Daily Graphic, pg. 14. Friday, May 22/09
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE Minister for Tourism, Ms Juliana Azumah-Mensah, has called on the private sector to partner the ministry host this year’s World Tourism Day (WTD) which falls on September 27, to enable the country’s tourism industry gain international recognition.
According to her, since this was the first time an African country had been given the opportunity to host the celebration, there was the need for all stakeholders to come together to support the ministry put up an impressive performance.
The 30th edition of the WTD, which was expected to attract hundreds of foreign tourists into the country, would be held on the theme “Tourism, celebrating diversity”.
The annual celebration is often used in fostering awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural and economic values.
At the media launch of the event in Accra, Ms Azumah-Mensah stated that since the occasion was a rare opportunity to Ghana, it was an opportune time for Ghana to market itself to the international world.
She said Ghana offered a wide range of unique and exciting natural, cultural and historical resources which when well developed and packaged with the support of all stakeholders, should bring some transformation in the national economy in general and the local economies in particular.
“The challenge is to assert our resolve to work closely with all our partners including both public and private tourism related sectors as well as district assemblies and the communities to plan and showcase what Ghana has to offer to the world,” she stated.
In Ghana, tourism is the number four foreign exchange earner and attracts about 600,000 visitors annually.
In 2008, the sector created over 300,000 jobs both directly and indirectly, and generated more than $1 billion income for the country.
According to Ms Azumah-Mensah, there was the need for Ghanaians to be reminded of the positive impact of tourism in terms of foreign exchange earnings, employment and income generation, as well as conservation of biodiversity and also for poverty reduction.
The minister stated that although tourism in most countries were being hit by the world economic downturn, “it is important for Ghana to continue to improve its potentials and use the celebration to tell the whole world that we are ready to bounce back from the world’s recession.”
She, therefore, called on the media to help in educating the public about tourism in order to shape their thinking to promote the positive image of the country as a tourism destination.
The Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism, Mrs Bridget Katsriku who chaired the function, said the ministry had drawn up a policy which had decentralised tourism to enable the district assemblies to take charge of the operations of tourist sites.
That, according to her, was aimed at promoting effective management of these sites as well as ensuring that the assemblies identify and develop more sites in their localities.
She said the policy would also ensure that tour guards were given proper training to ensure professionalism to improve on their efficiency.
Mrs Katsriku also said since tourism was influenced by the environment and the attitude of people, there was also the need for Ghanaians to be educated on how to keep their environment clean and maintain good relations with visitors.
The Chairman of the National Planning Committee of the WTD, Mr Charles Osei-Bonsu said as part of the preparations towards the occasion, which sought to firmly secure Ghana’s position on the world tourism map as a major tourism destination, a comprehensive programme had been drawn to spread the celebration of the event nationwide.
He said the event would kick-start with a pre-event tour of all the 10 regions of the country from September 1 to 26 and would be interspersed with conferences, exhibitions, food fairs, an orientation and tours for some foreign and selected local journalists and travel writers.
Friday, May 22, 2009
work-to-rule threat by doctors....Back-up plans in place
Daily Graphic, (front page), Wednesday, May 20/09
Story Emmanuel Bonney & Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
HOSPITAL administrators in Accra have put in place contingency plans to cater for patients after 5 p.m. should doctors adhere to their one week work-to-rule plan.
Among the measures is an arrangement for nurses, medical assistants and other health workers to hold the fort while the doctors are away in the night.
The measures have been adopted by the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, as well as the Ridge and the La General hospitals.
A visit to the Ridge and the La General hospitals yesterday night showed that all the doctors were at post, though the action was supposed to start at that time.
The authorities of both hospitals said they were yet to be notified of the action of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and indicated that all the doctors expected to work after 5 p.m. had reported for work.
However, checks at Korle-Bu revealed that while some of the doctors were on duty on Monday night, others failed to turn up.
The Chief Executive of the hospital, Prof Nii Otu Nartey, who confirmed this to the Daily Graphic, said the government was making efforts to address the problems of doctors and expressed the hope that the matter would be resolved by the end of the week.
He said apart from using nurses and other health personnel in the event of full action by the doctors, “some of us will go to the wards to assist as part of our contingency plan”.
According to him, emergency cases were taken care of on Monday night.
Amina Alhassan, a relative of one of the patients on admission, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that her relative had been attended to in the night.
A press release from the GMA said doctors across the country would embark on the strike from 5 p.m. on Monday, May 18 to May 24, 2009.
According to the release, the GMA had decided to adopt the action for one week to press home its demand for the review of doctors’ salaries and conditions of service and further threatened to attend to only emergencies for another one week if no appropriate response was received from the authorities.
The action was expected to be undertaken by both senior and junior doctors nation-wide after negotiations, according to the GMA, had come to a stalemate between it and the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, May 12, 2009.
According to the association, salaries of doctors had not been reviewed since 2006, in spite of several attempts to get those issues rectified.
However, sources at the various hospitals visited disclosed that doctors were still at post because they were yet to receive a communiqué from the GMA calling on them to embark on the action.
At the La General Hospital, the Health Service Administrator, Mr Adam M. Handi, said the hospital was yet to receive any notice from the GMA on the action.
He said so far all the 10 doctors, made up of five specialists and five medical officers, as well as six house officers, were duly at post.
Mr Handi said the hospital had, however, developed a contingency plan following a meeting with the regional directorate of health, saying that the plan would enable the hospital to provide basic health services, although it would not be able to cater for surgery and other serious cases which demanded the services of doctors.
At the Ridge Hospital, the Administrator, Mr Kwame Opoku, said the hospital was also yet to receive a formal notification from the GMA on its intended action.
He said in spite of that, the hospital had to put out a contingency measure in case the doctors carried out their treat.
He, however, expressed the hope that nothing of the sort would happen, adding, however, that in the event that the doctors embarked on any action, the hospital would be forced not to admit new patients after 5 p.m.
Enoch Darfah Frimpong reports from Kumasi that many patients who reported at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) on Tuesday morning had to wait till after 8 a.m. before doctors started attending to their medical needs.
The patients, some of whom had arrived at the hospital from outside Kumasi at night, hung around miserably till after 8 a.m. before they were attended to by the doctors.
By 5 p.m. on Monday when the work-to-rule strategy started, some doctors on duty at KATH started leaving the consulting rooms and the hospital for their homes.
