This study describes the population genetic structure of Milicia species sampled from different provenances distributed over 5 countries (Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Tanzania). Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter sample sequence repeats (ISSR) variation in 41 accessions from 5 different populations were consistent with each other. Analysis of molecular variance partitioned RAPD and ISSR variation into within- and between-population components. The between-population variation component was large, accounting for 62.2% and 71.5% for RAPD and ISSR respectively. Dendrogram analysis produced 2 major clusters separating dry zone accessions (mainly M. excelsa) from moist/wet zone accessions (mainly M. regia). Sub-clustering further separated accessions by forest type and/or geographic region. Phylogenetic analysis of chloroplast genes involved the use of nucleotide sequencing, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), and microsatellites. Only one region (5' to trnS) out of 6 regions analysed was polymorphic and revealed 3 different cytotypes. The distribution of the cytotypes matched with the 2 major clusters produced by the dominant markers. Wet/moist and dry zone bands were identified with little evidence of gene flow between populations. Seed mediated gene flow estimated from the chloroplast analysis was small (Nm = 0.23). To relate these molecular information with Phytolyma resistance, field provenance and progeny trials were conducted. Accessions from wet/moist zones were more tolerant to Phytolyma than accessions from dry zone. The data also suggest that accessions bearing the wet/moist zone specific markers have a high probability of being tolerant to Phytolyma. The approaches outlined and the results have general applicability in the sustainability of Milicia spp. and are discussed in relation to germplasm sampling, management and conservation of genetic recourses of Milicia species.

No description available.

This study seeks to understand the implications of the Ghana National Association of Teachers’ (GNAT) programmes on members, and to investigate the perception of members regarding their commitment to the union. The period, 1995 to 2014 was chosen because it marked the era of fragmentation of GNAT, and the formation of other teacher-unions which broke the monopoly of GNAT as the sole teachers’ union in Ghana. The main objective of the study is to examine the implications of member commitment on GNAT programmes. Specifically, the study intends to investigate the perceptions of satisfaction, participation and loyalty of union members. It also attempts to examine the responses of the union to challenges within the organization. The study was based on interviews of key informants and a survey of members and former members of GNAT. Structured questionnaires were used as instruments. Data Analysis was by the application of Excel and SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Presentations are displayed by graphs, frequency tables and pictorials. In order to understand commitment of respondents, the survey measures members’ satisfaction, participation and loyalty to GNAT. These variables are related to programmes, hence questions on variables were asked in relation to programmes. This study has found out that GNAT membership decline can be partially explained by decline in levels of member participation and satisfaction with programmes. The study, has however noted that despite members’ dissatisfaction with GNAT programmes, the majority of them are still committed to the union. One possible reason for the high loyalty of members could be the value that they attach to the union. The study therefore concludes that the members' perception is not, by itself, a sufficient variable for understanding the union’s decline. The study recommends that the communication system of GNAT be improved. It also recommends that due to changing composition of membership with respect to age and qualifications, there is need to broaden the professional development of members especially those in leadership positions by fashioning programmes to meet their needs. There is also need to engage members in establishing the training needs in the Ghana National Association of Teachers that would be included in the training programmes in order to make them more attractive.

