Matching Items (11)
Description
Africa is misrepresented and mis-imaged in the western media. Because of this, notions and beliefs about atrocities that take place on the continent lack context, leaving people to think that Africa is a place of misery, darkness and despair; a monolithic land where evil resides. The image of Africa as the "heart of darkness" was conjured following the Joseph Conrad novel and the idea of Africa as the "Dark Continent" still pervades Western thought. This is an inadequate understanding of Africa, and lacks the context to comprehend why many of the atrocities in Africa occur. I will explore two atrocities in Africa, the 1994 Rwanda Genocide and child slavery on Lake Volta in Ghana. I believe that both these examples reflect how the label of evil is insufficient to describe the circumstances around each atrocity. In order to understand such events we must understand the part that colonialism and poverty play in the disruption of pan-African culture. The "evils" of these two phenomenon, are in many cases the result of the Western world's past involvement in Africa and are remnants and extensions of the disruption caused.
ContributorsBork, Paul (Author) / Simmons, William P (Thesis advisor) / Erfani, Julie (Committee member) / Anokye, Duku A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This work explores the underlying dynamics of democracies in the context of underdevelopment, arguing that when society has not attained a substantial degree of economic independence from the state, it undermines democratic quality and stability. Economic underdevelopment and political oppression are mutually reinforcing, and both are rooted in the structure of the agriculture sector, the distribution of land, and the rural societies that emerge around this order. These systems produce persistent power imbalances that militate toward their continuance, encourage dependency, and foster the development of neopatrimonialism and corruption in the government, thereby weakening key pillars of democracy such as accountability and representativeness. Through historical analysis of a single case study, this dissertation demonstrates that while this is partly a result of actor choices at key points in time, it is highly influenced by structural constraints embedded in earlier time periods. I find that Ghana’s historical development from the colonial era to present day closely follows this trajectory.
ContributorsEllis, Alicia N (Author) / Thies, Cameron (Thesis advisor) / Warner, Carolyn (Committee member) / Thomson, Henry (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Many global development initiatives focus on improving access to safe and affordable water. Governments and infrastructure in rapidly urbanizing cities struggle to meet the increased demand for water, especially in peri-urban and informal settlements of sub-Saharan Africa. The private sector, in the form of small water enterprises (SWEs), plays an increasing role in satisfying demand for water, but their greater effects have seldom been investigated. This research explores how SWEs affect access to household water in a peri-urban settlement of Accra, Ghana and investigates their social, economic, and environmental impacts in the community. This research also examines how SWEs influence security and sustainability goals within the framing concepts of the US Army’s Stability doctrine and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The methods employed in this study were interviews, observation, and review of existing literature and case studies. Results of this qualitative analysis reveal that while SWEs increase and diversify local access to clean water, provide economic opportunities and jobs—especially to women—they also present environmental and health concerns when unregulated and unaddressed by educators, city officials, and community leaders. Further, in cases where municipal governments cannot provide safe and consistent access to clean water in the given location, results show that SWEs enterprises can work in cohesion with both the SDGs and the US Army stability goals. Moving forward, city officials, development programs, and US Army stability doctrine should consider supporting SWEs to increase water access and improve other developmental outcomes, while working to avoid potentially negative environmental and health outcomes.
ContributorsMallue, Natalie (Author) / White, Dave D. (Thesis advisor) / Allenby, Brad (Committee member) / Richmond, Amy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
DescriptionThis research evaluates the national HIV/AIDS policy of Ghana and compares it to the policies of other countries in the Economic Community of West African States.
