Long Work Hours and Long Commutes in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana: Time Poverty and Gender

Across many countries, girls perform more unpaid work than boys. This article shows how the time young women and girls spend in unpaid household work contributes to the gender pay gap that is already evident by age 22. The study analyzes employment participation, type of employment, and wages using five waves of the Young Lives longitudinal survey for Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. Spending longer hours in unpaid household work in adolescence positively predicts later employment participation but has a scarring effect in negatively predicting job quality (that is a job with a private or public organization) and hourly earnings, particularly for women. Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions of the gender wage gap show young women’s penalty for past household work is due to longer hours of such work rather than a higher penalty for women for a given amount of unpaid work. HIGHLIGHTS Participation in unpaid household work and paid work is gendered from a young age. Time in unpaid household work as children impacts young adults’ employment. Time in household work in adolescence is linked to lower job quality in adulthood. Girls’ longer hours in household work contribute to the gender wage gap. Girls spend less time than boys in play or leisure at all ages.

The Greater Accra Region (GAR) of Ghana records 2000 stillbirths annually and 40% of them occur intrapartum. An understanding of the contributing factors will facilitate the development of preventive strategies to reduce the huge numbers of intrapartum stillbirths. This study identified determinants of intrapartum stillbirths in GAR. A retrospective 1:2 unmatched case–control study was conducted in six public hospitals in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was used to quantify the effect of exposures on intrapartum stillbirth. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve and the Brier scores were used to screen potential risk factors and assess the predictive performance of the regression models. The following maternal factors increased the odds of intrapartum stillbirths: pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) [adjusted Odds Ratio; aOR = 3.72, 95% CI:1.71–8.10, p < 0.001]; antepartum haemorrhage (APH) [aOR = 3.28, 95% CI: 1.33–8.10, p < 0.05] and premature rupture of membranes (PROM) [aOR = 3.36, 95% CI: 1.20–9.40, p < 0.05]. Improved management of PIH, APH, PROM, and preterm delivery will reduce intrapartum stillbirth. Hospitals should improve on the quality of monitoring women during labor. Auditing of intrapartum stillbirths should be mandatory for all hospitals and Ghana Health Service should include fetal autopsy in stillbirth auditing to identify other causes of fetal deaths. Interventions to reduce intrapartum stillbirth must combine maternal, fetal and service delivery factors to make them effective.

This study examines unpaid work in the household in Guatemala using data from a national 2000 household survey (ENCOVI 2000), which included a time-use module. The contribution highlights the importance of unpaid work in Guatemalan households in economic terms and concludes that in 2000, its value was equivalent to approximately 30 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for that year. The value of unpaid work is estimated using an opportunity cost approach applying market wages as well as different measures of replacement costs. The study then explores the nature of time poverty in Guatemala and examines the determinants of being both time and income poor, concluding that women are more likely to experience this condition. The study also finds that investment in small infrastructure and ownership of an electric or gas stove has the potential to reduce time and income poverty in Guatemala, primarily by alleviating women's time burdens and making their unpaid household work more efficient.

BackgroundDespite its growing interest, time poverty is a neglected issue in public health analysis and policies. The objectives of this study were: (1) to analyse gender differences in paid, unpaid...

Fast food has been extensively debated but most studies have focused on one or two of its characteristics. Using the cuisine concept, we propose a more comprehensive approach to the study of fast food characteristics and availability, while taking cultural context into account. The objectives of this paper are to explore the usefulness of the cuisine concept and to provide some insight into fast food characteristics and its availability in the Greater Accra Region (GAR) of Ghana. We used quantitative and qualitative approaches to obtaine data from restaurateurs and consumers in GAR. The study showed that fast food in GAR comprised “globally recognized popular fast foods” including French fries, pizzas, and fried rice, and some traditional Ghanaian foods such as jollof rice, banku with tilapia, and kelewele. The foods, usually hot and spicy, were mainly obtained from restaurants and check-check vendors, eaten with cutlery, fingers or both, together with a drink, and mostly in the company of other people. In total, 68% of restaurants in GAR were fast food restaurants. The cuisine concept enabled us to explore more fast food characteristics than what were done in previous studies. The availability of fast foods signals the need for more research to improve our understanding of its contribution to food security and its link with health, culture and environment. We encourage researchers to explore the cuisine concept and identify new significant research questions for advancing the field of food studies.

Myiasis is the infestation of tissues of live vertebrate animals and humans with dipterous larvae. In sub-Saharan Africa, Cordylobia anthropohaga and Cordylobia rodhaini are known to be responsible for cutaneous myiasis in animals and humans. Human cases of myiasis, purportedly acquired in Ghana but diagnosed in other countries, have been reported; however, published data on its occurrence in animals in Ghana is unavailable. This study assessed the prevalence of canine myiasis among owned dogs in the Greater Accra region (GAR) of Ghana. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Greater Accra region of Ghana, selected for being the region with the highest estimated population density of owned dogs. Physical examination and demographic characteristics of the study dogs were assessed. Management of the dogs was assessed through a questionnaire administered to the dog owners. A total of 392 owned dogs were sampled. Twenty-nine (7.4%) had cutaneous myiasis caused by C. rodhaini. In addition, one (0.2%) of the dogs had intestinal myiasis, with Dermatobia hominis as the offending larvae. Among the breeds of dogs with myiasis, the mongrel was most affected, with 24 (82.8%) out of the 29 cases. The mongrels, majority of which (24; 82.8%) were males, were left to roam freely in the community. Results from this study demonstrate that C. rodhaini and D. hominis are important causes of myiasis in owned dogs in the GAR of Ghana. Dogs could play a role in the spread of myiasis to humans, with its attendant public health implications.

Prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths and management practices for dogs in the Greater Accra region of Ghana

This study uses a mixed‐methods approach and primary data to consider how the length of the working day in Ghana's Greater Accra Metropolitan Area is shaped by time in paid and unpaid work and commuting. The analysis investigates gender differences in the length of the working day and the incidence of time poverty, and explores the relationship between long working days, long and arduous commutes and well‐being. Women are found to be more time poor, and their longer hours of unpaid household caregiving and chores and more difficult commutes have consequences for their leisure time, family–life and health.

Since the 1960s women in most countries have increased the time they spend in the labour market, while little change has been seen in their time spent on unpaid household work. Men, however, have decreased their labour market participation and increased their time used on unpaid household work. This trend also holds true for Denmark, albeit reduced by standardization for the demographic distribution. The most robust result is a continued convergence in women and men's time use. When making a linear projection of the trends in women and men's time use, we have to go to the year 2033 before Danish women and men spend an equal amount of time in paid employment. However, for household work, gender equality will arrive as early as 2023.

Unpaid care work, a term used to refer to household work including responsibilities of child rearing and caring for sick or old members of the family, is a major factor influencing woman’s labor market participation. Responsibilities of unpaid care work puts working women in physical and emotional stress and ‘time poverty’ owing to its disproportionate distribution within the household. It is a factor that adversely affects not only the time and quality of a woman’s paid work participation, but has repercussions on her health and overall enjoyment of life. Though, recent times have seen a slight increase in the women participation in paid labor worldwide, it has not resulted in a proportionate reduction in her unpaid work or its equitable distribution within the family. Thus, most working women end up working ‘double-shift’ every day. Any deliberation on working woman’s work life balance therefore boils down to equitable and proportionate distribution of unpaid care work. International Labour Organization (ILO) has championed a Tripple ‘R’ approach of ‘recognizing, reducing and redistributing’ unpaid care work to realize gender parity. In this context the paper analyses the possible strategies that, may be put in place at different levels-individual, familial, societal and state- to effectively advance the cause of work-life balance of women.

Individuals with heavy paid and unpaid work burdens may experience time deprivations that restrict their well-being and put them at risk of becoming or remaining income poor. Because unpaid work outside of the market is not captured in most large survey-based datasets, time poverty is rarely recognized in policy and practice. Yet income poverty and time poverty are mutually reinforcing; they can sap energy and impede effective decision-making, thus perpetuating the state of poverty. This essay offers a five-step approach to conceptualizing and measuring time poverty and it compares time poverty rates by gender across a range of developing countries. Results show that women have higher time poverty rates than men in most cases, with the main exception being countries with low rates of female labor force participation. Policies that strengthen physical and social infrastructure, thereby decreasing the time needed for unpaid household work, have demonstrable effects on reducing time poverty.

Evaluation of surveillance system for post market activities on pre-packaged foods in Greater Accra Region, Ghana, 2021

The present World Survey on the Role of Women in Development has contained an examination of the important links between gender equality, income poverty and time poverty. The responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work, which falls disproportionately on the shoulders of women and girls, sustains people and households on a day-to-day basis and across generations. Unpaid care work is the foundation upon which all other economic activities rest. Rooted in discriminatory social norms and gender stereotypes, women’s disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work has significant consequences for both women and their families and is deeply connected to the high rate of poverty among women. The intersection of income poverty and time poverty among women is starkly evident in the fact that they are at greatest risk of poverty at the stage in their life course during which they form a family and raise children. At that stage, families face the increased expenses associated with having children, and the women in the family also have less time available for paid work. Women face a stark choice between forgoing income-generating opportunities or accepting insecure forms of employment, while struggling to manage their heavy and intense burdens of unpaid care and domestic work responsibilities.

How people balance work and personal or family life has been widely examined, showing gender inequalities that put women at a disadvantage relative to men. However, although this is a question of time compatibility, there has been no research on whether the type of working day (continuous or split) has different effects on this balance for men and women. The Time Use Survey enables us to examine this balance in two areas that are key to understanding the difficulty of reconciling timetables. On the one hand, there is the relationship between the type of working day and housework or family care (balance between paid and unpaid work). On the other hand, there is the relationship between the type of working day and eating (mealtime balance). The data indicate that the type of working day affects the balance between paid and unpaid work less than might be expected, since in all cases, it is women who do more unpaid work, while men’s involvement in housework changes little, whether they have a continuous or a split working day. However, the continuous working day is more favourable to balancing work and family life. In contrast, work–mealtime balance is a cultural feature that equalises both sexes in relation to an established habit that encourages sharing time outside work. We can thus speak of shared (non-work) time and unshared (unpaid) work.

Due to calls for more sustainable tourism practices, environmental management, which was the preserve of the smokestack industries, has engaged managers of most hotels around the globe. The literature is replete with environmental management practices and initiatives by hotels in North America, Europe and Asia and therefore not much is known about environmental management in hotels in a developing country like Ghana. This article therefore explores the environmental management and sustainable tourism practices in hotels in Ghana based on a survey of 52 managers of various categories of hotels in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.