The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has been designed to find a lasting, efficient, and acceptable solution to the nagging problem of health care financing. The introduction of the NHIS in 2003 sought to provide a clear way out and make quality health care not only affordable but also accessible. However six years down the lane after the introduction of the NHIS, health indicators still remains appalling in the Lawra District. The Study sought to find out whether the National Health I...
Poverty is one of the most captivating challenges facing most developing countries and Ghana is no exception. There seems to be a wide gap between the haves and the have not. To curb poverty, micro-finance has emerged as an antidote to the problem of poverty. Micro-finance encompasses micro-credit, micro-insurance and micro-savings. The SIF has therefore emerged as an institution that champions poverty reduction in its operation area and has adopted microfinance as one of the vehicles of pove...
Providing sanitation in rural communities in Ghana has become a huge challenge. Funds from the Government remains scarce while external or, for that matter, international donor support for sanitation in many instances have become ineffective. In today's world, where sanitation is on the high level of technology, it is sad to note that there is a silent crisis called poor sanitation which is affecting the health, well being, dignity and development of millions of people. This study explored th...
In 2005, the Government of Ghana started its own School Feeding Programme (SFP) along the lines of the Home Grown School Feeding concept. The Programme was different from other SFPs that had traditionally used imported processed foodstuffs. This study sought to examine how the programme is boosting local food production in the Nadowli /Kaleo district or the Upper West Region. Probability and non-probability sampling methods were employed to select one hundred and fifty (150) respondents from ...
Academic libraries are critical contributors to knowledge generation which serve a wide spectrum of knowledge seekers. The shift from print to digital information has a high impact on all components of the academic library system. Academic libraries in Ghana seem to be facing overwhelming challenges in the adoption of JCT academic in academic libraries. A total of eight (8) tertiary institutions were selected for the study, with ninety-six (96) respondents made up of librarians, academic staf...
This thesis examines internal revenue mobilisation by the Wa Municipal Assembly. The major research objective of the study was to assess the internally generated funds mobilisation by the Wa Municipality Assembly. A case study design was deployed in the study. Sixty-two respondents were selected using purposive sampling. The study collected primary data using interview and focus group discussions, while secondary data was obtained from reports of the Assembly. The analysis of data involved th...
The need for practising modern techniques in rice production has become increasingly important in Ghana as the per capita cultivable land continues to shrink. This study employed a multivariate probit model to estimate the determinants of adoption of improved agricultural technologies using household data collected from 543 rice farmers in the Upper East and Northern region of Ghana. There was complementarity among all the improved rice production technologies (i.e. nursery establishment, har...
Improving access to safe water, adequate sanitation and proper hygiene are on the frontline of eforts to combat related diseases and their accompanying efects. Using a household survey, focus group discussion and key informant interviews, the authors explored how rural livelihoods could be improved through water and sanitation interventions. The study revealed a complex web of configuration between water and sanitation interventions and rural livelihoods. The study found that the provision of...
This paper interrogates the question of using micro-enterprise development for meeting women's strategic interests. Using conceptual analysis and specific case studies, it examines paradigm shifts in development and their implications for gender equity and social justice questions. In the process, it reveals shifts in paradigms; namely, development for versus development with the people, efficiency versus equity, and welfarism versus empowerment. It then examines the implications of the shift...
Economic development has been advocated as vital to Africa's integration in the world economy. Using a Labour and Employment Relations perspective as well as institutional and cooperative theories, I propose a conceptual model that links institutional alliance for skill development (ASD) proximally to labour market systems, and distally to economic development of African countries. The nature, outcomes of ASD, and contributions to economic development are discussed. Finally, I offer propositi...
Policy dialogues have become topical in the development arena in recent time. This arose, in part, from the concern for issues on rights and marginalisation. Methodologies for dealing with such dialogues are however rare. In this paper, we make an effort to contribute to this 'grey area' by presenting one experience as a case study. We start the paper by making an entry through endogenous development as a paradigm shift for development intervention. We highlight the need for co-evolution of k...
The paper seeks to establish the implication of occupational distribution on income inequality. Data was collected from five independent sub-groups, two from the formal and the other two from the informal sectors with a fifth sample generated from these four samples. Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients were used to measure income inequality. The results show that though formal sector income sub-groups generated higher incomes they produced lower inequalities than the informal sector income su...
The study investigates how perceived rice quality characteristics influence household preference for local and imported rice and its effect on prices. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 400 rice consuming households from Tamale, Yendi and Savelugu in the northern region. A structured questionnaire was used to interview one consumer (the woman in charge of purchasing and cooking of food) in each household on the quality characteristics that influence their demand for either lo...
Social cash transfers as a strategy for poverty reduction acquired prominence in Latin America but spread later to the rest of the developing world because earlier poverty reduction strategies did not make many gains. Most studies on cash transfer schemes seem tilted towards evaluating their impacts while neglecting the arguments surrounding their design and operations. As such, this paper reviews some of the debates that engulf social cash transfers as a form of social assistance. The review...
Maternal mortality has global impurtance. It has assumed both local and interna- tional dimensions, in spite of assessment challenges. This is supported by the fact that in some parts of the world, vital registration systems are either inadequate or totally absent, thereby making the scanty available information unreliable. Avail- able statistics reveal that there are at least twelve causes of maternal mortality with Abortion, Hemorrhage, Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and Tetanus record...