ContributorsAlcaraz, Hailey Elizabeth (Author) / Alozie, Nicholas (Thesis director) / Fisher, Erik (Committee member) / Rothenberg, Daniel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
This research focused on how low-income communities in Ghana could convert Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) into biodiesel to supplement their energy demands. The 2016 World Energy Outlook estimates that about 8 million Ghanaians do not have access to electricity while 82% of the population use biomass as cooking fuel. However, WVO is available in almost every home and is also largely produced by hotels and schools. There are over 2,700 registered hotels and more than 28,000 educational institutions from Basic to the Tertiary level. Currently, most WVOs are often discarded in open gutters or left to go rancid and later disposed of. Therefore, WVOs serve as cheap materials available in large quantities with a high potential for conversion into biodiesel and commercializing to support the economic needs of low-income communities. In 2013, a group of researchers at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana estimated that the country could be producing between 82,361 and 85,904 tons of biodiesel from WVOs generated by hotels alone in 2015. Further analysis was also carried out to examine the Ghana National Biofuel Policy that was introduced in 2005 with support from the Ghana Energy Commission. Based on the information identified in the research, a set of recommendations were made to help the central government in promoting the biodiesel industry in Ghana, with a focus on low-income or farming communities. Lastly, a self-sustaining biodiesel production model with high potential for commercialization, was proposed to enable low-income communities to produce their own biodiesel from WVOs to meet their energy demands.
ContributorsAnnor-Wiafe, Stephen (Author) / Henderson, Mark (Thesis director) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH), a neglected tropical disease (NTD) remains a major health problem all over the world especially in developing countries such as, Cameroon with a prevalence of 30.8%, Nigeria and Ghana with a prevalence of 25.4% (Pullan et. al, 2014). This study touches on transmission patterns and investigates the effectiveness of policies on mass drug administration as a means to control STH in Ghana. The government of Ghana currently focuses mass drug administration efforts on school aged children (SAC) that are children between the ages of 5-14 years. This paper develops and evaluates a different mass drug administration strategy by hypothesizing that it would be more cost-effective to target some percentage of vulnerable adults in MDA efforts as opposed to only targeting SAC between ages 5-14 years in Ghana. This we hypothesize would lead to a faster reduction in prevalence over time, would be cost-effective and would hopefully lead to an eventual reduction in morbidity caused by this disease to a level of no public health significance in Ghana. We conduct three cost-effectiveness analyses based on three different case setups. Given the parameter values from literature, our results suggest that it is most cost-effective to cover 20% of adults while covering at least 24% of children in mass drug administration assuming that the number of individuals covered is equal to 80% a figure which is the current total coverage of school-aged children.
ContributorsMohammed, Rasheeda (Author) / Mubayi, Anuj (Thesis director) / Popova, Laura (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Historical study of Congo and Ghana during the period of decolonization with context of colonialism. The ideas of Neo-Colonialism and Pan-Africanism are explained and contrasted. Neo-Colonialism is a criticism of the coercive activities of former colonizing countries in former colonies. Pan-Africanism is the idea that all African people should be united to combat oppression and prejudice. These two forces directly clashed during decolonization with the United States playing the part of a Neo-Colonial power. The U.S., through organizations such as the C.I.A., attempted to destroy Pan-African ideas in both the Congo under Patrice Lumumba and Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah.
ContributorsKnight, Keith Willis (Author) / El Hamel, Chouki (Thesis director) / Mirvis, Stanley (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
In March 2006, scientists from Ghana and the UK Karen Edmond, Charles Zandoh, Maria Quigley, Seeba Amenga-Etego, Seth Oqusi-Agyei, and Betty Kirkwood published their findings that early, consistent breastfeeding habits for mothers in Ghana resulted in better survival outcomes for their infants. The authors communicated those results in the paper “Delayed Breastfeeding Initiation Increases Risk of Neonatal Mortality,” or “Delayed Breastfeeding,” published in The American Academy of Pediatrics. “Delayed Breastfeeding” was one of the first studies to examine the connection between early, consistent breastfeeding habits and infant survival. The information detailed in “Delayed Breastfeeding” supported and helped promote the World Health Organization’s 2015 Breastfeeding Advocacy Initiative, which revealed the risks associated with avoiding breastfeeding for both mothers and infants in countries around the world.
