Transitions from Primary to Lower Secondary School: A Focus on Equity

This background paper explores the dynamics that affect transitions from primary to lower secondary school, with a focus on equity. It forms part of series of papers contributing to a broader initiative of tracking the demand and supply sides factors that influence access to secondary education and prepare African youth for the future of work. Whilst case studies have been drawn from Ghana and Rwanda to assess their strengths and weaknesses to educational reforms, emphasis is on transitions from primary to lower secondary schools in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. The background paper is in two main sections: review of factors affecting transitions in sub-Saharan Africa, and case study analyses for Ghana and Rwanda with the following themes guiding the discussions: Theme 1: Access to education, progression and completion rates in primary and secondary schools; Theme 2: Trends and realities in secondary education: Equity in progression and transitions – from primary to lower secondary and upper secondary schools and equal opportunities for children with disabilities, members of religious and ethnic minorities and other forms or multiple cases of vulnerabilities; Theme 3: Learning outcomes, employability and well-being of youth with and without secondary education; Theme 4: Actionable recommendations to policymakers, implementers, donors and other stakeholders on how to improve transitions from primary to lower secondary for the marginalized populations

Petroleum revenue management in Ghana : how does the right to information law promote transparency, accountability and monitoring of the annual budget funding amount?

This paper engages the open governance framework to assess whether and how Ghana's Right to Information Law, 2019 (Act 989) contributes to accountability in petroleum revenue management. The Constitution's freedom of information provision aims to get civil society and other non-state actors to be proactive in exerting public accountability through transparency. However, in the petroleum sector, this has been constrained by the legal and regulatory ecosystems that affect timely access to relevant public information, which is a ‘sine qua non’ for accountability in governance. This constrains non-state actors from tracking the Annual Budget Funding Amount, the only part of petroleum revenue that the government can use to augment its annual expenditure. The 13 exemptions in the Right to Information Law further compound the opacity in the petroleum sector and showcase the ambiguity surrounding the government's commitment to open governance. Adopting the Kantian Publicity Principle as a change pathway and using examples of the setbacks faced by non-state actors, this paper argues that the potential of the Right to Information Law to counterbalance power notwithstanding, such exemptions, as found in Section 8(1)(d)(i-ii) that forbids the disclosure of information on some of government's international transactions, stifles open governance in the petroleum sector.PostprintPeer reviewe

"Ocean Optimism" and resilience : learning from women's responses to disruptions caused by COVID-19 to small-scale fisheries in the Gulf of Guinea

The University of St Andrews Restarting Research Funding Scheme (SARRF) is funded through the SFC grant reference SFC/AN/08/020. The University of St Andrews Institutional Open Access Fund (IOAF) is acknowledged for open access support.This study examines the response of women to disruptions caused by COVID-19 in small-scale fisheries (SSF) in the Gulf of Guinea (GOG). It interrogates the concept of resilience and its potential for mitigating women’s vulnerability in times of adversity. We define resilience as the ability to thrive amidst shocks, stresses, and unforeseen disruptions. Drawing on a focus group discussion, in-depth interviews with key informants from Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria, and a literature review, we highlight how COVID-19 disruptions on seafood demand, distribution, labour and production acutely affected women and heightened their pre-existing vulnerabilities. Women responded by deploying both negative and positive coping strategies. We argue that the concept of resilience often romanticises women navigating adversity as having ‘supernatural’ abilities to endure disruptions and takes attention away from the sources of their adversity and from the governments' concomitant failures to address them. Our analysis shows reasons for “ocean optimism” while also cautioning against simplistic resilience assessments when discussing the hidden dangers of select coping strategies, including the adoption of digital solutions and livelihood diversification, which are often constructed along highly gendered lines with unevenly distributed benefits.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Ghana's National Energy Transition Framework:Domestic aspirations and mistrust in international relations complicate 'justice and equity'

This paper draws on a new global framework for energy justice – a fair distribution of decision making, representation, the costs, and benefits of energy services across time and space – to interrogate Ghana's National Energy Transition (NET) framework. It examines the government's justifications for not prioritizing green energy and for moving slowly towards net zero emission target of 2070. Whereas domestic energy justice considerations such as accessibility and affordability drive Ghana's framework, this paper finds a maze of other factors too. Using a thematic analysis of four main data sources (interviews, news items, Living Standards Surveys, and policy documents), the paper finds that the quagmire of economic considerations, global politics, and unresolved national and historical grievances interfere with objectivity of energy transition discourses, which also clouds the obvious inconsistency between policy and practice of energy services. The government's business-as-usual posture cannot achieve the NET targets, but attitudes can change if western countries and major emitters can demonstrate goodwill and objectivity in terms of policy and practice around climate action and energy transitions. The energy transition scenario in Ghana has some legitimacy from the country's policy and intellectual communities and is a microcosm of the wider tensions about energy justice and equity between the global north and south. The finalisation of Ghana's NET framework provides a policy framework for planning towards net zero, and although it's 2070 target doesn't show urgency, it offers the regulatory environment for international development partners to engage and contribute meaningfully to the country's energy transition

The crisis of leadership in minerals governance in Ghana:Could process leadership fill the void?

This article interrogates the governance of minerals mining using the lens of leadership and the case study of Ghana. Some experts estimate that small-scale mining accounted for the removal of 25 % of forest cover in Ghana's southwestern areas within the decade ending 2017, despite only accounting for a third of the country's gold production. Despite the centrality of minerals for Ghana's energy transition ambitions and recent alarm expressed by the government, civil society groups, and the international community about the pervasiveness of the crisis, it persists and afflicts environmental sustainability, health and livelihoods within the mining catchment areas. Using primary data from several interviews, digital ethnography, and observations, I depart from existing discourses that document the scope and impact of the crisis to quiz instead, the reasons behind the persistence of the ‘illegal’ small-scale mining despite availability of laws and public pronouncements by government and other stakeholders against it. The findings show that the absence of process-oriented leadership – that is, the predictable, accountable, and participatory leadership that reconciles the interests of the state and society – accounts for the persistence of small-scale and illegal mining. I propose the utilisation of the social license at the disposal of members of society as a bottom-up remedy to reverse this trend

Reframing the Resource Curse Discourse in Ghana Using Political Theory Analysis

Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p