City Of Accra Research Articles

Defining neighborhood boundaries for urban health research in developing countries: a case study of Accra, Ghana

The neighborhood has been used as a sampling unit for exploring variations in health outcomes. In a variety of studies census tracts or ZIP codes have been used as proxies for neighborhoods because the boundaries are pre-defined units for which other data are readily available. However these spatial units can be arbitrary and do not account for social-cultural behaviors and identities that are significant to residents. In this study for the city of Accra, Ghana, our goal was to create a neighborhood map that represented the boundaries generally agreed upon by the residents of the city using the smallest available census unit, the enumeration area (EA), as the base unit. This neighborhood map was then used as the basis for mapping spatial variations in health within the city. The first step in demarcating the boundaries was to identify features that limit a person's movement including the major roads, drainage features, and railroad tracks that people use to partially define their neighborhood boundaries. Once an initial set of boundaries were established, they were iteratively modified by walking the neighborhoods, talking to residents, public officials, and others. The resulting neighborhood map consolidated 1723 EAs into 108 neighborhoods covering the entire Accra metropolitan area. Results indicated that the team achieved 71% accuracy in mapping neighborhoods when the neighborhood keyed to the survey EA was compared with the response given by the interviewees in the 2008–2009 Women's Health Survey of Accra when asked which neighborhood they lived in.

Exploratory Health Assessment of Chemical Exposures at E-Waste Recycling and Scrapyard Facility in Ghana

Background. Ghana is one of several West African countries receiving high volumes of used electric and electronic equipment and waste. Within the capital city of Accra, one scrapyard has been the s...

Urban street design in Ghana: a case study of Accra

The West African city of Accra, home to over two million of Ghana’s 25 million residents, serves as the country’s political capital and economic centre. Since gaining independence in 1957, Ghana has made significant investments in road infrastructure and services. Road transportation accounts for the majority of passenger and freight traffic in the country. This paper discusses current street design practices and some of the challenges faced by designers and residents in Accra. After providing background information on the city’s urban form, transportation system and street design agencies, case studies are conducted on three of Accra’s thoroughfares. These case studies evaluate how current design practices, based on US and British standards, meet the needs of different street users. Each of the selected roads serves a different purpose within Accra’s transportation network. The case studies revealed that pedestrians and other non-motorised transport (NMT) users are largely neglected by current design pra...

Separation of Church and State: A Study of Accra City’s Use of Public Buildings and Schools for Religious Services in Ghana

This is a review of the Constitutional provisions on freedom of religion in Ghana and to determine whether the Constitution offers to religious bodies the use of public buildings and schools as places of worship. This study consisted of literature and documentary review of cases, the 1992 Constitution and legal writings from Ghana and other jurisdictions on the issue of separation of Church and State. The legal framework for freedom of religion does not include the commingling of public asset with private religious expressions, which goes against the zoning regulations and public policy on noise pollution and nuisance.

Pentecostalism in the City of Accra: a Blossom on Functional Appeal and Urban Fecundity

This paper emanates from fieldwork being carried out since 2007 to discover why intense Pentecostal activity is proliferating in urban Accra, capital city of Ghana. The Lighthouse Chapel International (Lighthouse) and the Royalhouse Chapel International (Royalhouse), two examples of Pentecostal churches having a great appeal to Ghanaians, serve as case study of this project. The paper outlines some trends in the growth of the churches, which make them appeal to urban dwellers. Some members of both churches as well as people from the general public were garnered to expound some already known trends in Pentecostal churches such as their emphasis on both the spiritual and material needs of people, which invariably account for their remarkable growth. Related to this is the suggestive finding that the urban area forms the fertile cradle of Pentecostalism today because the said needs of people are much more pronounced in that environment, where the Ghanaian population is concentrated.

