Studies by Fishman (1968a) and Pool (1971) show some correlation between economic development and multilingualism. In other words, countries that are multilingual tend to be less economically developed. This kind of investigation is not easy or straightforward. Pool mentions three difficulties associated with such a study. The first is what to measure and how to measure it; the second is unreliability in sources of statistical information, and the third, and probably most dangerous, is the risk of making erroneous causal inferences. While it is necessary to keep these cautions in mind, it is nevertheless appropriate to give these studies some thought. For example, why does multilingualism correlate with poor economic growth? Are there any inherent problems in societal multilingualism that have adverse effects on economic performance of certain countries? Are there any ways that this effect can be minimized? This study of language planning in Ghana’s economic development is an exploratory study of language use in the educational system of Ghana, its relation to the general sociolinguistic and demographic profile of the country, and the potential for greater roles for the indigenous Ghanaian languages in the pursuit of economic progress. The study attempts to contextualize the case study of Ghana within the larger framework of multilingualism and multilingual education, by analyzing the factors which, in the past, determined and continue to determine the language education policies of the developing nations in the former British Colonial Africa. The study has three components; the descriptive, the empirical and the programmatic. The descriptive component examined the socio-historical factors that shaped language policies in the past and continue to influence present-day policies. Ghana was born out of an amalgamation of several otherwise independent and powerful kingdoms. This was the result of colonial intervention. This amalgamation brought with it a complex linguistic problem. In order to promote unity among the different ethnic groups that have come under the new nation, and to pursue their economic and political agenda, the colonial government set into motion a language policy which gave English a sole official language status, which has remained ever since. With this language policy in the midst of such linguistic diversity as Ghana's, it is expected that problems would be experienced by persons who are not proficient in the official language, and by persons who are illiterate. The purpose of the study, therefore, was to assess the language-related and literacy-related problems that occur in social, economic and political experiences of the people. It was necessary to evaluate the success or failure of this policy, and that is what the second component of the study sought to investigate. The empirical component comprised a sociolinguistic survey, conducted with the aim of evaluating the present language policies in a small way, and with a view to finding out what went wrong and why. The survey sought to find out the real language situation in Ghana and the level of individual multilingualism or bilingualism in three sample populations, which were assumed to represent the different types of communities found in Ghana; (a) rural homogeneous, (b) rural heterogeneous and (c) urban. It also sought to find out how successfully the ideologies behind the present language policies have been fulfilled. In short, the survey tried to find out the role played by the various languages used in Ghana in the social, economic and political lives of the people, and how the languages stand in relation to one another as far as their functions are concerned. As part of the empirical component, an English proficiency test was conducted in six Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) in the three districts involved in the survey (two schools from each district). This was to find out to what extent the results would reflect the emphasis placed on the learning and use of English as the official language of Ghana. The following summarize some of the findings; 1. the majority of the people use the indigenous languages more than English, including the elite; English serves only an instrumental role; 2. most of the people are engaged in occupations that do not require English; 3. the emphasis on English prevents the larger masses of the population from having access to vital information on matters that could otherwise promote the economic, social and political well-being of the people; 4. the school drop-out rate is high, and most children drop out at a stage where they have no firm grip on literacy in either English or a Ghanaian language; 5. learning through a second language implies knowing that language, and the conditions for learning English in Ghana are not favorable (lack of native speakers, lack of qualified teachers and textbooks, etc.); the result is that after 9 years of schooling, most children can neither speak nor read and write in English; 6. the results of the proficiency test showed that most of the students in the final year of Junior Secondary (JSS) (the stage which happens to be the terminal point for a majority of the students) have such a low level of literacy in English that they cannot communicate in it in any meaningful way. 7. the unity that English was supposed to bring about seemed to be better served by the indigenous languages. In the urban and linguistically heterogeneous rural communities, the people are more united by the fact that the minority groups are able to learn the language of the majority group without losing their own languages; these major Ghanaian languages feature most in inter-ethnic communication. The programmatic component is a proposal for a national language policy and a consequent proposal of a framework for language of education in Ghana. The proposal was based on the findings of the survey and other theoretical and pragmatic facts, some of which include the fact that: 1. bilingual education is vital and necessary for Ghanaian children; 2. research into second language acquisition supports the positive role of L1 in L2 acquisition; 3. concept formation is important in the early part of a child's education, and the language that can more efficiently transmit knowledge to the schoolchildren at the early stages of schooling is the mother tongue or L1. 4. the full development of a nation demands (a) mobilization of the population in informed participation in the social, economic and political programs of the nation; (b) equalization of access to information - for example, information regarding workplace health and safety, global problems of population growth, resource consumption and the environment, and how to help deal with the problems. The present policy makes it possible for only a small proportion of the population to become fluent in English and have access to higher education. This situation denies a majority of the population access to information, because they are not literate in the official language in which most of the relevant information is encoded. The framework proposed gives equal emphasis to English and the Ghanaian languages, and ensures that children who drop out of school early are able to read and write at least a major Ghanaian language. It is also acknowledged that literacy in a Ghanaian language can play positive roles in the lives of the literates by way of acquisition of knowledge and the opportunity to participate better in nation-building. / Graduate