A tour of the hospital indicated a 50:50 situation as some of the doctors were at post, while some of them had left.
But for some emergency cases which were attended to by some of the doctors, there were no doctors in the consulting rooms and the wards before 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
A source at the hospital indicated that the management had instituted a contingency plan to deal with emergency cases while the doctors were away.
Some of the doctors explained that the matter was in the hands of the GMA and refused to comment.
From Ho, Tim Dzamboe reports that a visit to the Ho Municipal Hospital yesterday showed that the Medical Superintendent, Dr K. G. Normanyo, was the only doctor at post taking care of patients, with the support of medical assistants.
Some of the doctors were said to be on course and others off to Accra for a meeting. Cuban doctors assisting at the hospital were said to be attending an annual review conference.
From Wa, George Folley Quaye & Chris Nunoo report that work was going on smoothly in all the hospitals visited by the Daily Graphic in the Upper West Region.
At the Wa Regional Hospital, the authorities were said to be in a meeting when the Daily Graphic called but one of the doctors who wanted to remain anonymous said all the doctors were at post.
In the district hospitals which were contacted on phone and whose spokespersons did not want to be named, the explanation was that the peculiar nature of the region made it difficult to abandon patients to their fate.
“We are not trying to stab the GMA in the back but our situation is different, as people in other parts of the country can access private health facilities,” they told the Daily Graphic.
At the Koforidua Regional Hospital, all the 34 doctors, most of them housemen, were at post rendering services ranging from consultancy to surgery when the Daily Graphic visited the facility yesterday, reports A. Kofoya Tetteh.
As of midday, most of the patients had been catered for, leaving a few of them waiting in front of the consulting rooms for their turn.
Most of the patients, especially those from the surrounding villages such as Akwadum, Nankese and Sekesua, the Daily Graphic talked to did not even know about the doctors’ planned action.
When contacted on the issue, the Medical Administrator of the hospital, Dr Obeng Apori, said work at the hospital had been going on normally, with doctors responding to urgent calls for duty, particularly in the night.
He, however, said the doctors hoped to hear good news to resolve the problem by 2 p.m. yesterday as indicated by some radio stations.
“Koforidua is not like the big cities where patients do not know the doctors and because we are familiar with the patients it is difficult for us not to treat them when they report here,” he stated, adding, “It is not that we in Koforidua are not sensitive to the plight of doctors but the peculiar situation we find ourselves in makes it difficult for us to withdraw our services between specific periods while patients we are familiar with come here for treatment.”
Kwame Asiedu Marfo reports from Takoradi that medical doctors at the Takoradi Hospital were working 24 hours when he visited the facility yesterday.
“Nothing has changed before and now,” the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Kofi Sagoe, told the Daily Graphic in an interview.
Dr Sagoe said the doctors were not working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and that they were going about their normal duties 24 hours a day.
He said all the outpatients had been cleared for the day, while those at the Casualty Ward were being seen by the doctors.
At the time the Daily Graphic visited the hospital, there were no outpatients waiting to see doctors. All of them had been seen and they had returned to their various homes, leaving only those on admission.
From Cape Coast, Shirley Aseidu-Addo reports that doctors were attending to emergency cases after 5 p.m. when the Daily Graphic visited the Central Regional Hospital and nothing showed that the doctors were on strike as patients were being attended to.
One of the nurses said the doctors had worked since 8 a.m.
“They also take care of all emergencies even after 5 p.m.,” she said.
From Tamale, Vincent Amenuveve reports that members of the Northern Divisional branch of the GMA at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) have stated that although they are on a work-to-rule action from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., they consider emergency cases at the Hospital.
Story Emmanuel Bonney & Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
HOSPITAL administrators in Accra have put in place contingency plans to cater for patients after 5 p.m. should doctors adhere to their one week work-to-rule plan.
Among the measures is an arrangement for nurses, medical assistants and other health workers to hold the fort while the doctors are away in the night.
The measures have been adopted by the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, as well as the Ridge and the La General hospitals.
A visit to the Ridge and the La General hospitals yesterday night showed that all the doctors were at post, though the action was supposed to start at that time.
The authorities of both hospitals said they were yet to be notified of the action of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and indicated that all the doctors expected to work after 5 p.m. had reported for work.
However, checks at Korle-Bu revealed that while some of the doctors were on duty on Monday night, others failed to turn up.
The Chief Executive of the hospital, Prof Nii Otu Nartey, who confirmed this to the Daily Graphic, said the government was making efforts to address the problems of doctors and expressed the hope that the matter would be resolved by the end of the week.
He said apart from using nurses and other health personnel in the event of full action by the doctors, “some of us will go to the wards to assist as part of our contingency plan”.
According to him, emergency cases were taken care of on Monday night.
Amina Alhassan, a relative of one of the patients on admission, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that her relative had been attended to in the night.
A press release from the GMA said doctors across the country would embark on the strike from 5 p.m. on Monday, May 18 to May 24, 2009.
According to the release, the GMA had decided to adopt the action for one week to press home its demand for the review of doctors’ salaries and conditions of service and further threatened to attend to only emergencies for another one week if no appropriate response was received from the authorities.
The action was expected to be undertaken by both senior and junior doctors nation-wide after negotiations, according to the GMA, had come to a stalemate between it and the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, May 12, 2009.
According to the association, salaries of doctors had not been reviewed since 2006, in spite of several attempts to get those issues rectified.
However, sources at the various hospitals visited disclosed that doctors were still at post because they were yet to receive a communiqué from the GMA calling on them to embark on the action.
At the La General Hospital, the Health Service Administrator, Mr Adam M. Handi, said the hospital was yet to receive any notice from the GMA on the action.
He said so far all the 10 doctors, made up of five specialists and five medical officers, as well as six house officers, were duly at post.
Mr Handi said the hospital had, however, developed a contingency plan following a meeting with the regional directorate of health, saying that the plan would enable the hospital to provide basic health services, although it would not be able to cater for surgery and other serious cases which demanded the services of doctors.
At the Ridge Hospital, the Administrator, Mr Kwame Opoku, said the hospital was also yet to receive a formal notification from the GMA on its intended action.
He said in spite of that, the hospital had to put out a contingency measure in case the doctors carried out their treat.
He, however, expressed the hope that nothing of the sort would happen, adding, however, that in the event that the doctors embarked on any action, the hospital would be forced not to admit new patients after 5 p.m.