In any act of household migration, there are movers (the migrant) and stayers (those left behind), and both of these two groups have expectations. The movers expect to make some benefits at the destination while the stayers expect the migrant to send or do something at home of origin. Some work, though limited, has been done to improve our understanding of how potential migrants form their expectations of what they can get from the destination country in studies involving determinants of individual migration. But for those left behind very little is known about how they form their expectations of what they can get from the migrant. The few studies that have been done on this have only used observed flow of remittances to estimate what people left behind expect from migration. Hence these studies equate observed flow of remittances to expected flows. And by this equation, these studies also assume perfect information flow between migrants and relations left behind as well as perfect knowledge to help those left behind to form realistic expectations: expectations that reflects exactly what can be sent to them. Obviously these assumptions are not tenable. These untenable assumptions also leave a hole in our ability to explain why a household will choose to either continue supporting members for migration or not. This is because we cannot tell from observed data alone whether or not the desire to continue to support migration of a household or a family member is as a result of well-informed subjective expectations or not. The crust of the problem here is therefore that by relying on observed data alone we fail to account for the important role subjective expectations or beliefs of those left behind play in decisions for further migration movements, especially within the family. To be able to unravel this problem we need elicitation of subjective expectations of remittance flows from those left behind. Using data from a specially designed survey in two districts in Ghana, I construct time-adjusted subjective remittance expectations of migrant families at home of origin and analyse the factors that determine the formation of these expectations and how formation of these expectations can help us explain perpetuation of migration within a household. The key analytical models employed in these investigations are summarised below In order to understand the exogenous determinants of remittance expectations of migrant households, I first of all estimate factors that influence performance of migrant at home of origin and general flow of information between the migrants and the household members left behind. In order to see the effect of remittances on formation of subjective expectations, remittance flow was measured in terms of migrant performance by adjusting the flows to the time period during which the migrant could do what he or she has done. The items were limited to the popular ones people receive: money for living expenses, establishment of a house and business investment. The theoretical explanation for this adjustment is that if the observed trend in remittance flow has any effect on expectations it would be through individual household’s evaluation of what migrants have achieved within a certain number of years. In other words, all things being equal, families whose migrants took much longer period to achieve certain things would have lower levels of expectations than a comparable family whose migrant took relatively shorter period. This is because taking a long time to achieve something at home of origin would breed some kind of skepticism and uncertainty among those left behind as to what they can get from migration. And this skepticism can lead to low levels of expectations. This is also in line with the reference people left behind often make when talking about achievements of migrants at home of origin as they always point to what XYZ has done. Ordinary least squared regression is then used to estimate factors determining level of migrant performance at home of origin after the transformation of the dependent variable: migrant performance. Heckman selection model is also applied to control for possible effect of bias since some households have migrants who have done nothing at home. Kinship ties are the major factors under this investigation. To determine the main factors influencing information flow, ordinary least squared estimates are used while a generalised ordered logit model, with maximum likelihood method, is used to estimate the factors influencing the likelihood of a household getting higher categories of private/dedicated information from the migrant. Major factors for this investigation are kinship ties and performance of migrant at home of origin. Since information flow and remittance flows are suspected to have endogenous relationship, instrumental variables (IV) technique is employed to estimated impact of remittance flow on both private and public information flows. This is important for us to understand how information flow act as exogenous determinant of subjective remittance expectations, and resultant effect on perpetuation of migration. Once current information flow and performance of migrants have been examined and effects of their exogenous factors estimated, the next stage of the analysis is the examination of effects of these past performance and information flow on household subjective remittance expectations while controlling for other major exogenous factors such as kinship ties, level of education and household wealth. Ordinary least square regression technique is used to estimate major determinants of these levels of expectations. However, to control for possible bias resulting from the fact that a select group of households may not expect anything, Heckman selection model is applied. The final analysis is the estimation of impact household subjective remittance expectations on migration-support intentions. Due to the problem of endogenous relationship between expectations and migration decisions, ordinary maximum likelihood estimates would not be very effective in identifying the real impact expectations have on migration decisions. Hence I use maximum likelihood with endogenous repressors to estimate or identify the influence of expectation on potential migration decisions, applying the probit model with selection model (heckprob) technique. Ordered probit analysis is also used to investigate what determines household’s desire to support more than one person for migration. The results are summarised below. Summary of Findings Economics and sociology literature makes us aware that in order to understand formation of expectations of any kind we first have to investigate two important factors: past events and current information flow, because these are the two factors that hugely influence