19 research outputs found

    Exploring health implications associated with irregular migration from Ghana to Libya and beyond

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    Although there have been several negative media reports on the plight of irregular migrants from Ghana, research on issues related to their health has been rather scanty. The study assesses health implications associated with irregular migration from Ghana using both the Techiman and Nkoranza Municipalities as a case study. Through a snowball sampling technique, 237 return migrants from Libya were interviewed using questionnaire (200) and in-depth interviews (37). Not only were the migrants predisposed to dehydration, malnutrition/undernourishment and physical exhaustion due to long periods of walking with inadequate water and food, but also fatalities were common among them. Reportedly, 17migrants fell sick and died in the desert when their vehicle lost its direction compelling them to walk more than one week, while some 15 others from the study areas drowned in their attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. The migrants mostly live and work under poor conditions, thus some had pneumonia while others died in their ghettos (uncompleted buildings) due to excessive cold conditions in winter. Irregular migration ispursued at the cost of the health and life of the migrants. One option for addressing irregular migration from Ghana is to provide skills training and seed capital or job opportunities for young school leavers who could not further their education after the Junior High School or Senior High School.Keywords: Health, irregular migration, youngpeople, Libya, Ghan

    Connecting with home, keeping in touch : physical and virtual mobility across stretched families in sub-Saharan Africa.

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    There is a long history of migration among low-income families in sub-Saharan Africa, in which (usually young, often male) members leave home to seek their fortune in what are perceived to be more favourable locations. While the physical and virtual mobility practices of such stretched families are often complex and contingent, maintaining contact with distantly located close kin is frequently of crucial importance for the maintenance of emotional (and possibly material) well-being, both for those who have left home and for those who remain. This article explores the ways in which these connections are being reshaped by increasing access to mobile phones in three sub-Saharan countries – Ghana, Malawi and South Africa – drawing on interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research from twenty-four sites, ranging from poor urban neighbourhoods to remote rural hamlets. Stories collected from both ends of stretched families present a world in which the connectivities now offered by the mobile phone bring a different kind of closeness and knowing, as instant sociality introduces a potential substitute for letters, cassettes and face-to-face visits, while the rapid resource mobilization opportunities identified by those still at home impose increasing pressures on migrant kin

    Mobility, education and livelihood trajectories for young people in rural Ghana: a gender perspective

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    This paper examines the gendered implications of Africa's transport gap (the lack of cheap, regular and reliable transport) for young people in rural Ghana, with particular reference to the linkages between restricted mobility, household work demands, access to education and livelihood potential. Our aim is to show how mobility constraints, especially as these interact with household labour demands, restrict young people's access to education and livelihood opportunities. Firstly, the paper considers the implications of the direct constraints on young people's mobility potential as they travel to school. Then it examines young people's (mostly unpaid) labour contributions, which are commonly crucial to family household production and reproduction, including those associated with the transport gap. This has especially important implications for girls, on whom the principal onus lies to help adult women carry the heavy burden of water, firewood, and agricultural products required for household use. Such work can impact significantly on their educational attendance and performance in school and thus has potential knock-on impacts for livelihoods. Distance from school, when coupled with a heavy workload at home will affect attendance, punctuality and performance at school: it may ultimately represent the tipping point resulting in a decision to withdraw from formal education. Moreover, the heavy burden of work and restricted mobility contributes to young people's negative attitudes to agriculture and rural life and encourages urban migration. Drawing on research from rural case study sites in two regions of Ghana, we discuss ethnographic material from recent interviews with children and young people, their parents, teachers and other key informants, supported by information from an associated survey with children ca. 9–18 years

    Is quality maternal healthcare all about successful childbirth? Views of mothers in the Wa Municipality, Ghana.

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    Introduction In spite of the countless initiatives of the Ghana government to improve the quality of maternal healthcare, Upper West Region still records poor childbirth outcomes. This study, therefore, explored women’s perception of the quality of maternal healthcare they receive in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region of Ghana. Materials and methods This is a qualitative cross-sectional study of 62 women who accessed maternal healthcare in the Wa Municipality of Ghana. We analysed the transcripts using the analytic inductive technique. An inter-coding technique (testing for inter-coding agreement) was employed. The iterative coding process resulted in a coding scheme with four main themes. We used peer-debriefing technique in ensuring credibility and trustworthiness. Results Logistics and equipment; referral service; empathic service delivery; inadequacy of care providers; affordability of service; satisfaction with services received; as well as experience and service delivery were the parameters used by the women in assessing quality maternity care. A number of gaps were reported in the healthcare system including limited healthcare providers, limited beds and inefficient referral system. Conversely, some of them reported that some healthcare providers offered empathetic healthcare. Contrary views were expressed with respect to satisfaction with maternity care. Conclusion Government and all stakeholders seeking to enhance quality of maternal health and accelerate the attainment of the third Sustainable Development Goal need to reconsider the financing of service delivery at health institutions. Indeed, our findings have illustrated that routine workshops on empathetic healthcare are required in efforts to increase the rate of facility-based childbirth, and thereby subside maternal mortality and all adverse pregnancy outcomes

    Women's Health Decision-Making Autonomy and Skilled Birth Attendance in Ghana.

