Standard of living in Ghana through History and Culture

In my third point of discussion of the standard of living in Ghana I must post this question. A question that everyone may ask Ghana’s government, “how did Ghana get into a deficit?” As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Ghana was once owned by the United Kingdom, but gained independence in 1957 about 55 years ago (CIA 2012). Since their independence there has been strengthening in their economy, but not enough. “Oil production at Ghana's offshore Jubilee field began in mid-December, 2010, and is expected to boost economic growth. President Mills faces challenges in managing new oil revenue while maintaining fiscal discipline and resisting debt accumulation. Estimated oil reserves have jumped to almost 700 million barrels. Ghana signed a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact in 2006, which aims to assist in transforming Ghana's agricultural sector. Ghana opted for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) program in 2002, and is also benefiting from the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative that took effect in 2006. In 2009 Ghana signed a three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility with the IMF to improve macroeconomic stability, private sector competitiveness, human resource development, and good governance and civic responsibility. Sound macro-economic management along with high prices for gold and cocoa helped sustain GDP growth in 2008-11” (CIA 2012).

Lastly, culture plays a significant part in the country means and where the country can go in the future. Ghana does not have a set religion, but it is understood that 68.8% of the population identify as Christians. However, from the data collected from CIA I can interpret that there may be a language disparity due to lack in education and transportation, but English is the official language with only 36.6% speaking the language in the 2000 census. And with globalization on the rise this could explain the reason for English as the official language for economic purposes and to survive in this fast growing world economy. As a result, Ghanaians must learn how to stay connected with the world and adopt new standards of living because of the globalization of the Western world philosophies. Thus indicating, that as time travels forward we most likely will begin to see Ghana standard of living adapted to the way we live our lives in today here in America. 

http://todaygh.com/2010/08/30/youth-urged-to-embrace-african-culture/

Standard of living in Ghana and Education

As a result to the lack of funding towards education, many Ghanaians cannot afford to send their children to school. This could explain the high agriculture sector labor in Ghana since many do not go or have the chance to receive an education. “Ghana is well endowed with natural resources and agriculture accounts for roughly one-quarter of GDP and employs more than half (about 56%) of the workforce.  Ghanaians are employed industries like “mining, lumbering, light manufacturing, aluminum smelting, food processing, cement...(CIA 2011). Even though Ghana has a strong agriculture workforce many developed countries, like the United States, have moved from agriculture into a technological workforce and due to the lack of education and resources they cannot keep up with the rest of the global market. We can interpret this hypothesis from the data collected about their budget deficit CIA reported in 2011.

Resource link:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gh.html

Standard of Living in Ghana and Government

 

In my opinion, Ghana’s standard of living is a low medium. I say this understanding that they are not among the worst of the worst and definitely not close to being part of the Great Eight. However, from most the Center of Intelligence Agency World Facts, I was able to interpret that my standard of living is different from Ghana’s standard of living. Take for example, Ghana’s weather issues such as “dry, dusty, northeastern harmattan winds that occur from January to March, and the droughts” (CIA 2012). This makes it hard to harvest food for the family or even to sell to local people. According to CIA, the recurrent drought in north Ghana severely affects agricultural activities, deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion, poaching and habitat destruction threaten wildlife populations as well. With that being said many issues are presented because of Ghana’s physical geography such as hunger, migration, scarcity of food, and water pollution causing an influence in several diseases and illnesses in Ghana. So, what is the government doing about it? That is a question we, Americans, would ask if we heard about these problems, which brings me to my next point of discussion the Ghana’s government system.

The Republic of Ghana is ran under a constitutional democracy, but has not been under its own government long. Ghana gained its independence March 6, 1957 from the United Kingdom and approved its constitution April 28, 1992, according to CIA World Facts. In addition, legal system is mixed with English common law and customary law and legal suffrage age is 18 years old, which can be great and refreshing since most of the population ranges from 15-64 years of age. Ghana has a legislative, judicial, and executive branch similar to the US, but it did not surprise me since we both, the US and Ghana, were under the King and Queen of England. However, just like today in the US, Ghana’s governmental system is suffering and trying to find solutions to their country’s problems. I believe this problem is because of lack of money towards educating the next generation. The Center of Intelligence Agency World Fact last reported that the education expenditures were 5.4% of Ghana’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005. This is close to that of the United States, yet “Ghana is about the size of the state of Oregon” (CIA 2012). 

Resource links:

http://www.expat-blog.com/en/destination/africa/ghana/

http://ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=181863

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gh.html

Who lives in Ghana and can we relate?

Week after week I continue to ask myself how will I be able to make a difference in Ghana if I do not have much knowledge about the country as whole. This week’s assignment over the demographics, standard of living, and quality of life in Ghana was an eye-opener for me. For many of my classmates and I, we imagine Ghana and we think Africa, and we have been socialized to think that there is not much good that can come out of Africa besides animals for our zoos, children in poverty, or the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa. Despite all of the negative connation’s Africa has been given for centuries, I must say Ghana is one of a kind. From the words of previous visitors, “Ghanaians are very happy and friendly people.” This May I will be ready to experience the friendliness of the Ghanaian people, but first I must know who these people are and how can I relate and make connections to learn from the people as a group. With this in mind, in this blog I will discuss the demographics in Ghana and how it well affect my service-learning project at the Ashamian High School.

First, I must discuss the demographics of this fine African country. According to the Center Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Facts, Ghana has a population of about 25, 241,000 inhabitants and a majority of the population is made up of 15-64 year old men and women. This may mean that the majority of their population is working. Although that is true Ghana’s unemployment rate is 11%, including the city of Accra 15.8% unemployment population and all other urban areas 12.4%. In 2006, the rural areas of Ghana maintained a lower unemployment rate at 5.4% then the urban areas, but this could be due to less people interaction and transportation to move around. In addition, with unemployment being high and less access to resources birth rate, death rate, and life expectancy are affected. Ghana’s birth rate is 26. 99 births for every 1,000 people, and death rate is 8.57 deaths for every 1,000 people. Through the data collected from the CIA World Fact, I can interpret that with 28.5% of Ghana’s population living below the poverty line have some affect on life expectancy in Ghana, which is about 61 years of age with women living to be two years older than man. However, education is the key reason why Ghana is not at its best. As defined by Odoro (2009) paper, “about half of the Ghana adult population has received less than nine years of education. The education attainment profile does not reflect the considerable quantum of resources that has been allocated to education over the years. A factor that will explain the education attainment profile is migration. Ghana has not been successful in retaining its graduates from the training colleges, technical schools and tertiary institutions and this is an important determinant of the education attainment profile.”

            Thus, by collecting and interpreting this information about Ghana I will be able to better understand the types of hardships or issues these children may face when going home such as poverty, homelessness, horrible living and working conditions, and a great amount of family loyalty and responsibility. I can attest to some of these issues these children face even in America, but I would like them to know that education is the key that could unlock doors and many opportunities.

Resources:

CIA World Facts: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gh.html

Abena D. Oduro: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/r4d/PDF/Outputs/ImpOutcomes_RPC/povertyandeducoutcomes.pdf