Charlotte Wrigley-Asante

Out of the dark but not out of the cage: women's empowerment and gender relations in the Dangme West district of Ghana

In Ghana, strategies to address poverty among rural women have often been linked to womens empowerment programmes with credit as a core component of these. Yet, many programmes focus on the economic benefit to women without necessarily looking at the impact on gender relations at the household level and its implications on women. Using quantitative and qualitative data from the Dangme West district of Ghana, this article shows how poverty reduction programmes with credit components can reduce womens vulnerability to poverty and empower them. But much more needs to be done to complement these efforts. The study shows that women beneficiaries as against women non-beneficiaries have significantly improved their socio-economic status through access to financial and non-financial resources. This has in certain instances improved gender relations at the household level, with women being recognized as earners of income and contributors to household budget. However, some women still regard their spouses as ‘heads’ and require their consent in decisions even in issues that have to do with their own personal lives. Moreover, the improved economic status of women has resulted in a ‘power conflict’, creating confrontation between spouses. The article recommends that, as part of their programmes, assisting organizations and institutions must address ‘power relations’, the basis of gender subordination at the household level, otherwise socio-cultural norms and practices, underpinned by patriarchal structures, will remain ‘cages’ for rural women.

Men are poor but women are poorer: Gendered poverty and survival strategies in the Dangme West District of Ghana

In contemporary times there has been a broader definition of poverty to include not only economic deprivation such as income, but also various forms of vulnerability such as lack of dignity and autonomy. The paper seeks to bring out the multidimensionality of poverty from the perspective of both men and women in the Dangme West District of Ghana, through their day-to-day experiences of poverty and how this leads to different livelihood strategies among men and women. It is argued that gender inequalities, the patriarchal system and the traditional gender roles of women create a situation where womens experiences of poverty tend to be more severe than those of men. The author recommends that specific policies geared towards poverty reduction must address the needs and concerns of both men and women. Thus, men and women must be involved in defining projects that reflect their local realities and this must be backed by vigorous gender sensitization and awareness programmes. Engendering poverty reduction programmes with gender sensitization and awareness programmes will go a long way to address patriarchal attitudes and gender inequalities that create poverty particularly among women.

Survival or escaping poverty: the perspectives of poverty and well-being among Ghanaian women in cross-border trading

Trading is one of the strategies that Ghanaian women have adopted to overcome poverty and improve their well-being. Using in-depth interviews, this study examines the specific commercial activities that are undertaken by women in cross-border trading, the coping strategies that they use to address the difficulties that confront them, the impact of womens trading activities on their lives, and how these are linked to their subjective understanding of poverty and well-being. The analysis shows that women can lift themselves out of poverty through informal cross-border trading activities in spite of the challenges and risks they face. Such trading activities have enabled them to support themselves and to meet the needs of their households, and this has created a sense of life satisfaction, happiness, and self-fulfilment. The study recommends that trade and trade-related programmes developed at a national level must include the needs and concerns of female cross-border traders. This should include educational and sensitization programmes on trade laws and womens rights issues.

Geographies of crime and collective efficacy in urban Ghana

ABSTRACT Geographies of Crime and Collective Efficacy in Urban Ghana. Territory, Politics, Governance. The quest to understand how urban neighbourhood characteristics impact on crime has become an important theoretical and policy-relevant component of contemporary criminology thinking and a potential gauge for the relative value of informal and formal mechanisms of social control. This renewed interest and vigour stems, in great part, from recent works which use social disorganization theory as a spring board to examine the mediating effects of collective efficacy on crime-growth rates. The recent preeminence notwithstanding, the situation in less-developed countries remains under-researched and poorly understood, a situation partly attributable to the dearth of official disaggregated data at the community level. This paper addresses this gap in knowledge by drawing on our empirical study in Accra, Ghana. Our analytical results reveal that crime opportunities are neither uniformly nor randomly organized in space and time, and provide consistent support for lower levels of violent crime in neighbourhoods with higher levels of collective efficacy. While raising concerns about a rigid dichotomy between ‘safer’ and ‘incubator’ crime communities, we also caution that such practices can mislead policy-makers and preclude attempts at devising practical preventive interventions.

Gender dimensions of climate change adaptation practices: the experiences of smallholder crop farmers in the transition zone of Ghana

Abstract This paper discusses the gender dimensions of climate change adaptation strategies among small holder crop farmers in the transition zone of Ghana. A total of 612 farmers (328 females and 284 males) were interviewed using purposive sampling technique. Our results indicate that adaptation strategies are gendered with men mostly resorting to on-farm agronomic practices such as the use of artificial fertilizers and also moving into new cash crops. Female farmers also use similar on-farm agronomic practices particularly artificial fertilizers to boost crop production but most importantly resorted to petty trading in agricultural and consumable goods, an off-farm strategy. This shows women’s resilience which has also subsequently improved their decision-making role at the household level, which is an indicator of empowerment. We recommend that institutions that support climate change adaptation initiatives at the local level must take gender differences into consideration and support particularly women to strengthen their resilience and consolidate their empowerment.

Collective efficacy and fear of crime in urban neighbourhoods in Ghana

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between neighbourhood characteristics and fear of crime, and further explore how this relationship is mediated by collective efficacy. The background to this is that while research, mainly based on the experiences of western countries is conclusive on how collective efficacy plays a mediating role between neighbourhood structural characteristics and fear of crime, the situation in developing countries remains poorly researched.,The study drew from a baseline survey conducted in different socio-economic neighbourhoods in four cities in Ghana. With regards to the analysis, results from a series of ordinary least square multiple regression models were used to develop a path diagram to explain the direct and indirect relationships at the various study neighbourhoods.,Results from the study showed variations of the extent of neighbourhood effect on fear of crime and collective efficacy in the different socio-economic neighbourhoods. More importantly, the study revealed that collective efficacy mediated the effect of a number of neighbourhood characteristics on fear of crime in low-income neighbourhoods compared to middle- and high-income neighbourhoods.,The conclusion of the study brings to the fore the relevance of collective efficacy as a vehicle for building safer communities in Ghana since it relies on local initiatives in addressing criminogenic problems. More importantly, it is suggested that formal crime prevention efforts should be integrated with informal crime control measures, particularly in low-income neighbourhoods.,Using extensive survey data collected in Ghana, the study examines the applicability of collective efficacy, a western-based socio-ecological theory in a developing country context.

Public confidence in the police: tests of instrumental and expressive models in a developing country city

ABSTRACT This paper examines the effect of instrumental and expressive concerns on public confidence in the police in three different residential areas in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana’s third largest city. The study was important because of the knowledge vacuum that existed in regard to the empirical validity of the instrumental and expressive theoretical framework within the Ghanaian context. Data for the study was drawn from a baseline survey conducted in three residential areas in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis. The findings revealed that instrumental factors played a more significant role in influencing confidence in the police in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis compared to expressive factors. More importantly, instrumental factors played a more significant role in influencing confidence in the police at Anaji compared to the other two residential areas used in the study. The paper recommends that there should be more investment in police infrastructure and services to enhance police effectiveness and efficiency. Additionally, the authors also suggest that interventions aimed at improving security at the community level should be guided by periodic safety audits since this will provide a better understanding of the criminogenic problems within these residential settlements.

Longitudinal analysis of trends and patterns of crime in Ghana (1980–2010): a new perspective

This preliminary study examines the nexus between incidence of crime and socio-politico-economic dynamics in Ghana between 1980 and 2010, using both international and local data. This is against the backdrop that earlier North America-based mainstream scholarships had argued that crime was a rational response to rising socioeconomic challenges – inequality, urbanization, peer pressure, and poverty. Our analysis shows that such age-old dichotomous narratives that underpinned criminology studies in developed countries is no longer fit for the purpose in the Ghanaian context. It takes little account of the multiplicity of drivers for criminal behavior and adopts causalities inextricably linked to a development paradigm that sees crime and criminality merely as a symptom of socioeconomic deprivation. Our study concludes that the truth is much more complicated – and disturbing – than this, as crime is not only a result of ‘pure’ inequality but a complex combination of socioeconomic and political developments and policies.