Self-rated resilience among young migrants in old Fadama, Accra, Ghana

A number of young people from the north of Ghana migrate to live in the slums of the city of Accra, the administrative capital. These slums, characterized by poor quality housing, and inadequate sanitary facilities, make the young migrants vulnerable to the effects of economic, social, political and environmental insecurities and stressors. One of such slums is Old Fadama, which is located in the heart of the city. The main objective of this paper is to explain how resilient a sample of young migrants are to the stressors encountered at the slum through a self-rated level of resilience. Drawing on resilience thinking, the Youth Resilience Framework and Social Resilience perspectives are discussed and variables for analysis are considered from their synthesis. A survey questionnaire instrument is used to collect data from 104 young migrant residents in the slum. The methods of analysis include: analyses of variance, Chi-square test, and ordinal regression. From the multivariate analyses (that is, the ordinal regression analyses), it is suggested that significant predictors of resilience among the sampled young migrants in Old Fadama include type of employment, social capital, number of stressors experienced, and ability to afford medicine. Specific social capital constructs such as having a boy or girlfriend and strong leadership are predictors of resilience among these young migrants in the slum.

Mapping Urban Malaria and Diarrhea Mortality in Accra, Ghana: Evidence of Vulnerabilities and Implications for Urban Health Policy

Historic increase in urban population numbers in the face of shrinking urban economies and declining social services has meant that a large proportion of the urban population lives in precarious urban conditions, which provide the grounds for high urban health risks in low income countries. This study aims to identify, investigate, and contrast the spatial patterns of vulnerability and risk of two major causes of mortality, viz malaria and diarrhea mortalities, in order to optimize resource allocation for effective urban environmental management and improvement in urban health. A spatial cluster analysis of the observed urban malaria and diarrhea mortalities for the whole city of Accra was conducted. We obtained routinely reported mortality data for the period 1998-2002 from the Ghana Vital Registration System (VRS), computed the fraction of deaths due to malaria and diarrhea at the census cluster level, and analyzed and visualized the data with Geographic Information System (GIS, ArcMap 9.3.1). Regions of identified hotspots, cold spots, and excess mortalities were observed to be associated with some socioeconomic and neighborhood urban environmental conditions, suggesting uneven distribution of risk factors for both urban malaria and diarrhea in areas of rapid urban transformation. Case-control and/or longitudinal studies seeking to understand the individual level factors which mediate socioenvironmental conditions in explaining the observed excess urban mortalities and to establish the full range of risk factors might benefit from initial vulnerability mapping and excess risk analysis using geostatistical approaches. This is key to evidence-based urban health policy reforms in rapidly urbanizing areas in low income economies.

Patterns of Population Growth in Peri‐Urban Accra, Ghana

AbstractUrbanization in Africa (and the wider developing world for that matter) has often been misunderstood by Western observers on the lookout for Western‐style cities and suburbs. In these parts of the world, rapid urbanization has led to continuing changes in the form and shape of cities, as peri‐urban zones shift swiftly from rural to urban. While some descriptions of the peri‐urban zone suggest an amorphous area filled with low‐income residents, others argue that the zone is highly diverse. Using population census data, spatial modeling and regression analysis, we show that urban expansion at the edge of the city of Accra, Ghana, is not amorphous and does indeed show some discernible patterns. These patterns are represented by four hypotheses tested in this study — the spreading pancake, development node, village magnet and ribbon hypotheses. While the assumption that urban growth occurs in concentric rings around a central city (represented by the spreading pancake model) holds for Accra, this pattern of growth combines with other patterns to create a still‐evolving urban form in the city's peri‐urban zone. These include clustering of growth around a port city, a number of old villages and along improved highways radiating from the city.RésuméEn Afrique (et dans le monde en développement en général), l'urbanisation a souvent été mal comprise par les observateurs occidentaux en quête de villes et banlieues de type occidental. Dans ces parties du monde, l'urbanisation accélérée a entraîné des modifications constantes dans la conformation des grandes villes, les terrains ruraux périphériques devenant rapidement des zones urbaines. Selon certaines descriptions, la périphérie est amorphe, envahie d'habitants à faible revenu; selon d'autres, elle est empreinte d'une grande diversité. À l'aide de données de recensement, d'une modélisation spatiale et d'une régression statistique, on peut montrer que l'expansion urbaine aux limites de la ville d'Accra au Ghana n'est pas amorphe et qu'elle présente des schémas tout à fait identifiables. Ceux‐ci correspondent aux quatre hypothèses évaluées dans cette étude: la crêpe étalée, le pôle de développement, les villages aimantés, le ruban. L'idée que la croissance urbaine se diffuse en cercles concentriques autour d'une ville centrale (modèle de la crêpe étalée) s'applique à Accra, mais ce modèle est associéà d'autres schémas pour créer une forme urbaine en évolution permanente dans sa périphérie. On trouve ainsi une concentration de croissance autour d'une ville portuaire, de plusieurs villages pré‐existants, ainsi que le long de grandes routes rénovées qui rayonnent à partir de la ville.