expectations. Hence, for us to understand remittance expectations, we first have to understand two issues: observed past flows of remittances and current flow of information between the migrant and relations left behind at home of origin. If remittance flows should influence household or family’s (including the extended family members) subjective expectations and the support to move abroad, it should largely do so in terms of what has been observed in the past. In Chapter Six, I investigated the influence of kinship ties on receipts of remittances. As expected, closer migrant relations such as spouse and head of family stand a much better chance of having better performance from migrant than distant kinship ties such as friendship. However when it comes to performance in individual items such as house or business investment, a household cannot rely only on kinship ties with migrant. It should also have some wealth. Specifically, among the kinship ties only spousal relationship was found to have positive effect on migrant performance in areas such as housing and business investment. Thus the influence of kinship ties on observed flow of remittances is mostly limited to money for living expenses, unless the family left behind is wealthy enough to enable allocation of what is sent into other things such as investment in housing and business. With kinship ties being very influential in the determination of past performance of migrants one would expect that these ties would also influence information flow if the assumption of remittance and information flow being together holds. It has always been assumed by cumulative causation theories of migration that together with the flow of remittances from migrant to relations back at home is the flow of information that connects migrant, potential migrants and those left behind (Massey et al, 1993). If this is the case then relationship should be a key factor in determining information flow from the migrants, because these ties influence flow of remittances. Results from the 2SLS model show that remittance flow has impact only at the lower levels of private information flow, reinforcing the point that information that comes with remittance flow may just be social issues such as size of family, marital status, and not economic ones. In spite of their strong effect on remittance flow or migrant performance, all the types of kinship ties generally have negative effects on private information flow. Thus kinship ties are not enough for those left behind to get more private information from the migrant relations residing abroad. It should not be surprising that remittance flows do not lead to higher levels of information flow from the migrants to those left behind. This is because remittances are mostly made up of monetary transfers for living expenses which may not carry much information with it as, in most cases, migrants do not require monitoring. And with electronic transfers of these days, it becomes more implausible to assume that remittance flows, which are mostly limited to monetary transfers, would generate private information as the interpersonal exchanges in these transfers become more and more reduced. But since the lower levels of private information flows only contain pieces of information such as marital status, household size and education levels, it follows that remittance flow may not be the best channel through which relations get important information about the socioeconomic conditions of the migrant. Perhaps this assumption was more plausible about 30 years ago when migrants mostly relied on methods such as using other migrants going home. Families left behind have to rely on their wealth or good level of education to be able to source information from the migrants. On the other hand, remittance flow or migrant performance has highly significant and positive influence on public information flow, suggesting that what migrants do at home influence some perceived knowledge of the migrants’ socioeconomic conditions. It is also interesting to note that factors such as average household education and wealth that have significant positive effect on private information flow have negative effect on public information flow. One can therefore deduce that the more families are able to access information from the migrants themselves, the less they rely on migration information from nonmigrant sources or the general public in the community of origin. Unfortunately remittance flow is unable to help those left behind to get more information from the migrant. Hence most of them will have to rely on public information. With the flow of crucial information such as economic conditions of migrants lacking or being inadequate, it can be concluded that there would be some level of uncertainty about conditions. And this level of uncertainty may lead to some guess-work or reliance on information from other sources in the formation of remittance expectations. That is, would their inability to access crucial information on economic conditions of the migrants “push” them to rely on information reaching them from other sources in the formation of expectations? Also if the wealthy and the more educated families are more likely to know more about the migrants, and if knowing more about the migrant is most likely to temper high expectations with realism as hypothesized in this study, would it be fair to conclude that wealthier and more educated families may have ambivalent, if not negative expectation levels? Results from Chapter Seven show that families would use their experience of what migrants have done at home of origin as a starting point in the formation of their remittance expectations in terms of whether or not they should expect something. But once their expectation status is assured, families are much more influenced by other factors than migrant performance in the formation of their subjective remittance expectation levels. In other words at lower levels of information, remittance expectations seem to be more adaptive to past trends of observed remittance flows. Kinship ties become very significant in this respect in spite of its insignificant influence on information flow. This raises a question of whether or not the effect of kinship ties on formation of remittance expectations is informed by information from the migrants. All the results point to the contrary. The effects of kinship ties on subjective remittance expectations are informed more by past experience of remittance receipts than current dedicated/ private flow of information between the families and the migrants. When kinship ties are interacted with private information their effects on remittance expectations are, however, significantly reduced, indicating that when people take private or dedicated information into consideration