Enoch Darfah Frimpong reports from Kumasi that many patients who reported at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) on Tuesday morning had to wait till after 8 a.m. before doctors started attending to their medical needs.
The patients, some of whom had arrived at the hospital from outside Kumasi at night, hung around miserably till after 8 a.m. before they were attended to by the doctors.
By 5 p.m. on Monday when the work-to-rule strategy started, some doctors on duty at KATH started leaving the consulting rooms and the hospital for their homes.
A tour of the hospital indicated a 50:50 situation as some of the doctors were at post, while some of them had left.
But for some emergency cases which were attended to by some of the doctors, there were no doctors in the consulting rooms and the wards before 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
A source at the hospital indicated that the management had instituted a contingency plan to deal with emergency cases while the doctors were away.
Some of the doctors explained that the matter was in the hands of the GMA and refused to comment.
From Ho, Tim Dzamboe reports that a visit to the Ho Municipal Hospital yesterday showed that the Medical Superintendent, Dr K. G. Normanyo, was the only doctor at post taking care of patients, with the support of medical assistants.
Some of the doctors were said to be on course and others off to Accra for a meeting. Cuban doctors assisting at the hospital were said to be attending an annual review conference.
From Wa, George Folley Quaye & Chris Nunoo report that work was going on smoothly in all the hospitals visited by the Daily Graphic in the Upper West Region.
At the Wa Regional Hospital, the authorities were said to be in a meeting when the Daily Graphic called but one of the doctors who wanted to remain anonymous said all the doctors were at post.
In the district hospitals which were contacted on phone and whose spokespersons did not want to be named, the explanation was that the peculiar nature of the region made it difficult to abandon patients to their fate.
“We are not trying to stab the GMA in the back but our situation is different, as people in other parts of the country can access private health facilities,” they told the Daily Graphic.
At the Koforidua Regional Hospital, all the 34 doctors, most of them housemen, were at post rendering services ranging from consultancy to surgery when the Daily Graphic visited the facility yesterday, reports A. Kofoya Tetteh.
As of midday, most of the patients had been catered for, leaving a few of them waiting in front of the consulting rooms for their turn.
Most of the patients, especially those from the surrounding villages such as Akwadum, Nankese and Sekesua, the Daily Graphic talked to did not even know about the doctors’ planned action.
When contacted on the issue, the Medical Administrator of the hospital, Dr Obeng Apori, said work at the hospital had been going on normally, with doctors responding to urgent calls for duty, particularly in the night.
He, however, said the doctors hoped to hear good news to resolve the problem by 2 p.m. yesterday as indicated by some radio stations.
“Koforidua is not like the big cities where patients do not know the doctors and because we are familiar with the patients it is difficult for us not to treat them when they report here,” he stated, adding, “It is not that we in Koforidua are not sensitive to the plight of doctors but the peculiar situation we find ourselves in makes it difficult for us to withdraw our services between specific periods while patients we are familiar with come here for treatment.”
Kwame Asiedu Marfo reports from Takoradi that medical doctors at the Takoradi Hospital were working 24 hours when he visited the facility yesterday.
“Nothing has changed before and now,” the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Kofi Sagoe, told the Daily Graphic in an interview.
Dr Sagoe said the doctors were not working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and that they were going about their normal duties 24 hours a day.
He said all the outpatients had been cleared for the day, while those at the Casualty Ward were being seen by the doctors.
At the time the Daily Graphic visited the hospital, there were no outpatients waiting to see doctors. All of them had been seen and they had returned to their various homes, leaving only those on admission.
From Cape Coast, Shirley Aseidu-Addo reports that doctors were attending to emergency cases after 5 p.m. when the Daily Graphic visited the Central Regional Hospital and nothing showed that the doctors were on strike as patients were being attended to.
One of the nurses said the doctors had worked since 8 a.m.
“They also take care of all emergencies even after 5 p.m.,” she said.
From Tamale, Vincent Amenuveve reports that members of the Northern Divisional branch of the GMA at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) have stated that although they are on a work-to-rule action from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., they consider emergency cases at the Hospital.
Helping farmers to sell products across borders-Pilot project begins
Daily Graphic (back Page), Tuesday, May 19/09
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A PROJECT to enable farmers in the West African sub-region to sell their products across borders is to begin on a pilot phase, beginning with Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Sponsored by the Co-operative League of the United States of America (CLUSA), a co-operative society in the USA, the project would involve farmers in 21 co-operative societies across the country, who would export products such as fruits, vegetables, maize, yam, palm kernel and salt to Burkina Faso and Niger, where the products are in high demand.
In return, the farmers will import onions, beans and livestock from the two countries to supplement what is being produced locally.
The Secretary General of the Ghana Co-operative Council (GCC), Mr Albert Prempeh, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Accra at the end of a seminar on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) policies on cross-border trade said the project would later be replicated to other ECOWAS States.
The seminar was aimed at educating the farmers and co-operative heads on the project.
Mr Prempeh said the project would create an opportunity for farmers in the three countries to improve and expand their businesses as well as profits in both local and neighbouring farmers.
If successful, Mr Prempeh said the GCC would establish a market at Paga, in the Upper East Region, where all neighbouring countries could bring their wares to trade and promote cross-border trading activities.
According to him, for a long time now, it had been difficult for farmers to market their produce in other African countries, although cross-border trading was being encouraged by ECOWAS, under its trade liberalisation scheme.
He said coming together would help the farmers to market their wares on a broader scale, a situation he said, would help avoid wastage in the system.
An Assistant Director at the Africa and African Union Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mr Kwasi Asante, briefed the farmers and co-operative leaders on some of the protocols and regulations of cross-border trade based on the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) and other mechanisms put in place to facilitate cross-border trade.
He said lack of knowledge on the provisions of the various protocols was a major hindrance to its effective application.
The ministry would, therefore, organise sensitisation workshops for various security agencies, the private sector and civil society groups to educate them, he noted.
Mr Asante bemoaned the abuse of the ETLS zero per cent duty policy enjoyed by some traders from the member states, who re-label foreign products as locally manufactured, adding that the practice was a major drawback on the free movement of goods and services within member states.
He said the ECOWAS protocol on free movement, right of residence and establishment had also brought in its wake an increase in the trafficking of humans, small arms and drugs, while some traders were also harassed by the police who set up road blocks to demand illegal levies.