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis analysed the significance of disputes or conflict in Ghana's industrial realtions since her independence in 1957. It further analysed the causes of industrial conflict and its management or resolution in Ghana in particular. Scholars argue that industrial conflict may not only adversely affect the living standards of both the employers and the employees but may also destabilize the labour market and bring about industrial injustices. The thesis outlines the historical development of Ghana's industrial realtions since independence with special reference to strikes. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Decentralisation has been considered by many as one of the most important strategies in public sector reform in several of the developing countries. Both donors and governments have regarded decentralisation as a tool for national development through the realisation of the objectives of enhancing popular participation in development and the management of development at the regional or local level. Countries are expected to reap the benefits of decentralisation through improved service delivery, namely, through bringing service delivery closer to the consumers, improving the responsiveness of the central government to public demands and,thereby,reducing poverty and inequalities, improving the efficiency and quality of the public services and empowering lower levels of government to feel more involved and in control. However, decentralisation also has the potential to widen the gap in fiscal resources at the sub-national leveland this may, in turn, result in inequities in service delivery tocitizens of the same countryanddepending on where they live. Over the years Ghana has experimented with amix of decentralisation reforms with the current policy integrating elements of political, administrative and economic decentralisation. The current system of local government in Ghana is based on a decentralisation programme that was launched in 1988 with the introduction of district assemblies (DAs) by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government. Nevertheless, years after the launch of the decentralisation process there are still significant disparities and inequities between districts and regions in Ghana as regards health variables. This study set out to investigate the link between decentralisation and health inequities by exploring the spatial dimensions of health equities in Ghana. The thesis used a concurrent mixed method approach by combining a quantitative inequality indices analysis and a qualitative analysis of interviews with policy makers in both the health sector and the decentralised system. The analysis used household level data from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 2003 and 2008 to construct inequality curves and indices in order to illustrate the existing inequities across and within regions in Ghana after an increase in the intensity of decentralisation. The study then decomposed the indices to determine the extent to which these inequities were accounted for by variations both within the regions and between the regions. The thesis also used available data from the common fund records of district assemblies to assess the level of inequities in selected health resources across districts. The thesis then investigated the micro-foundations of health decentralisation using the qualitative and quantitative descriptive analyses. The analysis conducted revealed that inequities in maternal health utilisation decreased between 2003 and 2008‒the two data points used based on theresearch design. However,these inequities were attributed primarily to within region inequities as the level of between regions inequities was significantly lower for both the concentration index and the Theil’s index. However, although, at the regional level the general trend revealed that inequities had also decreasedbetween 2003 and 2008, some individual region s had recorded increases. The concentration index, which provided information on the gradient of the inequities, revealed that the health inequities in Ghana‒the total health inequities and also for both years between and within regions‒were pro rich. In the instances of the regional inequities these inequities generally manifested a pro rich nature, with the exception of the Upper East region which had showed pro poor inequities in 2008. The analysis of the district level inequities in selected health resources and as regards health facilities, doctors and nurses indicated that the distribution of these facilities favoured the richer districts as the inequities revealed a pro rich gradient. The inequities in the health facilities at the district level were highest in respect of the nurses, followed by doctors and health facilities with scores of 0.32, 0.29 and 0.084 respectively. The analysis of the qualitative data corroborated the results of the quantitative analysis as it emerged that policy makers at all levels believed that, over the years since the decentralisation, inequities had reduced, albeit marginally. The policy makers highlighted the high levels of the inequities in health resources,especially human resources,as a major area of concern. However, they also raised major concerns regarding inequities within regions, arguing that a number of factors, includingthe nature of the decentralisation regime in Ghana, the variations in the economic strength of districts and certain political factors,continued to cause inequities within the decentralised system. They argued that these factors impacted on the ability of both districts and regions to address inequities at a local level. In addition, they also pointed to the need to re-examine the definition of inequities in the Ghana health sector, inequities which result from focusing the attention on a number of regions and areas to the detriment of others.