Contested perspectives of ‘marvel’ and ‘mockery’ in disability and sport: Accra, Ghana

In the past, persons with disabilities and the relationship between disability and sports were excluded from discussions of development. Within the past 15 years, however, there has been a proliferation of ‘development through sport’ initiatives and a widespread promotion of the intended and unintended outcomes of participation in sport for persons living in low- and middle-income countries. From the vantage point of development studies, and drawing on qualitative research methods, this article examines sport as a vehicle for the human development of persons with disabilities in a Ghanaian community. It presents the athletes as active agents, and highlights their engagement in daily struggles and strategies to be respected and recognized in both sport and society, as well as links their efforts to questions of marvel and mockery. The setting is the city of Accra, Ghana, and the athletes are female and male athletes of the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled.

362 Emergency Medical Technicians in Accra, Ghana: A Basic Trauma Knowledge Assessment

To date there has been no baseline knowledge assessment amongst the emergency medical technicians of the Ghana Ambulance Service. The Ghana Ambulance Service emergency medical technician training academy has graduated 4 classes, of over 200 emergency medical technicians, in either 3-, 6-, 9- or 12-month courses. The emergency medical technicians receive biannual supplementary refresher courses. Our objective is to perform a baseline trauma knowledge assessment of the Ghana Ambulance Service emergency medical technicians who currently work in the capital city of Accra.

ガーナ・アクラ地域のe-waste処理場周辺における微量元素汚染

ガーナ・アクラ地域のe-waste処理場周辺における微量元素汚染

Ghana’s economy: Hope rekindled

When the church bells rang across the city of Accra to signal the birth of modern Ghana, it was a period of hope and optimism for a better future. Victor Adams was in his home village of Shiashi, a suburb of the Ghanaian capital. At the time, in 1957, Shiashi had no electricity, roads or piped water. “There were only eight of these houses in the entire village,” recalls Mr. Adams,

User Agency in the Middle Range: Rumors and the Reinvention of the Internet in Accra, Ghana

This article is an analysis of rumors about Internet scamming told by Internet café users in the West African capital city of Accra, Ghana. Rumors provided accounts of how the Internet can be effectively operated by young Ghanaians to realize ‘‘big gains’’ through foreign connections. Yet these accounts were contradicted by the less promising direct experiences users had at the computer interface. Rumors amplified evidence of wildly successful as well as especially harmful encounters with the Internet. Rather than simply transferring information, through the telling of rumors, Internet users reclaimed a social stability that was disrupted by the presence of the Internet. These stories cast young Ghanaian Internet users as both good and effective in relation to the Internet. The study of accounts as they relate to the activities accounted for is an established area of interest in social theory. By considering how rumors function as accounts and how such interpretations of the technology are propagated among users, this analysis contributes to a broader understanding of user agency.