To forestall all those problems, Mr Asante said the leadership of ECOWAS had formulated a new vision that placed premium on people within the sub-region instead of within states, with the view to promoting free movement of people to transact business in peace and regional space where the rule of law prevailed.
To expedite clearing procedures at the ports, he said an ECOWAS Desk had been established at various headquarters of the customs offices to disseminate information and advise nationals of member states on import and export procedures.
He said the service had also compiled the names of approved ECOWAS enterprises and their respective products in the National Customs Tariff Schedules for the attention of customs officers and the public at large.
According to him, since the private sector was being recognised as the engine of growth for any country, the ministry, through the ECOWAS National Unit, was working closely with the private sector and civil society groups that dealt with trade and free movement of goods and services in the integration process.
He said to ensure that the involvement of the private sector became a success, the ministry had established a National Approvals Committee to review applications of companies which applied to join the ETLS.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A PROJECT to enable farmers in the West African sub-region to sell their products across borders is to begin on a pilot phase, beginning with Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Sponsored by the Co-operative League of the United States of America (CLUSA), a co-operative society in the USA, the project would involve farmers in 21 co-operative societies across the country, who would export products such as fruits, vegetables, maize, yam, palm kernel and salt to Burkina Faso and Niger, where the products are in high demand.
In return, the farmers will import onions, beans and livestock from the two countries to supplement what is being produced locally.
The Secretary General of the Ghana Co-operative Council (GCC), Mr Albert Prempeh, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Accra at the end of a seminar on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) policies on cross-border trade said the project would later be replicated to other ECOWAS States.
The seminar was aimed at educating the farmers and co-operative heads on the project.
Mr Prempeh said the project would create an opportunity for farmers in the three countries to improve and expand their businesses as well as profits in both local and neighbouring farmers.
If successful, Mr Prempeh said the GCC would establish a market at Paga, in the Upper East Region, where all neighbouring countries could bring their wares to trade and promote cross-border trading activities.
According to him, for a long time now, it had been difficult for farmers to market their produce in other African countries, although cross-border trading was being encouraged by ECOWAS, under its trade liberalisation scheme.
He said coming together would help the farmers to market their wares on a broader scale, a situation he said, would help avoid wastage in the system.
An Assistant Director at the Africa and African Union Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mr Kwasi Asante, briefed the farmers and co-operative leaders on some of the protocols and regulations of cross-border trade based on the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) and other mechanisms put in place to facilitate cross-border trade.
He said lack of knowledge on the provisions of the various protocols was a major hindrance to its effective application.
The ministry would, therefore, organise sensitisation workshops for various security agencies, the private sector and civil society groups to educate them, he noted.
Mr Asante bemoaned the abuse of the ETLS zero per cent duty policy enjoyed by some traders from the member states, who re-label foreign products as locally manufactured, adding that the practice was a major drawback on the free movement of goods and services within member states.
He said the ECOWAS protocol on free movement, right of residence and establishment had also brought in its wake an increase in the trafficking of humans, small arms and drugs, while some traders were also harassed by the police who set up road blocks to demand illegal levies.
To forestall all those problems, Mr Asante said the leadership of ECOWAS had formulated a new vision that placed premium on people within the sub-region instead of within states, with the view to promoting free movement of people to transact business in peace and regional space where the rule of law prevailed.
To expedite clearing procedures at the ports, he said an ECOWAS Desk had been established at various headquarters of the customs offices to disseminate information and advise nationals of member states on import and export procedures.
He said the service had also compiled the names of approved ECOWAS enterprises and their respective products in the National Customs Tariff Schedules for the attention of customs officers and the public at large.
According to him, since the private sector was being recognised as the engine of growth for any country, the ministry, through the ECOWAS National Unit, was working closely with the private sector and civil society groups that dealt with trade and free movement of goods and services in the integration process.
He said to ensure that the involvement of the private sector became a success, the ministry had established a National Approvals Committee to review applications of companies which applied to join the ETLS.
MOWAC to initiate educational programmes
Daily Graphic, Pg 11. Thurs. May 14/09
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) is to embark on sustained educational programmes to sensitise parents to the provision of various acts and policies that protect the rights of children in the country.
According to the sector minister, Ms Akua Sena Dansua, the programme was geared towards addressing the menace of irresponsible parenting in the country, which she said was the major cause of the numerous anti-social vices bedevilling the youth.
Ms Dansua, who made the statement when she addressed the Meet-the-Press series organised by the Ministry of Information on Tuesday, said most parents were unaware of the provisions in the Children’s Act, the Domestic Violence Act and other international laws and treaties that protect children.
According to her, the ministry would compliment its educational efforts by ensuring that such laws were enforced to the letter to prosecute parents who neglected their children.
She said many of the country’s youth were engaged in such vices as prostitution, fraud, streetism, truancy, child delinquency, pornography and migration because they had been neglected and also lacked parental control.
Ms Dansua however acknowledged that the ministry alone could not tackle the problem and called for close collaboration between the ministry and related bodies and organisations, and also urged parents and guardians to be more responsive to the needs of their wards.
She said the ministry would work in conjunction with the Greater Accra Regional Minister to ensure that brothels located in areas such as the Malam Atta Market, Agbobgloshie and the Mantse Agboana, and especially ‘Soldier Bar’, at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, were closed down.
Touching on the way forward, Ms Dansua said that in collaboration with relevant organisations, the ministry would provide micro-credit assistance to support community- based projects to enable parents to earn incomes and thereby cater for their wards.
She said “it is our firm belief that as a nation our quest for accelerated socio-economic development, wealth creation and poverty reduction will be seriously hampered without the involvement and empowerment of women, especially the rural and urban poor”.
Touching on the issue of ‘kayayei’ (female pottering), the Deputy Minister for MOWAC, Hajia Gariba Bora, called on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the urban centres to extend training programmes for ‘kayayei’ to the communities in the three northern regions to curb the migration of young girls to Accra and other major cities.
According to her, when the female potters were trained in Accra and reintegrated in their communities, it rather enticed more girls to come to the south.
She said when the training took place in the rural areas, most of the girls who were in the big cities would prefer to go back when they saw that their relatives back home were doing better than them.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) is to embark on sustained educational programmes to sensitise parents to the provision of various acts and policies that protect the rights of children in the country.