Development has suffered a great deal due to the frequent changes that occur in life and these changes inevitably cause conflict. A typical example is the research setting, the Bawku Municipal area in Ghana. This area has suffered severe forms of conflict which in one way or the other have affected the development of the district and the people as a whole. The effect of conflict has not only affected the rural development but also social, human, intellectual, economic and technological developments in general. While the aim of all countries is to develop, some may have reached a stage where they qualify as developed; others are still in the process of reaching their goal; yet others are still struggling to barely survive thus the names ‗developed countries, developing countries and under developed countries‘. Most developing countries are faced with the problem of rural underdevelopment and Ghana is no exception. Most rural areas have been neglected in the development project of the country. Resources are channelled to the urban areas and other places where the government reaps profits; however the Bawku municipal area has not only suffered underdevelopment from government negligence but also from conflict. The district of Bawku has been in tribal war stretching for the past ten years. This has stalled most developmental works from both government and external bodies. The area is one of the poorest places in Ghana; the problem is not only with rural development but social, economic and human development as well.

Regional planning, as an approach to development planning, in the newly independent nations of the world, is the main subject of this study. The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the hypothesis that to achieve a balanced social, economic and physical development the scale of planning must be regional. Since the region is the link between the national and local community, it provides a suitable frame of reference for the balanced integration of both national and local projects. The Volta Basin in the Republic of Ghana in West Africa, is taken as an illustrative case study. The case study focuses attention on the methods used in designing the Volta Basin Regional Plan. The Plan is meant to demonstrate how regional planning can help towards balanced development by giving due consideration simultaneously to all the factors involved in the development process. The approach taken in the study was, first, to discuss the problem in a general way by analyzing the main features of development planning as currently practised in a number of the newly independent nations. The conclusions drawn from this discussion are that: 1) the major problem of most of the new nations is that of a single-resource economy inherited from their former colonial rulers; 2) the approach to development planning as currently practised in these countries takes the form of National Development Plan and tends to concentrate solely on the economic aspects of development and, to some extent, the social aspects, and ignores the physical aspects of development; 3) while development planning is increasingly becoming the function of Central Governments, the tendency is to be concerned with planning at the national level with no regard for development at the regional and local levels; 4) in those countries where some effort is made in terms of regional planning for development, the approach that is adopted is in the form of either multi-purpose river basin development or the strictly economic regional development. As a result of these shortcomings of current development planning in the newly independent nations, it is further concluded that the failure to give due consideration to all the factors involved in the development process, gives rise to imbalanced development in these countries. The imbalanced development takes the form of excessive concentration of population in a few urban centers which are usually piled up with poor untrained labour from the rural areas. The urban centers are notorious for all forms of social disorganization: crime, overcrowding, unemployment, and other social problems. The unbalanced development also takes the form of unplanned distribution of industry and rural services, and poor location of transportation routes, resulting in expensive remedial measures. The defects of current development planning in the new nations seem to be a result of the conception of the nature of development, namely that development is essentially an economic problem and once the economic factor is considered, the other factors involved will take care of themselves. It seems also that the economic conception of the nature of development is a result of the influence and advice of the specialists interested in the problems of development of these countries. A new conception of development that takes into account the social, economic, cultural, psychological and physical components of the entire society, leads to the view that planning for development must be regional. This is because regional planning considers simultaneously all the factors involved in the development process. The study discusses development planning in Ghana in order to outline the main problems of development in Ghana and to provide the background for the consideration of the regional planning needs of the country. As in the case of the other newly independent nations, it is con eluded from the discussion that Ghana inherited a single-resource economy; its approach to development planning is restricted to planning at the national level with no regard for the implications of development at the regional and local levels; and that planning for development is regarded solely as an economic problem. As a result of these facts, it is further concluded that Ghana fails to achieve a balanced development—throughout the country. This leads to an analysis of the Volta Basin Regional Plan to demonstrate how regional planning can help towards the achievement of balanced development by giving due consideration to all factors involved in the development process. Based on the simultaneous consideration of the social, economic and physical factors, it is possible to make proposals that reflect the needs of Ghana in terms of the distribution of population and industry; the location of the main transportation routes; the distribution of rural services and the location of large non-agricultural uses. The following proposals are made to introduce the planning process of survey, analysis, plan, implementation and revaluation, into the regions of Ghana: 1) expanded National Planning Commission; 2) expanded Regional Planning Agencies, and 3) regional plans for the eight Administrative regions of Ghana. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Millenium development goals project is the key topic of the diploma paper. This project was started in 2000 and belongs to the responsibility od the UN. There are eight key development areas-goals set in the project. This goals should be met by 2015. The diploma paper is focused on the development of each of the goal in the West African country Ghana. There are two parts. First part focuses on the economic, cultural, historical and demografical description of the country. Second part is aimed at the Millenium project. The global trends are decribed at the beginning and the development towards the goals in Ghana is described in details in the following text.

Approximately 2.5 billion people in the world currently lack access to adequate sanitation facilities. Improving sanitation access in the developing world is vitally important to public health, economies, and the environment. Non-governmental organizations and the private sector have played a significant role in increasing sanitation access through the construction of sanitation and hygiene systems. However, these projects have been plagued with sustainability problems with the rate of non-functional systems remaining consistently at 30 to 40 percent since the 1980s. Studies have found that meaningful community engagement and the consideration of community capacity during project development are vitally important to long-term project sustainability. However, development practitioners frequently undervalue the importance of these factors and fail to adequately employ them when developing sanitation projects. This thesis examines the dominance and impact of one key influence that leads development practitioners to overlook community context and engagement – the prioritization and overvaluation of technological solutions to development problems. Through a case study of the Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Latrine built by three University of Massachusetts Amherst engineers in Nyakrom Ghana I demonstrate an example of the impact that a technocratic focus can have on the operation and maintenance sustainability of a sanitation project. In this thesis I maintain that the technocratic focus of this project is not unique but is part of a larger trend toward technocracy among water, sanitation, and hygiene development donors and practitioners. These technological approaches can neglect the important role that political, social, economic, and cultural factors play in increasing sanitation access. This thesis reviews three frameworks that the MFC Latrine engineers and other practitioners could use to better understand and incorporate community capacity and participation into sanitation projects – Asset Based Community Development, the appropriate technology framework by the World Health Organization and IRC Water and Sanitation Centre, and the WASHTech Technology Applicability Framework.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / In Ghana, the number of people living in extreme poverty has reduced. Yet the poverty rate is currently 24.2 %, which is still high considering that Ghana is a lower middle-income country (Emmanuel, Frempong, Opareh & Rose, 2015; 35). In Ghana, the poor are classified in two groups: “ 1) … those who live above an upper line of GHC 1314.00 per day which is equivalent to US $ 1.83, and; 2) those within a lower poverty line of GHC 729.05 equivalent to US $ 1.03 a day…” (Emmanuel, Frempong, Opareh & Rose, 2015; 35). Those who “… live above the upper line of GHC 1314.00 are considered as non-poor, whereas those with a consumption expenditure equivalent or below GHC 729.05 a lower poverty line are in absolute poverty or living in extreme poverty…” (Emmanuel et al., 2015). In Ghana, Yaidoo and Kalaiah (2018) agree that microcredit programs are a neoliberal ploy that keep poor people in a perpetual state of poverty. Most microcredit beneficiaries are located in the rural areas and majority are the lowest income earners of the employed population. Microcredit should ordinarily have a broader range of empowerment services, yet the Ghana microcredit programs do not have this. Microcredit in Ghana has become a debt trap and its benefits to the poor is illusory (Yaidoo and Kalaiah, 2018). Most microcredits have high interest rates and seek to profit operations which had created a situation where microcredits are an additional burden to the people, impacting negatively on their livelihood (Yaidoo and Kalaiah, 2018). Further, Yaidoo and Kalaiah (2018) pinpointed that in Ghana, by observing the crippling consequences of debt burden on countries (such as Ghana who opted for the Highly Indebted Poor Country status in 2002), the world financial crisis in 2007/08, and cases of high default in repayment of debt, it would make sense to adopt a more impactful approach to microcredit. In that other role, players are needed to fill the gap with intervention resulting in improving people’s livelihood. This study aimed to empirically access the effect of microcredit on beneficiaries’ livelihood improvement. The study was conducted in four regions of Ghana, with the main objective to find out whether the Self-Supported Assistant Programme (SSAP) microcredit has improved the livelihood of its beneficiaries. The specific objectives of the study were to: i) evaluate the Beneficiaries Livelihoods Status as per their asset accumulation, voluntary saving, capabilities and frequency of loan repayment, and; ii) to estimate the effects of Demographic + Socioeconomic + Loan T&Cs Variables (financial training + loan interest rates + loan monitoring) on Beneficiaries Livelihoods Improvement (asset accumulation, voluntary saving, capabilities).

