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2. A Role for Social Protection Investments to Support Food and Nutrition Security
- Author:
- Reid Hamel
- Publication Date:
- 02-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- Social protection programming, such as cash transfers and vouchers provided at the individual or household level, has become increasingly prominent as a tool to combat food insecurity worldwide. Advantages of a social protection approach include the ability to target and reach the most vulnerable segments of society and to provide direct support for basic needs without reliance on complex causal pathways.The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) invests relatively little in social protection despite its flagship initiative, Feed the Future, which seeks to mitigate food insecurity and to reduce the prevalence of stunting in 12 countries (formerly in 19). Ghana’s LEAP (Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty) program represents an exception to the U.S. investment pattern. In partnership with UNICEF, USAID/Ghana has made noteworthy investments in the expansion of the LEAP cash transfer program to add a new eligible group of beneficiaries: pregnant women and children under one year old. The intention to intervene during pregnancy and the first year of life is motivated by a growing understanding that good nutrition during this window is critical to physical and cognitive health and human development outcomes that last a lifetime. This report explores the development of Ghana’s LEAP program since 2008; its current coverage, successes, and challenges; and opportunities for both the government of Ghana and donor partners to spearhead continuous improvements for program outcomes and resource efficiency.
- Topic:
- Development, Poverty, Social Policy, and Development Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, North America, and Ghana
3. Why northern Ghana lags behind in Ghana’s growth and poverty reduction success
- Author:
- John Baptist D. Jatoe, Ramatu Al-Hassan, and Bamidele Adekunle
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
- Abstract:
- Ghana’s post adjustment growth and poverty reduction performance has been hailed as impressive, albeit with spatial disparities in the distribution of welfare, especially between the north and south of the country. Researchers generally agree that economic growth does not always reduce poverty. Indeed, the effectiveness of growth in reducing poverty depends on the level of inequality in the population. Growth that increases inequality may not reduce poverty; growth that does not change inequality (distribution-neutral growth) and growth that reduces inequality (pro-poor growth) result in poverty reduction. Policy makers can promote pro-poor growth by empowering the poor to participate in growth directly. Policy makers can focus on interventions that improve productivity in smallholder agriculture, particularly export crops, increasing employment of semi-skilled or unskilled labour, promoting technology adoption, increasing access to production assets, as well as effective participation in input and product markets. Also, increasing public spending on social services and infrastructure made possible by redistribution of the benefits of growth benefits the poor, indirectly.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Economics, Poverty, Labor Issues, Economic growth, Labor Policies, Economic Policy, and Macroeconomics
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
4. Subjective Risk and Participation in Micro Life Insurance in Ghana
- Author:
- Lena Giesbert
- Publication Date:
- 12-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper analyzes the determinants of households' decisions to purchase micro life insurance, the most common but least investigated type of microinsurance. It uses household survey data collected in southern Ghana in 2009. Insurance participation and extent of coverage are examined against a standard benchmark model, which argues that life insurance uptake increases with risk aversion, the probability of risk, initial wealth, and the “intensity for bequests.” Many of these predictions indeed hold in the case of micro life insurance. However, the results of probit and tobit models show that nonstandard factors also explain the participation decision. Unlike the case with other available types of insurance, there is a significant negative association between households' subjective idiosyncratic risk perception and the uptake of micro life insurance. Additionally, households' micro life insurance participation is strongly related to their relationships with formal financial services providers and their membership in social networks. These findings suggest that poorer households view microinsurance as a risky option.