According to the sector minister, Ms Akua Sena Dansua, the programme was geared towards addressing the menace of irresponsible parenting in the country, which she said was the major cause of the numerous anti-social vices bedevilling the youth.
Ms Dansua, who made the statement when she addressed the Meet-the-Press series organised by the Ministry of Information on Tuesday, said most parents were unaware of the provisions in the Children’s Act, the Domestic Violence Act and other international laws and treaties that protect children.
According to her, the ministry would compliment its educational efforts by ensuring that such laws were enforced to the letter to prosecute parents who neglected their children.
She said many of the country’s youth were engaged in such vices as prostitution, fraud, streetism, truancy, child delinquency, pornography and migration because they had been neglected and also lacked parental control.
Ms Dansua however acknowledged that the ministry alone could not tackle the problem and called for close collaboration between the ministry and related bodies and organisations, and also urged parents and guardians to be more responsive to the needs of their wards.
She said the ministry would work in conjunction with the Greater Accra Regional Minister to ensure that brothels located in areas such as the Malam Atta Market, Agbobgloshie and the Mantse Agboana, and especially ‘Soldier Bar’, at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, were closed down.
Touching on the way forward, Ms Dansua said that in collaboration with relevant organisations, the ministry would provide micro-credit assistance to support community- based projects to enable parents to earn incomes and thereby cater for their wards.
She said “it is our firm belief that as a nation our quest for accelerated socio-economic development, wealth creation and poverty reduction will be seriously hampered without the involvement and empowerment of women, especially the rural and urban poor”.
Touching on the issue of ‘kayayei’ (female pottering), the Deputy Minister for MOWAC, Hajia Gariba Bora, called on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the urban centres to extend training programmes for ‘kayayei’ to the communities in the three northern regions to curb the migration of young girls to Accra and other major cities.
According to her, when the female potters were trained in Accra and reintegrated in their communities, it rather enticed more girls to come to the south.
She said when the training took place in the rural areas, most of the girls who were in the big cities would prefer to go back when they saw that their relatives back home were doing better than them.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Health workers receive 126 cars from MoH
Daily Graphic, Spread. Saturday, May 09/09
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE Ministry of Health yesterday handed over 126 saloon cars to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) for distribution to health workers.
The 126 cars comprise 120 Honda Civic from the Honda Place Ghana Limited and six VW Polo from Universal Motors and they are the first batch of 600 cars that have been ordered for the year.
The cars, each of which costs between GH¢18,000 and GH¢23,000, are payable over an 84-month period.
The presentation is intended to alleviate some of the transportation difficulties facing health professionals, especially doctors.
At the handing-over ceremony in Accra, the Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa-Adjah Yankey, announced the readiness of the government to embark on a housing project for health workers in the country.
The proposed project, he explained, was part of the government’s efforts to make life more comfortable for health professionals and, therefore, called on health professionals to reciprocate the gesture, trusting that the government was addressing their concerns.
He also called on doctors and other health workers to ensure that they worked diligently to help move the sector and the nation forward.
Last week, junior doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi embarked on a strike to demand the payment of their fuel allowances which had been in arrears for the past 18 months.
Dr Yankey called on doctors not to withdraw their services at the least instance, saying that just as taxpayers’ money had been used to educate them and make them comfortable with the provision of cars and other incentives, they should also endeavour to reciprocate that gesture by giving of their best to serve the public.
The Director-General of the GHS, Dr Elias Sory, who received the cars on behalf of the benefiting health professionals, said since 1997 3,138 health personnel, made up of 1,223 doctors and 1,915 health staff, across the country had benefited from the Ministry of Health Staff Vehicle Hire Purchase Scheme.
He said the scheme, which had been categorised into three — tax waiver, hire purchase and outright purchase — had been made possible through the ministry’s car revolving fund.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE Ministry of Health yesterday handed over 126 saloon cars to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) for distribution to health workers.
The 126 cars comprise 120 Honda Civic from the Honda Place Ghana Limited and six VW Polo from Universal Motors and they are the first batch of 600 cars that have been ordered for the year.
The cars, each of which costs between GH¢18,000 and GH¢23,000, are payable over an 84-month period.
The presentation is intended to alleviate some of the transportation difficulties facing health professionals, especially doctors.
At the handing-over ceremony in Accra, the Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa-Adjah Yankey, announced the readiness of the government to embark on a housing project for health workers in the country.
The proposed project, he explained, was part of the government’s efforts to make life more comfortable for health professionals and, therefore, called on health professionals to reciprocate the gesture, trusting that the government was addressing their concerns.
He also called on doctors and other health workers to ensure that they worked diligently to help move the sector and the nation forward.
Last week, junior doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi embarked on a strike to demand the payment of their fuel allowances which had been in arrears for the past 18 months.
Dr Yankey called on doctors not to withdraw their services at the least instance, saying that just as taxpayers’ money had been used to educate them and make them comfortable with the provision of cars and other incentives, they should also endeavour to reciprocate that gesture by giving of their best to serve the public.
The Director-General of the GHS, Dr Elias Sory, who received the cars on behalf of the benefiting health professionals, said since 1997 3,138 health personnel, made up of 1,223 doctors and 1,915 health staff, across the country had benefited from the Ministry of Health Staff Vehicle Hire Purchase Scheme.
He said the scheme, which had been categorised into three — tax waiver, hire purchase and outright purchase — had been made possible through the ministry’s car revolving fund.
GIS identifies illegal migration points
Daily Graphic, Pg 15, Saturday, May 09/09
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has identified four major towns as some of the notorious converging points for illegal migration in the country.
They are Nkoranza, Dormaa Ahenkro and Techiman, all in the Brong Ahafo Region, and Mankessim in the Central Region.
Those converging points, according to the service, were used in transporting hundreds of Ghanaians to nearby Burkina Faso or The Gambia with the intention of crossing over to Libya through to Malta or Sicily and finally to Europe.
However, an Assistant Director of Immigration, Ms Judith Dzokoto, called on people who had the intention of using such routes to use the case of over 40 Ghanaians who were massacred in The Gambia and others who were executed in Libya recently as examples of the fate of irregular migrants.
She said this at a public sensitisation and information programme on the dangers involved in travelling undocumented and the option for safe migration at the Institute of Islamic Studies at Nima in Accra.
Ms Dzokoto said the GIS had decided to intensify its campaign to educate people to desist from using illegal routes to travel.
