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PRESENTER: Mrs. Felicia Boohene
TOPIC: The Importance of Early Child Care and Development
DATE: 27th July 2001
TIME: 9:00 a.m.
VENUE: CSPS Seminar Room, N-Block, Legon
Abstract
According to the Ghana government’s economic vision, the nation shall become a middle income country by the year 2020. One of the strategies for achieving this objective is the development of the human resources of this country. As part of the strategy to achieve this objective, the government recognises that the children born today should be given the opportunity to live to their full potential (ECCD draft policy). Therefore the need for a national policy on Early Childhood Development for Ghana is of great importance. "The child cannot wait" and therefore all stakeholders should join hands for the policy to be promulgated in Parliament.
Ms. Felicia Boohene is a professional teacher. She graduated from the Liverpool Polytechnic, England, with a Diploma in Home Science Education and a Degree in Home Economics. She was a co-ordinator for Science, Mathematics and Girls Education at the New Juaben Municipal Education Council in charge of second cycle institutions. She is the National President of Early Childhood Development Care Associations of Ghana (ECDCAG) and also the National President of the Association of Small Scale Industries, Ghana (ASSI).
PRESENTER: Mr. Augustine Kobina Andoh
TOPIC: Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: The Ghanaian Experience
DATE: 31st August 2001
TIME: 9:00 a.m.
VENUE: CSPS Seminar Room, N-Block, Legon
Abtract
Sexual harassment in the workplace is increasingly becoming a major issue in Ghana. A combination of media reports, complaints filed with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, as well as interactions with victims suggests that sexual harassment is very widespread in private and public organisations in Ghana. This paper, which is based on empirical studies, examines, among other things, the level of harassment, the frequent victims and perpetrators, the factors contributing to sexual harassment, as well as the repercussions of sexual harassment in the workplace. The paper also recommends practical ways by which the incidence of sexual harassment could be drastically minimised, if not entirely eradicated from workplaces.
Mr. Augustine Kobina Andoh is currently a Senior Organiser for Information and Documentation at the Centre for Social Policy Studies (UG, Legon), and the Project Administrator of the CSPS/WHO/MDS Project on Ageing. Mr Andoh holds a Master of Public Administration Degree (MPA Degree) from the University of Ghana, and a Bachelor of Arts Combined Honours Degree in English and Linguistics from the same university.
PRESENTER: Professor Mike Oquaye
TOPIC: Discrimination Against Women: Agenda for Public Policy Reform
DATE: 26th October 2001
TIME: 9:00 a.m.
VENUE: CSPS Seminar Room, N-Block, Legon
Abstract
The paper discusses aspects of discriminatory practices which women face in our part of the world and what policy measures may be taken to combat them. There is an analysis of recent legislation against discriminatory practices. Inter alia, the view is held that the law should be used as an instrument of social engineering so as to remove a mischief against equal human development. In this connection, affirmative action is advocated.
Professor Mike Oquaye currently teaches Political Science in the University of Ghana, Legon. He is a Lawyer called to the Bar in both Ghana and England. His areas of interest include governance, conflict, political education, decentralization and development, human rights, military intervention in politics, NGOs and gender issues. Professor Oquaye is a keen advocate of the rights of women including affirmative action.
PRESENTER: Dr. Leslie Casely-Hayford
TOPIC: The Social Impact of Poverty on Educational Attainment in Rural Ghana: Lessons from the North
DATE: 30th November 2001
TIME: 9:00 a.m.
VENUE: CSPS Seminar Room, N-Block, Legon
Abstract
Child poverty in Ghana is a growing phenomena although understudied and often lost within the plethora of data generated from poverty assessments and national statistics – children are the missing dimension. Despite the many studies available on the nature, characteristics and trends of poverty in Ghana, intergenerational poverty remains a reality. Children slip back into the same patterns that their parents experienced particularly within rural Ghana where a lack of ‘cultural knowledge’ impedes their escape through the formal education system. This paper explores the case of rural children in northern Ghana and how through a series of case studies set in villages, a pattern of underdevelopment and intergenerational poverty emerges.
Dr. Leslie Casely-Hayford is Director of Associates for Change, a research and consulting firm based in Ghana, working throughout West Africa on social policy and development issues. Recent areas of concentration include: educational development and sector wide assessment, agricultural development and poverty reduction, NGO capacity building, social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS in West Africa, and the relationships between poverty, culture and educational development. She has helped to establish an African based NGO focused on developing human capacities and moral leadership qualities with particular focus on girls in Ghana.
PRESENTER: Dr. Robert Akuamoah-Boateng
TOPIC: Retirement Preparation and Poverty Reduction among the Aged in Ghana
DATE: 14th December 2001
TIME: 9:00 a.m.
VENUE: CSPS Seminar Room, N-Block, Legon
Abstract
Almost every country in the world has some form of social security that takes care of the needs of the elderly. Apart from the social security benefits, there are also welfare systems in some countries, which take care of the needy including the elderly in society. It is becoming increasingly clear that these provisions are not adequate to cater for the needs of the elderly and also that governments are constrained by economic difficulties to be able to increase social security and welfare payments to beneficiaries. This paper advocates for government legislation to compel employers to conduct retirement preparation programmes for their employees to enable them put in place measures that will make them economically independent during retirement. This will reduce the dependence of the elderly on social security and social welfare.
Dr. Robert Akuamoah-Boateng is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Legon. He graduated from the University of Ghana in 1977 with a BA (Honours) Degree in Psychology. Dr. Akuamoah-Boateng holds a Masters Degree in Industrial and Organisational Psychology from the University of New York and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury. His areas of interest include Employee Retirement Preparation, Organisational Downsizing, Women’s Careers, as well as Stress and Employee Counselling.
Centre for Social
Policy Studies,
Faculty of Social Studies,
University of Ghana, PO Box 72, Legon, Ghana
Tel: +233 21 502217 Fax: +233 21 500949
e-mail: aptnana@hotmail.com
web site: http://www.oocities.org/csps_ghana