- Topic:
- Health, Poverty, and Health Care Policy
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
5. The Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Health Insurance on the Demand for Prenatal and Postnatal Health Care in Ghana
- Publication Date:
- 11-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
- Abstract:
- Ghana is committed to achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 and 5, which aim to reduce child and maternal deaths by 2015. This commitment is manifested in the way prenatal and postnatal health care services are being made accessible to women of reproductive age. Prenatal care refers to the medical and nursing care recommended for women before and during pregnancy. Postnatal care is an essential part of safe motherhood. The access to and use of prenatal and postnatal health care services are crucial for improved maternal-child survival. Ill health of women and children can arise due to the under utilization of prenatal and postnatal health care services.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Health, Poverty, Health Care Policy, Children, Millennium Development Goals, and Infants
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
6. Understanding the Links Between Sexual and Reproductive Health Status and Poverty Reduction
- Author:
- Nata Duvvury and Philip Oxhorn
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University
- Abstract:
- The interrelationship between poverty and sexual and reproductive health status (SRHS) is widely noted in academic, policy and programmatic discourses, though none establishes causality. The primary emphasis in these discourses is that poor SRHS is an outcome of poverty, and thus can be addressed through poverty reduction programmes. The purpose of this brief is to understand what factors contribute to the interrelationship between SRHS and poverty, with a specific focus on understanding how SRHS impacts household poverty. Future studies may then focus specifically on these factors in order to address issues of causality. This brief is based on desk research involving two sources of data: 1) a review of global literature and 2) three country case studies. The global literature review examined literature documenting the nature, extent and strength of the interrelationship between poverty and SRHS. The literature search was conducted using keywords from different disciplinary perspectives demography, economics, development, women’s studies, sociology, human rights and public health. Key databases such as JSTOR, PubMed, MEDLINE and Elsevier Science Direct were consulted, as well as the specific library databases at National University of Ireland, Galway and McGill University. Researchers at McGill compiled an annotated bibliography of literature on India. The three country case studies were undertaken in Brazil, Ghana and Lebanon. Consultants in each country undertook an extensive search of academic, policy and programmatic literature including journal publications, research reports, policy briefs, and non-governmental organization (NGO) reports. The literature search in each country followed the same method as the global literature review, including identifying keywords from different disciplines and exploring different databases. In addition, the consultants searched grey literature through contacting various NGOs and research institutions. They also obtained statistical information from governmental and institutional databases. All country case studies explored three key questions: 1) Is there literature that demonstrates the impact of poor SRHS on poverty? 2) What factors have been highlighted in the literature as influencing the relationship between SRHS and poverty? 3) Are there trade-offs involved for women between education, fertility, status and work participation? and 4) Do programmes by civil society organizations, such as micro-credit or income-generating programmes, promote sexual and reproductive health?
- Topic:
- Development, Education, Poverty, Health Care Policy, and Reproductive Health
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Middle East, Brazil, South America, Lebanon, and Ghana
7. Perceptions of (Micro)Insurance in Southern Ghana: The Role of Information and Peer Effects
- Author:
- Lena Giesbert and Susan Steiner
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- This article investigates the understandings and perceptions of (micro)insurance among low income people in southern Ghana, using evidence from four focus group discussions. It analyzes how the focus group participants think about various types of insurance – among them a micro life insurance product – and how their negative and/or positive evaluations have come about. The evidence indicates that (micro)insurance is mostly positively perceived by the participants of the focus group discussions. However, it is also found that many people's image of insurance is based on incomplete (and sometimes erroneous) information, or even on intuition. In addition, the experiences or opinions of peers turn out to be critical in shaping an individual's perception of insurance. These two factors potentially have a contagious effect, which can lead to unreasonably positive or overly negative ideas about (micro )insurance. Such ideas, in turn, can become detrimental to the further distribution of microinsurance.