World laments loss of pathology service

A baby boy with growth the size of grapefruit on his neck has been brought by his parents to the Tamale Teaching Hospital in northern Ghana. Dr James Murphy, an ear nose and throat surgeon from New Jersey in the United States of America (USA), thinks the growth might be mass of blood vessels but he has no way of finding out. The hospital has no pathology department and there is no point in sending tissue samples to the capital city of Accra for diagnosis as they frequently get lost. In the past he would have sent the tissue sample to the free referral service run by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, DC, via the diplomatic bag of the United States embassy in Accra, but he has heard that this service is no longer available. Murphy, who has been working at the hospital for three years and is the sole otolaryngologist for an estimated 3 million people, is on his own. Usually he will not operate before baby is 10 weeks old but the situation becomes grave as the infant starts to have trouble breathing. A consultant in Accra advises him by telephone to inject an anticancer drug directly into the growth but instead he takes punt worthy of his 35 years of experience and operates. After the procedure he can see that the mass has the characteristics of teratoma, which is usually benign. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Working without pathology services means taking an educated guess about what is wrong he says, sanguine about the life-and-death lottery of working in hospital in this part of Ghana, where people live on about US$ 3 day and most cannot afford to travel for biopsy. We get odd kinds of tumours here because of AIDS, he says. Patients who present to hospitals like the Tamale Teaching Hospital with tumours and unusual symptoms are the hidden casualties of the decision made by the United States Department of Defense to dose the AFIP. The decision, announced in 2005, has provoked little real protest, despite what many experts view as an incalculable loss to global public health. Murphy joined thousand or so signatories to an online petition to save the renowned institution. People signing this petition call the closure an irredeemable loss, travesty and worse, a grave error Such reactions are most likely too little, too late. The AFIP will close by September 2011 as part of federal programme to realign or close military bases. On 1 June, AFIP director Florabel Mullick announced that, after 30 September 2010, the institute will no longer accept non-federal civilian consultation cases. While the military will continue to collect pathology samples for its own purposes, doctors worldwide will no longer have the option of sending specimens for free second opinions. Their only option will be to use fee-based services, which is not feasible for doctors working in many developing countries. The institute, which is located at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center campus, was set up in 1862 by William Hammond, surgeon general of the United States Army, during the American Civil War to collect tissue samples for the military. The closure impacts the institute's international referral services, its renowned textbook series, training courses for pathologists, surgeons and radiologists worldwide and access for researchers to the world's most complete tissue repository, which contains 3 million specimens. The loss of access to this repository would mean that doctors would no longer be able to reference 150 years of case histories, 50 million glass slides, 30 million paraffin-embedded blocks of tissue and 12 million preserved wet tissue specimens. According to Paul Stone, spokesperson for the AFIP, many aspects of the closure are yet to be determined. In its 2007 report on the impact of dosing the AFIP, the United States Government Accountability Office said, Since AFIP receives pathology material for many difficult-to-diagnose diseases, the repository contains complex and uncommon cases that have accumulated over time. …

A Systems Dynamics Approach to Explore Traffic Congestion and Air Pollution Link in the City of Accra, Ghana

Economic development and urbanization poses myriad challenges to transportation systems in relation to negative externalities such as traffic congestion and environmental health risks. Accra, the capital of Ghana, faces mounting urban planning problems, for example traffic congestion, air pollution, traffic safety, and land use planning, among others. The paper aims to provide a system dynamics perspective of the problems. Most of the drivers and cause-effect relationships of traffic congestion and its attendant air pollution are investigated and analyzed using causal loop diagrams. The paper further suggests mechanisms by which the negative externalities associated with road transport in the city of Accra can be addressed.

Urban growth, wastewater production and use in irrigated agriculture: a comparative study of Accra, Addis Ababa and Hyderabad

The relationships between urban development, water resources management and wastewater use for irrigation have been studied in the cities of Accra in Ghana, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Hyderabad in India. Large volumes of water are extracted from water sources often increasingly far away from the city, while investments in wastewater management are often lagging behind. The resulting environmental degradation within and downstream of cities has multiple consequences for public health, in particular through the use of untreated wastewater in irrigated agriculture. Despite significant efforts to increase wastewater treatment, options for safeguarding public health via conventional wastewater treatment alone remain limited to smaller inner-urban watersheds. The new WHO guidelines for wastewater irrigation recognize this situation and emphasize the potential of post- or non-treatment options. Controlling potential health risks will allow urban water managers in all three cities to build on the benefits from the already existing (but largely informal) wastewater reuse, those being the contribution to food security and reduction of fresh water demands.

Water quality characteristics at the estuary of Korle Lagoon in Ghana

The Korle lagoon is a major run-off water receptacle and outlet from the city of Accra into the Gulf of Guinea. Uncontrolled discharges of domestic wastes and industrial effluents as well as raw sewage (which are washed into the lagoon during high tides), have led to its environment being seriously degraded. Physico-chemical and bacteriological studies were conducted to measure the concentration of pollutants at the entrance of the Korle lagoon, from the offshore of the lagoon and from the raw sewage discharged onto the beach at neap and spring tides. Physicalcharacteristics of the lagoon waters, such as pH and temperature, for the two tides did not show any large variations and were fairly comparable. Salinity, suspended solids and conductivity, however, varied significantly with tidal changes. Dissolved oxygen was extremely low at low tide as a result of large quantities of waste materials from domestic and industrial activities which reach the lagoon. This was also evidenced in high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) as well as high faecal coliforms during neap tide. Changes in the concentrations of nutrients occurred withchanges in tide; these being high, especially at high tide when sewage is back-washed into the lagoon. The study indicated that the entrance of the Korle lagoon to the sea and the adjacent sewage outfall area were polluted and not suitable for primary or secondary contact due to the occurrence of large numbers of coliform bacterial. However, the offshore area showed good water quality.

