Joseph Mensah

Ghana's national health insurance scheme in the context of the health MDGs: an empirical evaluation using propensity score matching

In 2003 the Government of Ghana established a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to improve health-care access for Ghanaians and eventually replace the cash-and-carry system. This study evaluates an important aspect of its promise in the context of the Millennium Development Goals #4 and #5 which deal with the health of women and children. We use Propensity Score Matching techniques to balance the relevant background characteristics in our survey data and compare health indicators of recent mothers who are enrolled in the NHIS with those who are not. Our findings suggest that NHIS women are more likely to receive prenatal care, deliver at a hospital, have their deliveries attended by trained health professionals, and experience less birth complications. We conclude that NHIS is an effective tool for improving health outcomes among those who are covered, which should encourage the Ghanaian government to promote further enrollment, in particular among the poor.

Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme: insights from members, administrators and health care providers.

The Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was established as part of a poverty reduction strategy to make health care more affordable to Ghanaians. It is envisaged that it will eventually replace the existing cash-and-carry system. This paper examines the views of NHIS administrators, members/enrollees, and health care providers on how the Scheme operates in practice. It is part of a larger evaluation project on Ghana’s NHIS, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Development Network as part of a two-year global research. We rely primarily on qualitative data from focus group discussion in the Brong Ahafo and the Upper East regions respectively. Our findings suggest that the NHIS has improved access to affordable health care services and prescription drugs to many people in Ghana. However, there are concerns about fraud and corruption that must be addressed if the Scheme is to be financially viable.

Cultural Dimensions of African Immigrant Housing in Toronto: A Qualitative Insight

This qualitative study examines the lived experiences of Ghanaians and Somalis in Toronto, highlighting the multifaceted interplays between their cultures, housing problems, and coping strategies. We found that, unlike the situation in their homelands where many were involved in communal living out of desire, in Toronto many are driven to live communally for reasons of cost. Also, some respondents have to either improvise, or totally forgo, various culinary practices because of the ways homes are designed in Toronto. Perhaps, no other cultural attribute was found to be more consequential in the housing decisions of our respondents than their religion; not only did it influence their choice of neighborhood and whether or not their internal living arrangements were gendered, but it also had some bearing on the acquisition of interest-laden loans for housing among many Somalis.

Globalization and the human factor : critical insights

Introduction: the globalization-development debate: the need for a paradigm shift, E.O.K. Prempeh, Joseph Mensah and Senyo Adjibolosoo. Conceptualizing Globalization and the Human Factor: Globalization and the human factor: some preliminary observations, E. Osei Kwadwo Prempeh Tapping into and benefiting from the forces and agents of globalization: creating an integrated vehicle for global participation and gainsharing, Senyo Adjibolosoo. Globalization, the Human Factor and Cultural Identities: Integrating culture in globalization and development theory: a human factor approach, Joseph Mensah African culture and the social implications and consequences of globalization, Victor Ngonidzashe Muzvidziwa Globalization and diversity in the tourism industry: a human factor, Francis Adbu-Febiri. Globalization, the Human Factor and Science and Technology: National agricultural research systems, the biotechnology revolution and agricultural development, Korbla P. Puplampu Globalization, disporization and cyber-communities: exploring African transnationalism, Wisdom J. Tettey Human factor decay, American exceptionalism, and the exclusion of women and minorities from science and science-driven globalization, Randy Moore. Globalization, the Human Factor, Democracy and Governance: Globalization, governance and the human factor, E. Osei Kwadwo Prempeh Democracy as political counterpart to globalization: wither the Human factor?, E. Osei Kwadwo Prempeh Index.

The Black, continental African presence and the nation-immigration dialectic in Canada

How is the Canadian national identity constructed? What are the relationships between the national identity and the immigration policy of Canada? And how has the Black presence in Canada influenced Canadas national identity formation and immigration policy? This paper examines the extent to which Black, continental Africans are implicated in the nation-immigration dialectic of Canada. It sets various conceptions Black African identities in Canada against notions of Canadian national identity, using the dialectical principles of negation and sublation. As the number of Black Africans continues to grow, it is important to understand the interplay between the social construction of ‘blackness’ and the national identity formation of Canada.

Gender, power, and religious transnationalism among the African diaspora in Canada

Stimulated by a wide range of factors, the sons and daughters of Africa have relocated to Canada in significant numbers in recent years, and have, in turn, prompted research and public discussions about the extent to which they are incorporated in the host society. While the racism-laced economic challenges faced by these African immigrants have featured prominently in the burgeoning Canadian literature on immigrants, only a handful of scholars have examined how Africans in Canada use their cultural and religious practices to facilitate their settlement and integration processes, and fewer still have explored how gender roles are enacted and justified within the African diasporic church. With empirical data from Ghanaian churches in Toronto, this article examines the degree to which African immigrant churches are gendered, paying particular attention to how male–female differentials in power and transnational positionality play out in these churches. Our findings indicate that while women are very active in the immigrant church, they wield lesser power than men when it comes to leadership positions. At the same time, there appears to be some power convergence between Ghanaian men and women in Toronto, in general, and this convergence is steadily permeating the Ghanaian immigrant church.

Globalization and New Christian Geographies in Africa: A Cautionary Optimism amidst Growing Afropessimism

Since the mid-1990s, the term “globalization” has become an all-purpose buzzword in public and scholarly debates. It is now used in a variety of ways, “some of which are mutually reinforcing, while others are outright contradictory”2 We thus find Friedman observing, perhaps sarcastically, that “globalization is everything and its opposite”;3 and Beyer and Beaman noting that “globalization, it almost seems, is about everything, and everything has something to do with globalization.”4 With so many interpretations of globalization, the term runs the risk of becoming a hollow “global cliche,” write Lechner and Boli.5

Change and Continuity in the Practice and Development of Geography in Ghana

Societal change and the conceptualization of knowledge production are key instruments in defining the trajectory of academic disciplines. This chapter discusses the evolution of the discipline of geography and its contribution to knowledge and public policy and practice in Ghana. It examines the writings and portfolios held by key geographers and the content of academic courses in the country. Geography in Ghana reflects both the modernization of Ghanaian society and the philosophical evolution of global knowledge production. These are reflected in the content, nature, and contributions of the discipline from the colonial era to the contemporary society. The thematic orientation of the subject reflects societal dynamics and thereby needs to be accredited for the proliferation of areas of specialization. These specializations and the redefinition of content and focus of thematic areas are responses to both societal needs and wider epistemological changes. Ghanaian geographers have contributed immensely to the generation of knowledge and the dissemination of geographic research for national development. However, physical geography has lagged behind human geography over the years due primarily to the lack of adequate infrastructure and funding.

Africa and the Political Economy of Time-Space Compression and Space of Flows

That contemporary globalization is characterized by a “speed-up in the pace of life” (Harvey 1990, 240), or the shrinking of the world into a global village, is hard to deny. The dynamic time-space compression that underpins this characteristic feature of globalization has generally been presented in the available literature as though it applies evenly across all regions of the world. But can the image of a shrinking world, with unbridled mobility and “space of flows” (Castells 2000a) stand rigorous empirical scrutiny? Is the almost “obligatory use in the literature of terms and phrases such a speed-up, global village, overcoming spatial barriers” (Massey 1999a) really justified? Is everyone’s world actually getting smaller?

Conclusion Neoliberal Globalization And Africa

So far we have examined the ways in which Africa and its people interlace with the phenomena of neoliberalism and globalization and their associated discursive practices. As with other regions of the world, internal and external forces are exacting considerable pressure on the economies, societies, and cultures of Africa. The recurrent narratives from the preceding chapters suggest that African countries were relatively better-off in the immediate post-independence period up until the early 1970s, after which many of them went into economic tailspin. The decade of the 1980s was particularly horrendous in the continent’s modern development history, with some calling it “the lost decade” (Ngagwa and Green 1994; Chazan et al. 1992). To the extent that the rise of contemporary globalization is often tied to the 1980s and beyond, one can argue that the emerging world order, couched in neoliberalism, is not beneficial to Africa and its people. Castells makes a similar point in his End of millennium when he notes that “the rise of informational/global capitalism in the last quarter of the twentieth century coincided with the collapse of Africa’s economies” (2000, 82). Obviously, Castells is not asserting that Africa’s poor performance under contemporary global capitalism is a mere coincidence, given some of the structural causalities he documents in his book.