The campaign, which is also being used to educate people on human trafficking as a way of helping to curb the menace in the country, is a collaboration among the Migration Management Bureau (MMB) of the GIS, Eanfoworld for Sustainable Development, a non-governmental organisation, and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
According to Ms Dzokoto, the service recorded the deportation of Ghanaians to the Kotoka International Airport on a daily basis from mostly Libya, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain, a situation which she said was worrying.
She said the MMB, together with the IOM, had established migration consultation centres in Sunyani, Tamale and Takoradi where durbars and seminars were organised to educate the indigenes on the need to use legal channels whenever they wanted to travel.
“The craze to travel abroad at all cost has made it possible for people to believe all stories told by connection men and traffickers. All kinds of job offers are being put out there on the Internet and people fall prey to the machinations of these connection men,” she said.
A Deputy Superintendent of Immigration, Ms Belinda Adwoa Sika Anim, said although most European countries had intensified their land and sea border patrols since 1995, it had not decreased the number of irregular migrants but rather led them to use alternative but dangerous routes.
She, therefore, appealed to people not to risk their lives by travelling undocumented through dangerous routes in search of greener pastures.
The Founder of the Institute of Islamic Studies, Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Imam, who chaired the ceremony, called on Muslims, especially parents, to wake up to their responsibilities and educate their children not to seek greener pastures outside the country.
The Executive Director of Eanfoworld, Alhaji Alhassan Abdulai, said his organisation was collaborating with the GIS to help stop people from dehumanising themselves through illegal migration.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
THE Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has identified four major towns as some of the notorious converging points for illegal migration in the country.
They are Nkoranza, Dormaa Ahenkro and Techiman, all in the Brong Ahafo Region, and Mankessim in the Central Region.
Those converging points, according to the service, were used in transporting hundreds of Ghanaians to nearby Burkina Faso or The Gambia with the intention of crossing over to Libya through to Malta or Sicily and finally to Europe.
However, an Assistant Director of Immigration, Ms Judith Dzokoto, called on people who had the intention of using such routes to use the case of over 40 Ghanaians who were massacred in The Gambia and others who were executed in Libya recently as examples of the fate of irregular migrants.
She said this at a public sensitisation and information programme on the dangers involved in travelling undocumented and the option for safe migration at the Institute of Islamic Studies at Nima in Accra.
Ms Dzokoto said the GIS had decided to intensify its campaign to educate people to desist from using illegal routes to travel.
The campaign, which is also being used to educate people on human trafficking as a way of helping to curb the menace in the country, is a collaboration among the Migration Management Bureau (MMB) of the GIS, Eanfoworld for Sustainable Development, a non-governmental organisation, and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
According to Ms Dzokoto, the service recorded the deportation of Ghanaians to the Kotoka International Airport on a daily basis from mostly Libya, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain, a situation which she said was worrying.
She said the MMB, together with the IOM, had established migration consultation centres in Sunyani, Tamale and Takoradi where durbars and seminars were organised to educate the indigenes on the need to use legal channels whenever they wanted to travel.
“The craze to travel abroad at all cost has made it possible for people to believe all stories told by connection men and traffickers. All kinds of job offers are being put out there on the Internet and people fall prey to the machinations of these connection men,” she said.
A Deputy Superintendent of Immigration, Ms Belinda Adwoa Sika Anim, said although most European countries had intensified their land and sea border patrols since 1995, it had not decreased the number of irregular migrants but rather led them to use alternative but dangerous routes.
She, therefore, appealed to people not to risk their lives by travelling undocumented through dangerous routes in search of greener pastures.
The Founder of the Institute of Islamic Studies, Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Imam, who chaired the ceremony, called on Muslims, especially parents, to wake up to their responsibilities and educate their children not to seek greener pastures outside the country.
The Executive Director of Eanfoworld, Alhaji Alhassan Abdulai, said his organisation was collaborating with the GIS to help stop people from dehumanising themselves through illegal migration.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
HIV/TB Workplace Policy Document for AGs dept
Daily Graphic, Pg 47, Thursday, May 07/09
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A WORKPLACE programme on HIV and TB for the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department and its allied agencies, was launched in Accra last Monday.
The programme, which is supported by the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ)’s Legal Sector Reform Programme as part of its effort to mainstream HIV and TB in the working environment, will benefit over 1,000 employees of the ministry and their dependants.
Among the objectives of the programme is the prevention and diagnosis of HIV and TB, treatment, care and support of infected employees and their close family members. It also aims to create an enabling and non-discriminative working environment in the framework of an HIV and TB policy.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, who chaired the launch of the programme, called on all leaders to set the pace for their subordinates to follow by ensuring that they tested to know their HIV and TB status.
She said no country could ignore the devastating effect that HIV was having on both their human resource and economy and therefore said it was important to have a workplace policy to help workers to be more informed about HIV and TB.
She also called for an urgent need to address the issue of stigmatisation of infected and affected persons, saying that “stigmatisation has been one of the main scourges in finding ways of addressing the HIV and AIDS pandemic”.
She, therefore, called for an enabling environment where working colleagues would feel free to discuss their HIV status without fear or inhibition.
She called for intensification of public education on stigmatisation, adding that people should be made aware that contracting “HIV was not a death sentence”.
A representative of the German Ambassador, Mr Hans-Christian Winkler, in an address, said HIV and TB were still some of the biggest threat to human existence and therefore called on people to help stop them.
He commended Ghanaians for their effort in keeping a low prevalence of 1.9, saying that HIV was also one of the greatest threat to posterity if not effectively controlled.
The Programme Manager of the GTZ’s Legal Sector Reform Programme, Dr Elisabeth Leiss, said her outfit was committed to supporting institutions with workplace policies on HIV and TB with the aim of raising awareness about the two diseases.
She called on institutions and organisations to ensure that their staff registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme so that they could benefit from it.
A representative from the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), Dr Nii Akwei Addo, said although 97 per cent of women and 99 per cent of men were aware of HIV and know how to protect themselves, there was no increase in the rate of the use of condom in the last five years.
According to him, 15 per cent of persons living with HIV were also TB positive but said TB could be cured within six months and therefore called on people to seek early treatment.
The team leader of the project, Dr Holger Till, reminded people that TB could be cured and HIV could be managed and therefore called on people to get tested.
The Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Prof. Sakyi Awuku Amoa, said his outfit together with the USAID and the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) had intiated moves to address the issue of stigma in the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department, the Judiciary, the Police and Prison’s services and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), as part of a programme dubbed “HIV and AIDS stigma reduction and Human rights initiative”, aimed at addressing stigma in the country.
He emphasised that the need for HIV and AIDS to be acknowledged as a major business issue in the public and private enterprises could not be underestimated in view of the profound negative impact on workers and their families in enterprises in particular and on the national economy in general.
Prof. Amoa said it was, therefore, imperative that public and private sector organisations took responsibility for managing HIV and AIDS at the workplace and put in place effective policies and intervention programmes to address the complex ramifications of the epidemic.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A WORKPLACE programme on HIV and TB for the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department and its allied agencies, was launched in Accra last Monday.
The programme, which is supported by the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ)’s Legal Sector Reform Programme as part of its effort to mainstream HIV and TB in the working environment, will benefit over 1,000 employees of the ministry and their dependants.
Among the objectives of the programme is the prevention and diagnosis of HIV and TB, treatment, care and support of infected employees and their close family members. It also aims to create an enabling and non-discriminative working environment in the framework of an HIV and TB policy.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, who chaired the launch of the programme, called on all leaders to set the pace for their subordinates to follow by ensuring that they tested to know their HIV and TB status.
She said no country could ignore the devastating effect that HIV was having on both their human resource and economy and therefore said it was important to have a workplace policy to help workers to be more informed about HIV and TB.
She also called for an urgent need to address the issue of stigmatisation of infected and affected persons, saying that “stigmatisation has been one of the main scourges in finding ways of addressing the HIV and AIDS pandemic”.
She, therefore, called for an enabling environment where working colleagues would feel free to discuss their HIV status without fear or inhibition.
She called for intensification of public education on stigmatisation, adding that people should be made aware that contracting “HIV was not a death sentence”.
A representative of the German Ambassador, Mr Hans-Christian Winkler, in an address, said HIV and TB were still some of the biggest threat to human existence and therefore called on people to help stop them.
He commended Ghanaians for their effort in keeping a low prevalence of 1.9, saying that HIV was also one of the greatest threat to posterity if not effectively controlled.
The Programme Manager of the GTZ’s Legal Sector Reform Programme, Dr Elisabeth Leiss, said her outfit was committed to supporting institutions with workplace policies on HIV and TB with the aim of raising awareness about the two diseases.
She called on institutions and organisations to ensure that their staff registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme so that they could benefit from it.
A representative from the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), Dr Nii Akwei Addo, said although 97 per cent of women and 99 per cent of men were aware of HIV and know how to protect themselves, there was no increase in the rate of the use of condom in the last five years.
According to him, 15 per cent of persons living with HIV were also TB positive but said TB could be cured within six months and therefore called on people to seek early treatment.
The team leader of the project, Dr Holger Till, reminded people that TB could be cured and HIV could be managed and therefore called on people to get tested.
The Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Prof. Sakyi Awuku Amoa, said his outfit together with the USAID and the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) had intiated moves to address the issue of stigma in the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department, the Judiciary, the Police and Prison’s services and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), as part of a programme dubbed “HIV and AIDS stigma reduction and Human rights initiative”, aimed at addressing stigma in the country.
He emphasised that the need for HIV and AIDS to be acknowledged as a major business issue in the public and private enterprises could not be underestimated in view of the profound negative impact on workers and their families in enterprises in particular and on the national economy in general.
Prof. Amoa said it was, therefore, imperative that public and private sector organisations took responsibility for managing HIV and AIDS at the workplace and put in place effective policies and intervention programmes to address the complex ramifications of the epidemic.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Physician calls for national statistics on Asthma
Daily Graphic, Pg 14, Wednesday, May 06/09
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A Physician at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Augustine Kwashie, has called on the Ministry of Health to collate data on asthma cases in Ghana.
According to him, although various health institutions have their own data on the number of cases they attend to, they have not been able to collate data to give a true picture of a national statistics.
He said knowing the national statistics of people with asthma would help to inform and in planning policy decisions.
Dr Kwashie made the call in Accra at a public lecture to mark this year’s World Asthma Day which was organised by the Global Initiative for Asthma under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and sponsored by Qodesh Group International, producers of Quodesh powder for the management of asthma.
The day, which falls on the second Tuesday of May every year, was celebrated globally on the theme: “You can control asthma” with a sub-theme: “Asthma can kill, seek early treatment”.
Globally, Dr Kwashie said, three million people were estimated to have asthma, saying that the prevalence in countries had been increasing over the years and therefore there was the need for Ghana to capture such data to know its trend.
Dr Kwashie said asthma, which is a chronic inflammatory disorder of a persons airwaves, was widespread and mainly affected children and mostly adults between the ages of 50 and 65.
According to him, asthma — which patients are most often hyper-responsive leading to recurrent episodes of wheezing and breathlessness and are triggered by dust, tobacco smoke, mites, cockroaches, viral infections and emotions — was hereditary.
He said although asthma had equal gender presentation globally, in Ghana the KBTH had 74 per cent of adult females and 26 per cent of adult males under its care.
He said although there was no global cure for asthma, it could be treated when well managed and called on people to seek early care when they were confronted with it.
The General Manager of the Qodesh Group International, Reverend David Kyenkyenhene, in an address called for a statistical report on asthma especially its mortality rate and the effect on the economy.
He also called on the government to give equal recognition to the day and make it a national event as had been done with malaria and HIV and AIDS and further called for the enforcement of the law on the ban on public smoking.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A Physician at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Augustine Kwashie, has called on the Ministry of Health to collate data on asthma cases in Ghana.
According to him, although various health institutions have their own data on the number of cases they attend to, they have not been able to collate data to give a true picture of a national statistics.
He said knowing the national statistics of people with asthma would help to inform and in planning policy decisions.
Dr Kwashie made the call in Accra at a public lecture to mark this year’s World Asthma Day which was organised by the Global Initiative for Asthma under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and sponsored by Qodesh Group International, producers of Quodesh powder for the management of asthma.
The day, which falls on the second Tuesday of May every year, was celebrated globally on the theme: “You can control asthma” with a sub-theme: “Asthma can kill, seek early treatment”.
