Papers by Kwaku Abrefa Busia
Local environment, Feb 2, 2024
Dominant artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) narratives highlight the invisibility of women’s ... more Dominant artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) narratives highlight the invisibility of women’s livelihoods and gendered struggles in the sector. Indeed, the dimensions of women’s livelihoods in ASM, how daily mobilities aid this, and the specific vulnerabilities various women face in ASM settings are still understudied and undertheorised. Drawing on a local economy perspective and qualitative research involving semi-structured interviews and field observations in Ghana, we explore the livelihood dimensions of different women engaged in ASM within the context of an open rural economy. Our findings highlight diverse groups of women building livelihoods in ASM: young girls and women during school holidays, young junior high school students and apprentices working during weekends, young girls awaiting their Basic Education Certificate Examination results, young women in need of money for learning a vocation, pregnant teens/young women, and women in pursuit of money to set up micro ent...
Springer International Publishing eBooks, 2022
Environmental Science & Policy
Journal of Family Studies
Environmental Science & Policy
Women's Studies International Forum
The Extractive Industries and Society
The Extractive Industries and Society
Frontiers in Public Health, Feb 28, 2022
Background: Older persons are one of the most vulnerable groups as regards low health literacy. H... more Background: Older persons are one of the most vulnerable groups as regards low health literacy. However, little is known about the extent of limitations and multi-faceted nature of their health literacy, such as its characteristics and social and geographical dimensions. Additionally, most existing studies have predominantly treated health literacy as a risk factor of health and wellbeing of older persons as opposed to an outcome that must be pursued. Objectives: This study investigated the moderating role of weak social ties (bridging social capital) in the relationship between health behaviors, such as smoking, alcohol intake, voluntary body checkup and physical exercise, and health literacy among older persons in rural and urban Ghana. Methods: Data was drawn from a cross-sectional survey comprising 522 respondents across five administrative regions in Ghana. Ordinary Least Squares regression technique was used to analyse the data. Results: Older persons in urban areas had higher health literacy [Mean/Standard deviation (SD) = 9.1/4.1 vs. 10.1/4.2] as well as higher bridging social capital (Mean/SD = 2.0/1.2 vs. 1.6/0.9) than their rural counterparts. Bridging social capital was negatively associated with the health literacy of urban residents (B = −0.997, p < 0.01). We found evidence that smoking (B = −0.787, p < 0.05) and undertaking physical activities (B = 0.812, p < 0.01) were associated with health literacy of older persons in rural areas. Having voluntary body checkups (B = 0.155, p < 0.01) was associated with health literacy in urban areas. Bridging social capital negatively moderated the association of smoking with health literacy in rural areas (B = −5.032, p < 0.01), but it instead positively modified the relationship between alcohol intake and health literacy in urban areas (B = 0.185, p < 0.05). Conclusion: For policymakers and practitioners aiming to promote older persons' health literacy as a public health asset at individual and community levels, an important Amoah et al. Health Behaviors and Health Literacy starting point to achieving such goals is to understand the fundamental indicators (e.g., health behaviors) and the role that social and geographical factors play in shaping their health literacy.
Development in Practice, Sep 16, 2021
Forum for Development Studies, 2020
This article discusses the supporting roles of Traditional Authorities (TAs) towards state-led fo... more This article discusses the supporting roles of Traditional Authorities (TAs) towards state-led formal education in Ghana through the Otumfuo Education Fund (OEF) from 2000 to 2012. The OEF is an educational fund initiated by the current Ashanti king, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, in the early 2000s to address falling educational standards not only within his kingdom but also other parts of Ghana in line with the state’s educational vision. As one of the foremost educational partnership by a traditional leader in support of state-driven formal education at a massive scale in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), we examine how such state-chieftaincy hybrid governance approaches can promote educational delivery. Through in-depth interviews with 15 multiple stakeholders including officials at the OEF secretariat, traditional leaders, headteachers, government officials and project consultants involved with the OEF, we investigated the effectiveness and limitations of the OEF’s partnership with state educat...
Journal for Students Affairs in Africa
Recent studies on student politics and governance have shown that electoral clientelism (EC) in u... more Recent studies on student politics and governance have shown that electoral clientelism (EC) in university student elections is often facilitated by clientelist relations between student leaders and political parties. However, there is a dearth of empirical research investigating the various forms of electoral clientelism, as manifested through vote-buying practices in campus electoral politics in African universities. This article, therefore, investigates the multifaceted and changing dynamics of vote-buying in student electoral processes in Ghanaian universities. The study adopted a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with 15 student leaders, 4 university staff working with student leadership, and 4 focus group interviews involving students at the University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. From our finding, we argue that electoral clientelism takes place in five crucial ways in university student elections in Ghana. These inclu...
With the increasing participation of women in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) across many ... more With the increasing participation of women in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) across many sub-Saharan African countries, the ASM sector offers women artisanal miners considerable income that gives them better opportunities at household decision-making. While the existing literature has widely studied intrahousehold dynamics in domains such as agriculture and health, very little is known about the bargaining power of women in ASM and their household dynamics. Through in-depth interviews with 49 women artisanal miners in Prestea-Bondaye mining area in the Prestea-Huni Valley Municipality of Ghana, this paper considers how women's engagement in ASM changes the dynamics within their households and impacts their bargaining power. Findings showed that most women artisanal miners were not in support of pooling income with their husbands with most of them using their income to alter the dynamics of household decision-making concerning food to cook for the family, children's e...
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Papers by Kwaku Abrefa Busia