- Topic:
- Health, Political Economy, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
8. A Case Study from Ghana: Understanding the Links between Sexual and Reproductive Health, Gender Equality and Poverty Reduction
- Author:
- Akosua K. Darkwah
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University
- Abstract:
- Ghana is an interesting case study for this project for two reasons. First, it has an anomalous reproductive health profile. The country has the lowest Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in West Africa and one of the lowest in the sub-region. As at 2008, the TFR for the country was 4.0, for urban areas it was 3.1 and for the Greater Accra area, the most urbanized part of the country, it was 2.5 (GDHS 2008). This is a quite rapid decline from a TFR of 6.4 children per woman as at 1988. Even more interesting is the fact that the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) stood at a low 24% in 2008. Some scholars such as Grey and Blanc (2002) argue that abortion rates help explain the gap between the CPR one should expect given the low TFR and what actually pertains as measured by the GDHS. Abortion in Ghana, however, inspite of a liberal law, accounts for between 13% (Sedgh 2010) and 25% (Baiden 2009) of maternal mortality cases in the country. In other words, in Ghana if the assertions of Grey and Blanc (2002) are valid, a low TFR has been achieved at the peril of women’s lives, quite contrary to what one would expect if reproductive health concerns were addressed systematically in the country. Second, the country exhibits quite some discord between its policies and its practices. Over the years, Ghana has been influenced and positively impacted by the global regimes in first Family Planning and later Reproductive Health. It joined the UN system of Population Censuses in 1960 and was an African Pioneer in the development of official Population Policy. It has an illustrious son, Fred Sai who is well known in international circles for his work on Reproductive Health. Fred Sai was the president of the International Planned Parenthood Association during the International Conference on Population Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994 at which the conceptual shift from a narrow emphasis on family planning to the much broader notion of Reproductive Health was made. As president of such a key institution, he was instrumental in the processes that led to this effort and worked tirelessly to ensure that the Ghanaian State in its policies and practices reflected the conceptual shifts from Population Control to Reproductive Health. Two years after ICPD, the Ghanaian Reproductive Health Service Policy and Standards were developed and revised in 2003 to incorporate sexual health and gender based violence.
- Topic:
- Development, Gender Issues, Poverty, and Reproductive Health
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
9. Saving Ghana from Its Oil: The Case for Direct Cash Distribution
- Author:
- Todd Moss and Lauren Young
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Ghana can be considered a relative success story in Africa. We cite six variables—peace and stability, democracy and governance, control of corruption, macroeconomic management, poverty reduction, and signs of an emerging social contract—to suggest the country's admirable political and economic progress. The expected arrival of sizeable oil revenues beginning in 2011–13, however, threatens to undermine that progress. In fact, numerous studies have linked natural resources to negative outcomes such as conflict, authoritarianism, high corruption, economic instability, increased poverty, and the destruction of the social contract. The oil curse thus threatens the very outcomes that we consider signs of Ghana's success. This paper draws lessons from the experiences of Norway, Botswana, Alaska, Chad, and Nigeria to consider Ghana's policy options. One common characteristic of the successful models appears to be their ability to encourage an influential constituency with an interest in responsible resource management and the means to hold government accountable. The Alaska model in particular, which was designed explicitly to manufacture citizen oversight and contain oil-induced patronage, seems relevant to Ghana's current predicament. We propose a modified version of Alaska's dividend program. Direct cash distribution of oil revenues to citizens is a potentially powerful approach to protect and accelerate Ghana's political and economic gains, and a way to strengthen the country's social contract. We show why Ghana is an ideal country to take advantage of this option, and why the timing is fortuitous. We conclude by confronting some of the common objections to this approach and suggest that new technology such as biometric ID cards or private mobile phone networks could be utilized to implement the scheme.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Economics, Oil, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
10. Financial Sector Development, Savings Mobilization and Poverty Reduction in Ghana
- Author:
- Peter Quartey
- Publication Date:
- 12-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- The paper primarily investigates the interrelationship between financial sector development and poverty reduction in Ghana. This is done using time-series data from the World Development Indicators from 1970-2001. The main findings are, first, that even though financial sector development does not Granger-cause savings mobilization in Ghana, it induces poverty reduction; and second, that savings do Granger-cause poverty reduction in Ghana. Also, the effect of financial sector development on poverty reduction is positive but insignificant. This is due to the fact that financial intermediaries in Ghana have not adequately channelled savings to the pro-poor sectors of the economy because of government deficit financing, high default rate, lack of collateral and lack of proper business proposals. Another interesting finding is that there is a long-run co integration relationship between financial sector development and poverty reduction.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana