Search results

Natural resources in contemporary times are mostly managed by a collaborative governance approach which hinges on complex institutional designs (rules, norms and strategies). Many studies have been designed and carried out to assess collaborative governance, and the various institutional designs underpinning them. The purpose of this paper is to unpack the methodological gaps in natural resource governance research (with emphasis on co-management) and to conceptualise the appropriateness of Transdisciplinary (TD) research approach.

The paper adopts a critical stage review of relevant theoretical and empirical literature on natural resource governance. It discusses the complexities inherent in natural resource governance and juxtaposes these with the inherent weaknesses in methodologies employed by existing studies on the concept. The authors make a case for a TD research methodology that links scientists, practitioners and society in a joint problem design and solution process.

The authors register a “fuzziness” of the collaborative governance phenomenon but observe a methodological gap in existing studies on the concept. This paper discusses the complexities inherent. The paper describes TD as a “tailor-made approach” to solving complex societal issues and makes a case for its adoption in natural resource governance studies.

This standalone paper is largely conceptual and not linked to any primary data; this notwithstanding, it synthesizes from both empirical and theoretical literature which would help shape future research endeavours in natural resource governance context.

With TD study oriented towards an epistemologically flexible approach, perspectives from different social and academic actors are integrated in this expanding field of research to address societal problems.

The paper provides a conceptual framework designating how actors interact in the TD research process as well as a “four-phase” approach in carrying out a TD research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the behaviour of leaders that enhances employee engagement (EE) in organisations. It locates the importance of EE and the role leaders play within the public sector in a developing country and finds answer to the question on the behaviour of the leader that causes employees to be engaged.

The paper uses qualitative method to identify the behaviour of leaders that causes and enhances employees to be engaged. It proposes a framework outlining what the leader does to ensure EE.

Based on results of data analysed, six behaviours of leaders were identified: seeking employee welfare and caring; openness and information flow; conscientiousness; good and cordial relationship; fairness and trust and lastly involvement in decision making.

Limitation of the study was that it did not focus on the entire public sector but was carried out in only one company. It is therefore recommended that further studies could be carried out with focus on other public sector organisations to confirm the leader behaviour identified. Again, a comparative study between public and private sector organisations could be carried out to ascertain if there are differences in the behaviour of the leaders that cause employees to be engaged in these two different sectors.

The study develops a framework outlining behaviour which leaders within organisations could exhibit to enhance EE and thus organisational success.

The paper provides a framework that shows leader behaviour that causes EE in organisations in a developing country. This framework will be helpful to leaders in organisations to behave in specific ways to enhance EE and for researchers who want to conduct research in this field of study.

This study examined the governance and implementation of public–private partnership (PPP) based on the management contract model in the water sector in rural Ghana.

It employed in-depth interviews with key management officials and focus-group discussions among residents in selected water-stressed communities in the beneficiary District Assemblies. Thematic analysis was employed for the analyses.

The governance of the PPP project was characterized by a well-structured institutional arrangement and effective governance mechanisms. The PPP project has increased residents' access to potable and affordable water and facilitated local economic and social development in its catchment areas. However, insufficient funding, political interference, limited infrastructural capacity and pollution are threatening its success.

The study contributes to the literature on effective governance and performance of rural-based PPP water supply projects for the achievement of the sustainable development goals goal six on access to affordable and quality water.

Since Ghana gained political independence from British colonial rule in 1957, the country has had a number of administrative reforms that covered varied subjects, including ministerial restructuring, decentralisation, revision of schemes of service and pay and grading systems, motivation and civil service legislation. The past decade (1990‐2000), especially, has witnessed sustained efforts at reforms to improve the public sector's policy‐making, service delivery, and oversight and accountability roles. For Ghana to achieve the objectives of these reform initiatives, the country needs to effectively manage all the constitutive elements that contribute to the goals of sustainable development. This study set out to examine the efforts being made to reform the system of environmental management in Ghana, since the costs imposed on Ghanaians and the economy from environmental degradation are enormous and can greatly impede the growth towards sustainable development.

