suppliers with good quality; however, the system is still 'invadable' by better quality drugs. Simulation results show that the state reached by the system depends strongly on the precise way that trust is established: Excessive levels of trust make it impossible for new, improved treatments to be adopted. This highlights the critical need to understand better how personal experience influences consumer behaviour, especially where regulation is weak and for products like medicines whose quality is not readily observable