their high expectations are very much checked. What are the implications of subjective remittance expectations form under low levels of dedicated information flow for migration decisions? Chapter Eight sought to provide the answer to this question. The results confirmed the hypothesis that subjective remittance expectations formed under inadequate flow of dedicated information would lead to increasing desire to support more migration from the family and the opposite should also true. That is under inadequate information flow, subjective remittance expectations have highly positive effect on desire to perpetuate migration more than the demonstrative effect of migrant performance, emphasizing the importance of expectations in perpetuation of migration. However, the strong effect of expectations and kinship ties on desire to support migration could be reduced if high levels of dedicated information are taken into consideration. Further investigation into why some families with remittance expectations would still not want to support members to migrate revealed that, in addition to private or dedicated information flow, average household education level is a major factor that discourages families with remittance expectations from further supporting members to migrate. This is in sharp contrast with the generally accepted view that education selects families and individuals into migration, especially international migration. This is true in the general population. When only migrant families are sampled, as in this study, the effects of education on migration are tempered with information flow. Education allows the family to access more and more of private/dedicated information which has negative effect on remittance expectations. It is therefore not surprising that education may discourage families with expectations to continue supporting migration. But since most people do not get the private information or do not even consider it as, expectations which are hugely informed by past performance, public information and mere kinship ties would continue to drive perpetuation of migration, at least, at the household level.

Thesis advisor: John Baldovin / Thesis advisor: Liam Bergin / Marriage is an important aspect of culture which helps to establish the basic root of the society: family. It is the foundation of most societies. The existence of several communities is largely influenced by successful marital processes and celebrations. Like culture, marriage evolves. Similar to many other countries, marriage in Ghana has been going through transitions and challenges. The celebration of the Sacrament of Marriage differently from the Customary Marriage is one of the main challenges Ghana is facing. As an outcome, people spend more time, money and other resources to celebrate marriage. In addition, the celebration of these two different marriages leads to apathy in church, lapse of faithful Catholics and few people observing the Sacrament. This work explores the possibility of celebrating Customary Marriage and the Sacrament of Marriage together in a single liturgy. This will do away with many of the problems and pastoral challenges associated with marriage. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis. 1979. M.Arch--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 100-102. / M.Arch

This thesis examines Ghana's decentralised educational planning policy by exploring meanings of decentralisation and decentralised educational planning, the legal framework and how it has been implemented in practice at district level from the perspectives of key stakeholders. In Ghana public policy measures have been directed towards the decentralisation of educational planning and management of pre-tertiary education to address education inefficiencies. To this end, various decentralised educational structures such as School Management Committees (SMCs) and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) have been institutionalized to encourage community participation in educational planning and decision-making. Attempts to enhance community involvement in Ghana resonate with global efforts. Several developing countries have chosen to decentralize educational planning in the hope of obtaining increased participation of stakeholders in educational planning and decision making. Despite the strong policy commitment to decentralisation and decentralised educational planning, this has not translated into practice. The understanding and involvement of key educational stakeholders in decentralised educational planning fall short of expectation. It is against this background that this study examines the experiences of stakeholders in decentralised educational planning in Ghana. The study employed a qualitative research approach focused on purposively sampled districts (Accra Metropolitan Directorate of Education and Komenda- Edina- Eguafo- Abrem). The key participants in the study were 2 Senior Education Officers, 2 Planning Officers, 2 Headteachers, 2 SMC representatives and 2 PTA representatives. Both primary and secondary data were collected. Interview guides were used in the collection of qualitative data while statistical data were collected from Education Management Information System (EMIS). In order to achieve the specific objectives set within the main purpose of this study, the main question which guides this study is: What is the understanding and participation of District Officers, Heads of Schools and other stakeholders of Decentralisation and Decentralised Educational Planning? The study found that stakeholders have diverse understandings about the meaning of decentralisation, and decentralised educational planning. In general it was found that decentralisation entails empowering the districts/locals to make decision and being accountable for the decisions made. Educational decentralisation refers to devolution of educational delivery from Ghana Education Headquarters to the districts with the regional directorate gradually taking the role of the GES headquarters and the district directorates where final authority will reside at the District Assembly. Decentralised educational planning means empowerment to plan and take decision at the local or district level of educational delivery. The study also found that SMC/PTA members participate in the decentralised educational planning process but that their level of involvement is very low. The study also notes that there is weak capacity development for planners and other stakeholders in a system of decentralised education planning. The study suggests that a number of challenges should be addressed to ensure effective decentralised education planning. This thesis provides new insights into decentralised educational planning in Ghana contributing to the extant literature on the topics.