The costs of care

The scene in Korle Bu Hospital, in the traffi c-choked city of Accra, Ghana, was one of the most shocking I have witnessed. In a side room off the third fl oor paediatric intensive care unit, I counted 27 newborn babies lying on four black mattresses on the fl oor. They were being held hostage by the hospital against payment of bills for their care. Their mothers, who had no hope of raising these sums, were allowed into the “baby prison” every 3 hours to feed them, before being banished again. Some babies had been detained for months. That was in 2005, but the image is etched on my memory as the clearest example, although admittedly extreme, of the harm done by charging patients for medical services that are both unavoidable and unpredictable. Medical charities such as Save the Children have lobbied vigorously for the removal of charges, which are seen as a deterrent to care, and governments of some developing countries have introduced free access as a way of boosting their nation’s health. Earlier this year that assumption was challenged by a fascinating study in Ghana of over 2000 households with children under 5 years old (PLoS Med 2009; 6: e1000007). Half were given free care and the remainder were made to pay, the normal practice in the region. The results showed, unexpectedly, that providing free care did not improve health, although it led to a slight increase in use of medical services. Anaemia, haemoglobin concentrations, parasite prevalence, and deaths were similar in both groups. What is the explanation? The authors suggest the increase in use of medical services by those with free care may have been too modest to make a diff erence. Alternatively, the other costs of treatment in Ghana such as travel, and taking time off work, were more important than the small charge—12 000 cedis (about US$1) for malaria treatment, for example. The issue of user fees is a fraught one. There is a strong equity argument for removing them and there may be other unmeasured eff ects. Clearly, there can be no justifi cation for the ludicrous fees imposed on mothers in the intensive care unit at Korle Bu Hospital. But this fi nding is a reminder that we must not let our hearts rule our heads. In terms of maximising bang for bucks, abolishing user fees may not be the best way of increasing health gain. The other barriers to treatment need closer investigation fi rst.

Causes and Sources of Waste in the Printing Industry in Ghana: A Study of Printing Houses in the Cities of Accra and Kumasi

This study was undertaken in the summer of 2006 to identify the causes of waste in the printing houses in two major cities in Ghana, namely, Accra and Kumasi. The scope of the study was limited to printing houses operating in the above cities only. The relevant literature on offset lithographic printing, the categories and causes of waste, and its effects on the environment were reviewed. The method used in gathering data for the study consisted of questionnaires that were sent out to fifty-five printing houses in Accra and Kumasi. Forty-seven printing houses responded to the questionnaires. The data were thoroughly analyzed and, where necessary, presented in tables. Finally, findings are discussed, implications outlined, recommendations and areas of future research proposed, and conclusion drawn.

Gendered poverty, migration and livelihood strategies of female porters in Accra, Ghana

In recent years there has been a dominant migration stream from north to south in Ghana of female youths, moving independently of their families, and mainly towards the cities of Accra and Kumasi. Young girls from rural areas, particularly the northern regions move to markets in urban centres to serve as kayayei, female porters, who carry goods on their heads for a negotiated fee. Away from support from their home communities and families, most end up living and working under very poor conditions and are exposed to both physical and reproductive health risks. The paper examines the characteristics of young female migrants working as head load porters (kayayei) in three markets in Accra and their livelihood strategies as they move into the wage market. It also examines the processes through which migration is used to address livelihood needs through an analysis of the intersecting social relations of gender, poverty and vulnerability. It discusses the survival strategies used to overcome poverty and to deal with issues of risk and vulnerability, especially in respect of their reproductive and health rights. The implications for migration policies and poverty reduction strategies are discussed.