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    Delivering in health facility under the supervision of skilled birth attendant is an important way of mitigating impacts of delivery complications. Empirical evidence suggests that decision-making autonomy is aligned with holistic wellbeing especially in the aspect of maternal and child health. The objective of this paper was to examine the relationship between women's health decision-making autonomy and place of delivery in Ghana. We extracted data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. Descriptive and logistic regression techniques were applied. The results indicated that women with health decision-making autonomy have higher tendency of health facility delivery as compared to those who are not autonomous [OR = 1.27, CI = 1.09-1.48]. However, those who have final say on household large purchases [OR = 0.71, CI = 0.59-0.84] and those having final say on visits [OR = 0.86, CI = 0.73-1.01] were less probable to deliver in health facility than those without such decision-making autonomy. Consistent with existing evidence, wealthier, urban, and highly educated women had higher inclination of health facility delivery. This study has stressed the need for interventions aimed at enhancing health facility delivery to target women without health decision-making autonomy and women with low education and wealth status, as this can play essential role in enhancing health facility delivery

    Livelihood activities of migrants from Ghana’s northern regions resident in the Obuasi and Techiman municipalities

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    With migration being one of the strategies adopted for poverty reduction, livelihood activities of migrants have become a topic of particular interest. One of the key issues relates to whether at destination migrants maintain the same livelihood activities of their places of origin or they engage in entirely different ventures. Using the DFID Sustainable Livelihood Framework, the paper examines the livelihood activities of Ghanaians who migrate from the northern parts of the country to two municipal areas in the south. Some 508 migrants who were heads of households (HH) participated in the study in two selected municipalities. The results indicated that prior to migration, the main livelihood activity of the migrants had been agriculture but at destinations they were mostly engaged in non-agricultural activities such as petty trade, employment in the civil service, and working in the mining sector. It emerged that the background characteristics of the migrants, to a greater extent, influenced their choice of livelihood activities at destination. The differences in terms of livelihood activities engaged in at the places of origin and those at destination could be attributed to differences in ‘livelihood capitals’ and levels of socioeconomic development between the northern and southern parts of the country. The findings of this paper have implications for  population distribution, occupational mobility and patterns of socioeconomic development across Ghana.Keywords: Livelihood activities, north-south migration, occupational mobility, Ghan

    Out of the reach of children? Young people’s health-seeking practices and agency in Africa’s newly-emerging therapeutic landscapes

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    Despite a dominant view within Western biomedicine that children and medicines should be kept apart, a growing literature suggests that children and adolescents often take active roles in health-seeking. Here, we consider young people’s health-seeking practices in Ghana: a country with a rapidly-changing therapeutic landscape, characterised by the recent introduction of a National Health Insurance Scheme, mass advertising of medicines, and increased use of mobile phones. Qualitative and quantitative data are presented from eight field-sites in urban and rural Ghana, including 131 individual interviews, focus groups, plus a questionnaire survey of 1005 8-to-18-year-olds. The data show that many young people in Ghana play a major role in seeking healthcare for themselves and others. Young people’s ability to secure effective healthcare is often constrained by their limited access to social, economic and cultural resources and information; however, many interviewees actively generated, developed and consolidated such resources in their quest for healthcare. Health insurance and the growth of telecommunications and advertising present new opportunities and challenges for young people’s health-seeking practices. We argue that policy should take young people’s medical realities as a starting point for interventions to facilitate safe and effective health-seeking

    Perspectives on Young People’s Daily Mobility, Transport and Service Access in Sub-Saharan Africa

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    Young people’s mobility challenges in Western contexts have been the focus of research for some decades, principally – but not only – with reference to the school journey. By contrast, young people’s mobility in sub-Saharan Africa is remarkably under-researched, despite the vital significance of mobility (and immobility) to so many children’s lives. This is an extremely important omission, given that over half the population of many African countries consists of children and young people. Improving mobility and access to health and education facilities for both girl and boy children has massive implications for their subsequent livelihood potential (Bartlett 2001). It is crucial to many of the Millennium Goals, notably universal primary education, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, and reduced child mortality (Fay et al. 2005). In this chapter we review some of the findings from a research study centred on young people’s mobility conducted between 2006 and 2010 in three African countries, Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. This study was extensive in scale (24 sites across urban and rural locations and two different agro-ecological zones per country) and innovative in its inclusion of 70 young research collaborators aged from 11 to c.20 years (when they started work on the study), in addition to conventional academic research. Developing this two-stranded research approach and applying it across diverse countries and sites has enabled us to assemble a strong, comparative evidence base. Our aim was to establish an evidence base substantial enough not only to improve policy in our three focus countries but sufficiently compelling to contribute to a new recognition among policy makers and practitioners across Africa of the key significance of mobility and physical access to services in building young lives

    Connecting with home, keeping in touch: physical and virtual mobility across stretched families in sub-Saharan Africa

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    There is a long history of migration among low-income families in sub-Saharan Africa, in which (usually young, often male) members leave home to seek their fortune in what are perceived to be more favourable locations. While the physical and virtual mobility practices of such stretched families are often complex and contingent, maintaining contact with distantly located close kin is frequently of crucial importance for the maintenance of emotional (and possibly material) well-being, both for those who have left home and for those who remain. This article explores the ways in which these connections are being reshaped by increasing access to mobile phones in three sub-Saharan countries – Ghana, Malawi and South Africa – drawing on interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research from twenty-four sites, ranging from poor urban neighbourhoods to remote rural hamlets. Stories collected from both ends of stretched families present a world in which the connectivities now offered by the mobile phone bring a different kind of closeness and knowing, as instant sociality introduces a potential substitute for letters, cassettes and face-to-face visits, while the rapid resource mobilization opportunities identified by those still at home impose increasing pressures on migrant kin
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