In 2013 the Ghana National Functional Literacy Programme (GNFLP) changed its approach to adult literacy. Instead of local language literacy learning facilitated by volunteers it now deploys Programme Assistants who previously administered the system as Adult Literacy Officers (ALOs) to facilitate literacy learning in English. This study explores what is happening in the GNFLP classrooms especially in view of the recent policy changes and other contextual challenges. The aim is to contribute to knowledge on the facilitation of adult literacy specifically in Ghana and how it is impacted by programme management issues and other contextual factors. A qualitative case study design was employed to explore the key question of how adult literacy facilitation in English is being accomplished in the Ghana NFLP and four sub-questions as follows: 1. How is literacy facilitation understood by the ALOs? 2. How does the understanding of literacy facilitation held by ALOs translate into the facilitation of the new policy of NFLP in English? 3. What difficulties do ALOs face in enacting facilitation? 4. What are the perspectives of the ALOs on their new role in the NFLP? Data collection comprised observation of six adult literacy classes, selected purposefully from a district in a southern region of Ghana. These were followed by semi-structured interviews with the six ALOs whose classes were observed. After initial analysis of the data, four telephone follow-up interviews were conducted to fill up gaps in data. In addition, documents including research reports on literacy, facilitation and second language teaching, as well as instructional materials were analyzed. All data sets were analyzed using thematic analysis framework because it is a flexible and useful research tool that gave me a means of providing a rich and detailed account of the data on facilitation. Secondly, it is not ‘wed to any pre-existing theoretical frameworks' so it made it easy for me to interrogate the data in this study adopting a constructionist epistemological position (Braun and Clarke, 2006: 9). The study was guided by Knowles' notion of andragogy which provides guidelines on how adults learn and Rogers' Facilitation Theory. The study revealed that although ALOs are expected to use andragogic methods in facilitating English literacy learning to adults, especially those with limited and no literacy, programme related factors make this difficult. Inadequate class inputs, ALO-related issues such as facilitator's own English linguistic competency and some level of difficulty with communicating with the learners whilst facilitating their English literacy limit learner participation and encourage a transmission approach. Although comprehension was facilitated through translation for participants, their English language production was very limited. However, participants benefitted more in public speaking even in their own language and a sense of solidarity from participation. The study concludes that second language literacy facilitation for adult learners requires linguistic as well as andragogic competence. Adequate resourcing and management of contextual issues are also factors that impact on facilitation of English literacy learning by adults. Better standards for deploying, building the capacities of the ALOs and managing the programme are therefore recommended if proficiency in literacy levels is to be attained by participants. The study sheds light on what pertains in an adult functional English literacy class in the GNFLP and has offered implications for policy and practice.