MSc (Med), Population-Based Field Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / Background Improvements in the health status of children have resulted in a substantive reduction in under-five mortality by two-thirds between 1960 and 1990. However this reduction is favourable for children after the first year in life, with little decrease in the neonatal period. Every year, about 4 million children die within the first 28 days of life, the first week (0-7 days) posing the highest risk. The Fourth Millennium Development Goal emphasises a reduction in child mortality by two-thirds by 2015, however this goal cannot be met because neonatal deaths continue to increase. It is therefore important to make available information on risk factors and the main causes of death that exist at a community level so that appropriate health policies are devised to reduce the mortality burden faced by neonates. Objective The study investigates the relationship between household and maternal socio-demographic characteristics with neonatal mortality in the Kassena-Nankana District from 2001 to 2005. The specific objectives were; (1) To calculate the neonatal mortality rates in the Kassena-Nankana District from 2001 to 2005, (2) To determine the causes of neonatal death for years 2003 to 2005, and (3) To assess the association of household characteristics and maternal socio-demographic characteristics with neonatal deaths in the Kassena-Nankana District from 2001 to 2005. Methods Data from Navrongo DSS in Ghana was used for the analysis. A total of 19 340 live births born from 15 224 households were registered between 1st January 2001 to 31st December 2005. Of these 551 died before the 28th day after birth. The outcome, neonatal mortality was coded as a binary variable and took values 1 if the child died and 0 if the child survived. Neonatal mortality rates were calculated by dividing the total number of deaths for a particular year by the total number of live births for that year, multiplied by 1000. Cause of death data were collected using neonatal specific verbal autopsies. Cause-specific neonatal mortality rates were calculated using physician coding to a list of cause of deaths based on the 9th International Classification for Diseases (ICD). Using the mother‟s household characteristics and assets ownership, a wealth index was constructed as proposed by Filmer and Pritchett to estimate socio-economic status. Chi-square (x2) test at 5% significant level was also done to compare the maternal socio-demographic and neonatal characteristics by neonatal mortality. Logistic regression models were fitted to assess the association between (i) neonatal mortality and socio-economic status (SES) and (ii) between neonatal mortality and maternal as well as neonatal risk factors, while adjusting for potential confounders. Health equity was measured using the concentration index (CI) and the poorest-poor ratio (PPR). Results: The overall neonatal mortality rate for the whole study period was 29 per 1000 live births. Most deaths (65.9%) occurred outside the health facility and most occurred in the early neonatal period (0-7 days). Infectious diseases (n=98, 33.2%), birth injuries (n=28, 9.5%) and prematurity (n=29, 9.8%) were the main causes of neonatal deaths. In the multivariate analysis maternal characteristic that showed an association with mortality were place of residence, SES, birth order and the type of birth outcome. Such that children who died were more often from the rural areas compared to in the urban areas (AOR=2.24 95% CI=1.16-4.34 P=0.016). Children who died were more often from a multiple birth outcome compared to those from a single birth outcome (AOR=0.20 95% CI=0.14-0.28 P<0.0001). SES was found to be protective against neonatal mortality (AOR=0.70 95% CI= 0.51–0.96 P=0.026). By birth order, children who died were more often from the 1st birth order compared to children of birth orders; 2-3 (AOR=0.60 95% CI=0.44-0.81 P=0.001), 4-5 (AOR=0.56 95% CI=0.38-0.84 P=0.005) and 6+ birth order (AOR=0.50 95% CI=0.31-0.8 P=0.005). A measure of health equity gave a C.I of -0.07 and PPR of 1.29 implying that neonatal mortality was high amongst the poorest households than the better ones. Conclusion The study showed that neonatal mortality was high in the rural areas and in the poorest households. Efforts to alleviate the burden of neonatal mortality at a community level should focus on improving living standards for poorest in the community. Also educating women on child health care and making them aware of high risk pregnancy age-groups will help minimize risky pregnancies which in turn will reduce neonatal deaths.

Rural farmers in developing countries lack knowledge, access to educational resources, and capacity to stay informed of and implement current farming and health practices. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of an educational program on the utilization of native plants in farming and health practices among rural farmers in Ghana. The research objectives were to describe the population, assess farmers’ knowledge of farming and health practices, describe participants’ current and planned behavior, and observe the implementation of the practices taught. Results indicated participants’ knowledge of farming and health practices increased after the workshops. Results also indicated participants of both workshops intended to use all of the practices more often in their farming practices. Future research should include focus group interviews with farmers to gain a deeper understanding of the issues farmers are facing. Future trainings should incorporate experiential learning opportunities for farmers.