Globally, Dr Kwashie said, three million people were estimated to have asthma, saying that the prevalence in countries had been increasing over the years and therefore there was the need for Ghana to capture such data to know its trend.
Dr Kwashie said asthma, which is a chronic inflammatory disorder of a persons airwaves, was widespread and mainly affected children and mostly adults between the ages of 50 and 65.
According to him, asthma — which patients are most often hyper-responsive leading to recurrent episodes of wheezing and breathlessness and are triggered by dust, tobacco smoke, mites, cockroaches, viral infections and emotions — was hereditary.
He said although asthma had equal gender presentation globally, in Ghana the KBTH had 74 per cent of adult females and 26 per cent of adult males under its care.
He said although there was no global cure for asthma, it could be treated when well managed and called on people to seek early care when they were confronted with it.
The General Manager of the Qodesh Group International, Reverend David Kyenkyenhene, in an address called for a statistical report on asthma especially its mortality rate and the effect on the economy.
He also called on the government to give equal recognition to the day and make it a national event as had been done with malaria and HIV and AIDS and further called for the enforcement of the law on the ban on public smoking.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Gender Centre launches project-On women’s work
Daily Graphic, Pg 11. Tuesday, May 05/09
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A three-year research project on the changing character of women’s work and its implications for women’s livelihood security has been launched in Accra.
The project, known as “Formalising the informal and informalising the formal: Analysing changes in women’s work in Ghana”, will examine women’s work in two sectors, namely banking and paid domestic work.
Funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the project which is being undertaken by the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) of the University of Ghana, in three urban centres, namely Accra, Kumasi and Tamale, seeks to examine the changing nature of work, especially in the banking and domestic sector, with the view to making policy recommendations for improving work conditions in the two sectors.
According to the Project Lead researcher, Dr Dzodzi Tsikata, the two sectors, one in the formal and the other in the informal economies were illustrations of some of the important developments in the character of women’s work.
She said both sectors had seen significant changes since the 1990s when economic liberalisation policies began to gain root, and that domestic work was increasingly being procured through agents and agencies while on the other hand the banking sector, traditionally seen as the bastion of formality and long term employment is changing with the introduction of labour agencies into the sector.
These changes, she said, were taking place in a general context of labour market liberation and the informalisation of work in both developed and developing countries , with these two sectors being illustrations of the changing character of women’s livelihood.
She said informal work was becoming more prominent among women across the country with most women going into hawking, trading, sewing, domestic and other unpaid work, a situation which she said generated lesser incomes and therefore jeopardised their security.
According to her, the country’s labour law favours formal work but the focus should be looked at since most people were now becoming self employed and called for equal opportunities for both formal and informal work in the labour laws.
Dr Tsikata who mentioned some of the objectives of the research, said it was to create a gender profile for the domestic and banking sectors, as well as agencies involved in the sectors and to examine the changes in labour conditions and its implications for employment security and the social security of women workers in the banking and domestic sectors.
She said the study was also to explore ways in which reproductive work differentiated women and men’s experiences of change in the domestic and banking sectors.
The project, she said would also analyse any relationship between labour legislation and policies and informalisation and explore the extent to which laws and policies were tackling the challenges of informalisation.
The research which was undertaken by four female researchers, Prof. Nana Akua Anyidoho, Prof. Akosua Darkwa, Prof. Akosua Adomako Ampofo and Dr Tsikata, established that most banks sampled, preferred to use agency staff as a way of saving cost.
According to the research, a total of 13 banks in the three research areas which were sampled, also revealed that sourcing for agency staff enabled the banks to focus on their core businesses.
The research also revealed among other things that domestic workers employed through an agent or agencies, normally received better conditions of service than bank staff employed through an agency, although in monitory terms the bankers received better pay conditions.
It further revealed that agencies out-sourced more women both to the banks and as domestic staffs than men.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A three-year research project on the changing character of women’s work and its implications for women’s livelihood security has been launched in Accra.
The project, known as “Formalising the informal and informalising the formal: Analysing changes in women’s work in Ghana”, will examine women’s work in two sectors, namely banking and paid domestic work.
Funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the project which is being undertaken by the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) of the University of Ghana, in three urban centres, namely Accra, Kumasi and Tamale, seeks to examine the changing nature of work, especially in the banking and domestic sector, with the view to making policy recommendations for improving work conditions in the two sectors.
According to the Project Lead researcher, Dr Dzodzi Tsikata, the two sectors, one in the formal and the other in the informal economies were illustrations of some of the important developments in the character of women’s work.
She said both sectors had seen significant changes since the 1990s when economic liberalisation policies began to gain root, and that domestic work was increasingly being procured through agents and agencies while on the other hand the banking sector, traditionally seen as the bastion of formality and long term employment is changing with the introduction of labour agencies into the sector.
These changes, she said, were taking place in a general context of labour market liberation and the informalisation of work in both developed and developing countries , with these two sectors being illustrations of the changing character of women’s livelihood.
She said informal work was becoming more prominent among women across the country with most women going into hawking, trading, sewing, domestic and other unpaid work, a situation which she said generated lesser incomes and therefore jeopardised their security.
According to her, the country’s labour law favours formal work but the focus should be looked at since most people were now becoming self employed and called for equal opportunities for both formal and informal work in the labour laws.
Dr Tsikata who mentioned some of the objectives of the research, said it was to create a gender profile for the domestic and banking sectors, as well as agencies involved in the sectors and to examine the changes in labour conditions and its implications for employment security and the social security of women workers in the banking and domestic sectors.
She said the study was also to explore ways in which reproductive work differentiated women and men’s experiences of change in the domestic and banking sectors.
The project, she said would also analyse any relationship between labour legislation and policies and informalisation and explore the extent to which laws and policies were tackling the challenges of informalisation.
The research which was undertaken by four female researchers, Prof. Nana Akua Anyidoho, Prof. Akosua Darkwa, Prof. Akosua Adomako Ampofo and Dr Tsikata, established that most banks sampled, preferred to use agency staff as a way of saving cost.
According to the research, a total of 13 banks in the three research areas which were sampled, also revealed that sourcing for agency staff enabled the banks to focus on their core businesses.
The research also revealed among other things that domestic workers employed through an agent or agencies, normally received better conditions of service than bank staff employed through an agency, although in monitory terms the bankers received better pay conditions.
It further revealed that agencies out-sourced more women both to the banks and as domestic staffs than men.
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