It has been nearly fifty-four years since Ghana nursed the dream of rapid social and economic development through science, technology and innovation. Ghana is yet to experience technological transformation to the level of other countries with which she was at par at the time of her independence. Gaps in understanding still remain in the Ghanaian experience in the development of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy. As such, a radical reform of the systems to help in the restructuring and transforming the economy is still lacking. In 2010 the government of Ghana developed an STI policy. The aim of this policy is to address all sectors of the economy in order to achieve growth and economic transformation. Analytically, the thesis takes a critical perspective to situate Ghana's socio-economic and political history in the discourses of the dependency theory framework and to examine how the STI policy at the higher education level in Ghana was formulated and how this had privileged different interests and what the implications are for the country. Mindful of the gaps and historic policy flows, the study took advantage of the researcher's insider position as an education expert and experience as the government policy developer. With this position and experience, the researcher orientation from the perspectives of policy-makers in Ghana was qualitative research methodology that focused on a case study approach, documentary analysis linked to a critical discourse analysis, observations, semi-structured and informal interviews and the use of a research diary to collect field data. The field data collected for the empirical analysis were documentary data, interview transcripts, interview notes, observation data and field notes. In a constructivist analysis, the interpretive paradigm approach, the notion of triangulation and reflexivity helped not only to privilege the multiple perspectives but to also illuminate the complexity and differences among the participants and other data sources to improve the quality of the data analysis. The research found that in Ghana's trajectory to modernity through education, the country was marginalised in technology by the advanced capitalist nations to produce low-skilled personnel to be exploited by corporations. Further, the government subcontracted the World Bank and UNCTAD to produce the 2010 STI policy to the neglect of its established institutions. This makes it difficult for the country to pursue an independent reflationary STI policy. Moreover, the documentary analysis of the policy revealed that the government of Ghana had focused mostly on basic education to the detriment of higher education and STI policy to further marginalise the country in technology to produce a low-skilled Ghana to be exploited by corporations. The implication is Ghana to restructure the content of education to build a solid foundation for the development of the STI policy in the country. The study, therefore, provides a solid critique of the country's economic policy and international commitments that perpetuate a dependent model of development to the neglect of STI policy in Ghana. In the wake of the new STI policy development paradigms, the study suggests the need for a shift in paradigm from poor interactive learning space to rich interactive learning space, an interactionist model approach underpinned by a rich interactive learning space as an analytical tool and a guide for STI policy formation in Ghana.

acase@tulane.edu / All over the world, in countries both rich and poor, education is touted as a path to a better life – both for the individual and for the nation as a whole. Education is a process of improvement not just in subject knowledge, but in human capabilities. It is recognized as such a fundamental imperative that the right to free education is enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although school enrollment rates in the developing world have shown steady improvement, there is growing concern that many children who do attend school are not acquiring the skills they need to raise their living standards. Millions of children with basic educations are still unable to read. Nationally, Ghana’s education indicators point to more successful education development than most of its West and Sub-Saharan African neighbors, but there is evidence that the quality of education provided, especially in rural areas, is quite poor. This research explores the significance of children’s work and school instructional environment as predictors of school participation and achievement of basic literacy (after controlling for relevant child, household, community, and macro factors) for children in agricultural households in the cocoa growing areas of Ghana. Children’s development issues in Ghana’s rural cocoa growing areas came under international scrutiny following reports in the early 2000s of widespread worst forms of child labor (WFCL) among children working in cocoa production, and children’s work is often believed to come at the expense of their education. The findings in this analysis suggest that the number of hours children in agricultural households in the cocoa growing areas of Ghana spend working reduces the probability of basic literacy (even after controlling for number of completed grades of schooling and other factors), although the magnitude of the effect for broader group of children was much more limited than that of the effect for the sub-group of children who had ever attended school. The findings also suggest that hours of work decrease grade attainment for the population under study. Poor teacher attendance was found to be negatively associated with achievement of basic literacy, while use of corporal punishment in the classroom and religious school attendance were positively associated with achievement of basic literacy. Religious school attendance, although reported by very few children in the sample, was also positively associated with number of grades completed. Additional research is needed to better understand the possible effects of school instructional environment on children’s school attendance and persistence. / 1 / Susan M. Dudis