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Ghana's rising population, coupled with erratic weather patterns and soil nutrient deficiencies, pose a significant challenge to food crop production. In responding to universal calls for actions to end poverty, the Government of Ghana (GoG) launched the flagship Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) program in 2017. PFJ is designed to promote on-farm productivity through the intensification of fertilizer subsidies and adoption of improved seeds of targeted crops, thereby enabling job creation in agriculture and other interrelated sectors. Implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), the PFJ program works in concert with other existing agricultural programs and policies to achieve the universal goal of ending hunger, achieving food security, and improving nutrition by promoting efficient and sustainable intensification and climate-proofing of agriculture by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goal 2). ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GSSP; CRP2; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; DCA ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

Providing safe drinking water in rural areas is a major challenge because it is not easy to establish institutional arrangements that will ensure that drinking water facilities are provided, maintained, and managed in an efficient, equitable, and sustainable way. Like many other countries, Ghana has adopted a community-based approach to meet this challenge. Community-based water and sanitation committees (WATSANs) are in charge of managing drinking water facilities at the local level. They are supported by water and sanitation teams of each district administration and by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, an independent agency that has been created to facilitate the community-based approach. This paper is based on the analysis of two survey datasets of WATSANs and households in rural Ghana. The paper confirms some findings of the earlier literature on this topic. For example, communities that have a higher level of existing community groups are more likely to have functioning WATSANs, while ethnically diverse communities are less likely to have these organizations. The paper also indicates that WATSANs have a positive effect on the mobilization of payment for water services. Using empirical data on local leaders, the paper shows that leadership also matters for the provision of safe drinking water. In particular, the paper suggests that female leaders seem to be effective in this respect. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GRP22 ; EPTD

Purpose
This paper aims to examine elderly smallholder farmers' perceptions of and adaptation to climate variability and change in the Offinso Municipality, Ghana.


Design/methodology/approach
This paper used quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative data were analyzed with frequencies and chi-square tests, whereas qualitative data were thematically analyzed.


Findings
The results showed that elderly smallholder farmers' knowledge of climate variability and climate change were based on their sex, level of formal education and experience in farming. Elderly smallholder farmers adopted both on-farm and off-farm strategies to cope with climate change and variability. The vulnerability of elderly smallholder farmers to climate change calls for social protection mechanisms such as a pension scheme that guarantees access to monthly cash transfers. Such a scheme will ease constraints to livelihood and ensure improved well-being.


Originality/value
Elderly smallholder farmers have remained invisible in discourses on perceptions and adaptation to climate change despite the surge in number of this category of farmers. This paper therefore represents an attempt to highlight the experiences of elderly smallholder farmers with climate variability and change.

The triple burden of malnutrition is growing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Increasing access to affordable ultra-processed foods in the food environment is contributing to this problem. While existing explanations for this triple burden of malnutrition have examined demand-side factors of food choices, the supply-side policies relating to the food environment drivers, ideas and actors' interests have been neglected. Using a case study of Ghana, this analysis combines the Advocacy Coalition Framework with the narrative policy analysis to unpack the supply-side food environment policies and actors driving the triple burden of malnutrition. Applying a mixed methods analysis of the transcripts, the narratives reveal public, private and civil society organization (CSO) coalitions with different ideas and interests in the food environment. In the private sector coalition, food companies engage in aggressive advertising and are driven by profit motives – leading to the supply of more ultra-processed foods. The public sector is failing to regulate the market because of inadequate policies, limited institutional capacities and coordination, enforcement challenges, inadequate resources, and self-interest. Social activism by CSOs, for example, pressuring food companies to deliver healthy foods and holding the government accountable, is also lacking. The result is a triple sector (public, private and CSO) failure in the urban food environment with consequences on the availability of ultra-processed foods. This has long-lasting implications for the reduction of the triple burden of malnutrition and the achievement of zero hunger. To accelerate nutrition-sensitive food environments that deliver healthier food options, we argue that it is critical to entertain the ideas and interests of stakeholders and implement food environment policies that cover private and public sector initiatives, as well as increase consumer awareness. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; CRP2; DCA; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; GSSP ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

Abstract Background The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was launched in Ghana in 2003 with the main objective of increasing utilisation to healthcare by making healthcare more affordable. Previous studies on the NHIS have repeatedly highlighted that cost of premiums is one of the major barriers for enrollment. However, despite introducing premium exemptions for pregnant women, older people, children and indigents, many Ghanaians are still not active members of the NHIS. In this paper we investigate why there is limited success of the NHIS in improving access to healthcare in Ghana and whether social exclusion could be one of the limiting barriers. The study explores this by looking at the Social, Political, Economic and Cultural (SPEC) dimensions of social exclusion. Methods Using logistic regression, the study investigates the determinants of health service utilisation using SPEC variables including other variables. Data was collected from 4050 representative households in five districts in Ghana covering the 3 ecological zones (coastal, forest and savannah) in Ghana. Results Among 16,200 individuals who responded to the survey, 54 % were insured. Out of the 1349 who sought health care, 64 % were insured and 65 % of them had basic education and 60 % were women. The results from the logistic regressions show health insurance status, education and gender to be the three main determinants of health care utilisation. Overall, a large proportion of the insured who reported ill, sought care from formal health care providers compared to those who had never insured in the scheme. Conclusion The paper demonstrates that the NHIS presents a workable policy tool for increasing access to healthcare through an emphasis on social health protection. However, affordability is not the only barrier for access to health services. Geographical, social, cultural, informational, political, and other barriers also come into play.

Background The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was launched in Ghana in 2003 with the main objective of increasing utilisation to healthcare by making healthcare more affordable. Previous studies on the NHIS have repeatedly highlighted that cost of premiums is one of the major barriers for enrollment. However, despite introducing premium exemptions for pregnant women, older people, children and indigents, many Ghanaians are still not active members of the NHIS. In this paper we investigate why there is limited success of the NHIS in improving access to healthcare in Ghana and whether social exclusion could be one of the limiting barriers. The study explores this by looking at the Social, Political, Economic and Cultural (SPEC) dimensions of social exclusion. Methods Using logistic regression, the study investigates the determinants of health service utilisation using SPEC variables including other variables. Data was collected from 4050 representative households in five districts in Ghana covering the 3 ecological zones (coastal, forest and savannah) in Ghana. Results Among 16,200 individuals who responded to the survey, 54 % were insured. Out of the 1349 who sought health care, 64 % were insured and 65 % of them had basic education and 60 % were women. The results from the logistic regressions show health insurance status, education and gender to be the three main determinants of health care utilisation. Overall, a large proportion of the insured who reported ill, sought care from formal health care providers compared to those who had never insured in the scheme. Conclusion The paper demonstrates that the NHIS presents a workable policy tool for increasing access to healthcare through an emphasis on social health protection. However, affordability is not the only barrier for access to health services. Geographical, social, cultural, informational, political, and other barriers also come into play.

AbstractViolence against women (VAW) is a widely recognized human rights violation but whose wider economic ramifications are less understood. In this article, applying the multiplier analysis based on 2015 social accounting matrix of Ghana, we outline how the individual microlevel income loss is translated to a macroeconomic loss. We argue that the macroeconomic loss due to VAW, which amounts to about 0.94% of Ghanaian GDP, is not a once‐off loss but a permanentinvisibleleakage from the circular flow of the economy. The article highlights the potential consequences of the loss over a period of time in the status quo scenario.