The aim of this paper is to examine poverty and poverty reduction at the local level using the Hohoe Municipality and Sefwi‐Wiaso District, both in Ghana, as a case.

The paper adopts a survey method, collecting data from 180 farmers on the various aspects of the topic to form the basis of the study. Questionnaires and focus group discussions were used as the data collection instruments.

The study found that, although many poverty reduction initiatives have been undertaken in Ghana, their impact on the poor farming communities has been very minimal. The failure of these poverty reduction policies could be attributed to the non‐involvement of local people in the process of policy formation. It also revealed that the number of poor people and the degree of poverty might be higher than the details captured by official statistics and publications.

The paper is biased towards farmers. It did not consider other sectors of the Ghanaian population.

Poverty reduction programmes to be developed and implemented in the future must be designed using bottom‐up approaches and must factor the rural farmer into the equation since the agriculture sector is still the largest employer in Ghana.

The paper discusses poverty and how it can be reduced, relying on what the victims of poverty consider as the main causes of poverty and how its reduction can be achieved.

The study aims to examine how communication, provider courtesy, support/care, environment of the facility and waiting time significantly predict patients' satisfaction with quality of healthcare in two hospitals located in northern Ghana.

An exploratory study of which 324 respondents were selected using stratified and convenient sampling techniques. Results are presented using a multiple regression model.

The results revealed that of the five‐factor model, support/care, environment of the facility and waiting time determine patients' satisfaction with quality of healthcare delivery. The explanatory power of the dependent variable was explained by 51 percent.

The findings suggest that internal and external health sector stakeholders may possibly use this study as a precursor to improve service quality in the two hospitals in particular and others in general.

This article analyzes farmers' preferences for different nonindexed crop insurance alternatives, using discrete choice experiment data on cocoa farmers from southern Ghana. We examine farmers' attendance to attributes by comparing self-reported attribute nonattendance (ANA) to the behavior inferred from the choices.

We utilize the latent class endogenous attribute attendance (EAA) model to address potential endogeneity by jointly modelling farmers' attribute processing strategies with their choice of attributes of the insurance products.

The results show that premium levels, mode and length of indemnity payouts tend to influence farmers' preferences for crop insurance products. The findings also reveal that credit-constrained farmers attend more to premium and payment mode attributes of the crop insurance products and that credit-constrained farmers tend to exhibit lower willingness-to-pay estimates for the crop insurance attributes.

The findings from the study suggest that credit constraints do not only limit input use, but also tend to have statistically significant impact on farmers' cocoa insurance participation decisions.

The study examines the impact of credit constraints on farmers' crop insurance preferences while accounting for ANA.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the macro-, meso- and micro-level approaches to building sustainability in Ghana's timber, cocoa and goldmining industries s Ghana works to align sustainability efforts with the sustainable development goals proposed by the United Nations.

Using qualitative content analysis, a synthesis of contemporary literature on Ghana's timber, cocoa and gold mining industries was conducted to provide a descriptive evaluation of sustainability efforts in those industries.

At the macro-level, Ghana continues to invest in infrastructure, privatize industries and develop an urban development agenda to encourage foreign direct investment (FDI); improved forest management and green building policies and reduction of galamsey are also implemented. At the meso-level, the timber industry encourages land reclamation and green building technologies; the cocoa industry works to replenish lost trees, develop supply-chain partnerships, and encourage certifications; the goldmining industry works to regulate informal mining and reduce galamsey and the use of toxins in exploration. At the micro-level, alignment has developed between the micro- and meso-levels in the timber and cocoa industries, whereas micro-level players in the timber industry are less successful, given its large, unregulated informal sector.

Existing literature is missing discussion on the alignment of macro-, meso- and micro-level approaches to sustainability in Ghana's timber, cocoa and gold mining industries with attention to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals as the premise for the work.