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- Domfe, George, et al.
(författare)
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Labour market analysis and business process outsourcing in Ghana
- 2013
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- While both unemployment and underemployment are the two main forms of underutilisation of human resources in Ghana, much of the policy attention has always been focused on unemployment. Ironically, unemployment rates (for both the youth and the elderly) in Ghana appear among the lowest in the world. For youth aged 19-24 years, the unemployment rate is highest at 9.15% in this age group compared to the unemployment rate of Ghana’s total working age population which averages at 3.6%. Out of all the unemployed working age persons, youth do make up a high unemployed proportion at 40% (under the strict definition). That is about 280,000 youth between the ages of 15-24 out of approximately 700,000 working age persons who are economically active and who were unemployed in 2006.In further analysis of employment industries, one finds Ghana’s largest employer remains the agricultural sector. Within this agricultural sector, the majority, particularly the working youth (15-24 year olds), are absorbed under the informal sector. Youth identified as employed are also found helping unpaid in the household and the „older youth‟ (ages 19-24) over time rise to become their own-account worker. This therefore renders underemployment the main form of labour absorption especially for the youth in Ghana. Many youth are found without any formal written contract before starting work with employers. Of the youth who are identified as working, 10.33% between ages 15-18 have no formal education. Nevertheless, the majority of youth, nearly 2.3 million in 20061, are identified as economically inactive, which includes many young people who stay in school to gain some form of formal education including some secondary schooling. Apart from the major employer being the agricultural sector, the next major employer for youth is the services sector followed by manufacturing. The services sector includes: sales and retail and community, social and personal services. A greater proportion of young women than men were found in the manufacturing and wholesale and retail sectors.It is against this background that many development experts see the emerging business process outsourcing (BPO) sector as a potential source of gainful employment for youth. Ghana’s BPO subsector is growing rapidly due to Ghana’s steps through the government to partner in the e-Ghana programme. This programme intends to improve the enabling infrastructure for BPO and create visibility and public awareness for its BPO industry. There are also government training facilities to provide upskilling of potential workers who will be prepared for Ghana’s BPO sector. Ghana’s rising adoption of mobile phones and internet is also an encouraging sign towards opening an ICT sector of employment which can absorb some of the underemployed youth of Ghana. Better monitoring of the progress of the BPO sector in Ghana is suggested to understand how the industry absorbs underemployed youth.Policy: In a population with high, unpaid youth employment in the agricultural sector, the transition from the agricultural to the services-based sector may need further thought. Will agricultural households have their unpaid youth household members transit into services sector work and if so, how will they cope? Adequate bridging training programmes may be necessary to allow for those at least with a minimum primary education to have opportunities in the emerging BPO field. Furthermore, of the youth majority who are economically inactive and still in school, the transition plans could be further firmed to ensure they are employable within the BPO sector. While informal employment is very common worldwide, policy plans are suggested to ensure that the BPO sector encourages work to be developed within a formal sector framework which provides protection to and lowers risks taken on by workers, especially the vulnerable youth.
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- Idun, Anthony Adu-Asare, et al.
(författare)
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Volatility forecasts of inflation in the WAMZ area : Digit inflation convergence criterion
- 2014
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Ingår i: 2nd UGBS Conference on Business and Development 2014. - Accra : University of Ghana Business School. - 9789988195618 - 9789988195649 ; , s. 49-62
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This work seeks to augment policy directions on single-digit inflation rates convergence. The paper resorted to both univariate and multivariate forecasting procedures to predict the inflation rates of the member countries in the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) area, on the proposed date for the introduction of the Eco. Essentially, we did not find enough evidence that the introduction of the Eco will materialize on the set date. The paper cautions against a hasty introduction of the Eco. WAMI should therefore continue to create avenues for assisting member countries to improve their macroeconomic dynamics.
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- Marbuah, George, et al.
(författare)
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Financial Development and Economic Growth in Ghana: Does the Measure of Financial Development Matter
- 2013
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Ingår i: Review of Development Finance. - : Elsevier BV. - 1879-9337. ; 3, s. 192-203
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to investigate the long-run growth effects of financial development in Ghana. We find that the growth effect of financial development is sensitive to the choice of proxy. Both the credit to the private sector as ratios to GDP and total domestic credit are conducive for growth, while broad money stock to GDP ratio is not growth-inducing. The indexes created from principal component analysis confirmed the sensitivity of the effect to the choice of proxy. The findings here suggest that whether financial development is good or bad for growth depends on the indicator used to proxy for financial development.
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- Wang, Haidong, et al.
(författare)
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Global, regional, and national levels of neonatal, infant, and under-5 mortality during 1990-2013 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013
- 2014
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Ingår i: The Lancet. - 0140-6736 .- 1474-547X. ; 384:9947, s. 957-979
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Remarkable financial and political efforts have been focused on the reduction of child mortality during the past few decades. Timely measurements of levels and trends in under-5 mortality are important to assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) target of reduction of child mortality by two thirds from 1990 to 2015, and to identify models of success.METHODS: We generated updated estimates of child mortality in early neonatal (age 0-6 days), late neonatal (7-28 days), postneonatal (29-364 days), childhood (1-4 years), and under-5 (0-4 years) age groups for 188 countries from 1970 to 2013, with more than 29 000 survey, census, vital registration, and sample registration datapoints. We used Gaussian process regression with adjustments for bias and non-sampling error to synthesise the data for under-5 mortality for each country, and a separate model to estimate mortality for more detailed age groups. We used explanatory mixed effects regression models to assess the association between under-5 mortality and income per person, maternal education, HIV child death rates, secular shifts, and other factors. To quantify the contribution of these different factors and birth numbers to the change in numbers of deaths in under-5 age groups from 1990 to 2013, we used Shapley decomposition. We used estimated rates of change between 2000 and 2013 to construct under-5 mortality rate scenarios out to 2030.FINDINGS: We estimated that 6·3 million (95% UI 6·0-6·6) children under-5 died in 2013, a 64% reduction from 17·6 million (17·1-18·1) in 1970. In 2013, child mortality rates ranged from 152·5 per 1000 livebirths (130·6-177·4) in Guinea-Bissau to 2·3 (1·8-2·9) per 1000 in Singapore. The annualised rates of change from 1990 to 2013 ranged from -6·8% to 0·1%. 99 of 188 countries, including 43 of 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, had faster decreases in child mortality during 2000-13 than during 1990-2000. In 2013, neonatal deaths accounted for 41·6% of under-5 deaths compared with 37·4% in 1990. Compared with 1990, in 2013, rising numbers of births, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, led to 1·4 million more child deaths, and rising income per person and maternal education led to 0·9 million and 2·2 million fewer deaths, respectively. Changes in secular trends led to 4·2 million fewer deaths. Unexplained factors accounted for only -1% of the change in child deaths. In 30 developing countries, decreases since 2000 have been faster than predicted attributable to income, education, and secular shift alone.INTERPRETATION: Only 27 developing countries are expected to achieve MDG 4. Decreases since 2000 in under-5 mortality rates are accelerating in many developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The Millennium Declaration and increased development assistance for health might have been a factor in faster decreases in some developing countries. Without further accelerated progress, many countries in west and central Africa will still have high levels of under-5 mortality in 2030.
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