ContributorsDarby, Alexis (Author) / Dhein, Kelle (Editor) / Arizona State University. School of Life Sciences. Center for Biology and Society. Embryo Project Encyclopedia. (Publisher) / Arizona Board of Regents (Publisher)
Created2019-03-04
Description
Plastic pollution is undoubtedly one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity today. Significant action is required in order to properly address this rapidly growing threat. The Circular Economy provides a promising model for solution design in terms of responsible consumption and production. Countdown: Circular Economy Solutions is an organization created by Jasmine Amoako-Agyei focused on addressing the threat of plastic pollution in the United States and Ghana, West Africa. The first part of this report will explain the severity of the global plastic pollution crisis and challenges with recycling. It will then present the Circular Economy as a viable model for a course of action. From there it will explain the efforts of Countdown: Circular Economy Solutions over the last two with a pathway forward. This venture leveraged the greater ASU ecosystem of resources such as Walton Sustainability Solutions, Precious Plastic ASU, the Luminosity Lab, Changemaker Central, Venture Devils, Engineering Projects in Community Service (ASU), Gary K. Herberger Young Scholars Academy, KNUST, and Ashesi D: Lab.
ContributorsAmoako-Agyei, Jasmine (Author) / Phelan, Pat (Thesis director) / Cho, Steve (Thesis director) / Loughman, Joshua (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Tech Entrepreneurship & Mgmt (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2022-12
Description
Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human- rights violation. And it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth.
~ Kofi Annan, Seventh United Nations Secretary-General
The Ghanaian culture is deeply entrenched with patriarchal beliefs and ideologies. Male supremacy is widespread throughout all spheres of life. Patriarchy ideologies in Ghana ascribe the qualities of a good wife and constrain the possibilities for girls and women. Furthermore, the doctrines of patriarchy in Ghana contribute to the state of violence. There are various forms of violence faced by Ghanaian women such as domestic violence, social violence, psychological violence, physical violence, economic violence, and sexual abuse. Women are not empowered to be independent with the capacity to defend their human rights. Men occupy most of the leadership positions hence making the critical decisions further propagating patriarchy.
Additionally, the attitudes by women accepting the patriarchal culture as the norm justify men to continue the bad habits that discriminate against women. The prevalence of violence is high with one in every three women experiencing some form of violence in Ghana. The Ghanaian Government has made significant strides in fighting violence by enacting the domestic violence act of 2007. The bill has created a platform through which victims of abuse can access justice. This paper will argue that violence against women and girls in Ghana is deeply ingrained in the culture that it has become normalized and for changes to be made, Ghana needs to look at a radical shift in attitudes towards men and women in terms of dismantling the patriarchal ideologies.
Keywords: Ghanaian Government, Ghana, violence, patriarchal ideology.
~ Kofi Annan, Seventh United Nations Secretary-General
The Ghanaian culture is deeply entrenched with patriarchal beliefs and ideologies. Male supremacy is widespread throughout all spheres of life. Patriarchy ideologies in Ghana ascribe the qualities of a good wife and constrain the possibilities for girls and women. Furthermore, the doctrines of patriarchy in Ghana contribute to the state of violence. There are various forms of violence faced by Ghanaian women such as domestic violence, social violence, psychological violence, physical violence, economic violence, and sexual abuse. Women are not empowered to be independent with the capacity to defend their human rights. Men occupy most of the leadership positions hence making the critical decisions further propagating patriarchy.
Additionally, the attitudes by women accepting the patriarchal culture as the norm justify men to continue the bad habits that discriminate against women. The prevalence of violence is high with one in every three women experiencing some form of violence in Ghana. The Ghanaian Government has made significant strides in fighting violence by enacting the domestic violence act of 2007. The bill has created a platform through which victims of abuse can access justice. This paper will argue that violence against women and girls in Ghana is deeply ingrained in the culture that it has become normalized and for changes to be made, Ghana needs to look at a radical shift in attitudes towards men and women in terms of dismantling the patriarchal ideologies.
Keywords: Ghanaian Government, Ghana, violence, patriarchal ideology.
ContributorsAmpadu-Siaw, Keziah (Author) / King, Kristy (Thesis director) / Frick, Kimberly (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05