Africa

Ghana

• Ghana Community Development Management Training
• Graduate Nursing Education in Ghana
• Reducing HIV Stigma by Education - Ghana
• Enhancing agribusiness development capacity in Ghana
• Ghana Distance Education Development Project

Ghana Community Development Management Training

Project purpose: The purpose of the project is to enhance the ability of the University for Development Studies to meet its mandate to service the community development needs of Ghana by working collaboratively to develop and deliver a certificate program in community development management training.

Key results to date: At project end, 18 faculty members and staff from the University of Development Studies (UDS) have been exposed to or trained in curriculum design, review and delivery, and 12 faculty members have been trained to deliver community development management training. Two other faculty members have successfully completed a management certificate. Five modules of the community development training program have been completed and three had been piloted. The community development management training office is housed in the faculty of integrated development studies at the Wa campus. The program is a regular part of UDS offering and contributes to the university being better able to provide innovative development education to all sectors of the Ghanaian society, including district assemblies and other community development organization staff. There are plans to use the materials produced as the basis for a certificate course and for the future development of a master's level program.

Reducing HIV Stigma by Education - Ghana

Project purpose: The purpose of the project is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the three Ghanaian universities to design, develop and deliver quality HIV/AIDS education programs for teachers and community workers, thus increasing knowledge and application of processes to reduce stigma and transmission among school children and out-of-school youth.

Key results to date: The curriculum for the Education on HIV/AIDS and Stigmatization course targeting teachers and community youth workers has been designed and the development of the credit course for teachers was completed in 2006. The University of Education in Winneba and the University of Cape Coast have trained more than 70 tutors who have offered the course to 13,589 teachers in 43 study centres throughout Ghana. Nine core project staff increased their knowledge of HIV/AIDS through the curriculum development process and honed their instructional methods to better teach students and youth workers. Six graduate students assisted in the baseline survey carried out in 20 communities where 840 teachers and 134 youth workers were surveyed to establish regional baseline HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitudes. The results had an influence on the revisions to the course and on how students are evaluated. In addition, 2045 teachers were assigned a student portfolio in which each teacher conducted a baseline or intervention study that reached 16,360 family members. The analysis is on-going.

Enhancing agribusiness development capacity in Ghana

Project purpose: The purpose of the project is to enhance the capacity of the University of Ghana and its partner universities, in collaboration with government, agribusiness development organizations and agribusiness entrepreneurs, to meet the demands of national agribusiness development in a constantly changing economic and social environment.

Key results to date: To date, 20 faculty members at three academic institutions have become involved in establishing the National Agribusiness Development Programme at the University of Ghana to provide research and education related to agribusiness development. Partners received funding for research work on smallholder access to high-value markets from the International Development Research Centre. They compiled a database of 156 organizations and institutions representing the interests of female agribusiness entrepreneurs and held a workshop with key stakeholders to guide the implementation of the project. The library in the department of agricultural economics and agribusiness at the University of Ghana was substantially upgraded to provide a resource for the new program. Needs assessments have been completed, or are near completion, on the training needs of agribusiness entrepreneurs, agribusiness development organizations/institutions and policy development/implementation officials. The project partners have also launched student research grants and faculty exchange programs.

Ghana Distance Education Development Project

Project purpose: The project aimed to expand opportunities for and access to tertiary education in Ghana by building institutional capacity for establishing and maintaining distance education programs at four Ghanaian universities and by establishing a cooperative system for the development and provision of distance education at the tertiary level.

Key results to date: The project contributed to the acceptance by Ghana's Ministry of Education of distance education and to the increased institutional capacity to provide distance education at the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Coast, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University College of Education of Winneba. Each institution now has a permanent distance education unit, funded by the Ministry of Education and staffed by project-trained faculty members. The government included the use of distance education in its five-year development plan and, subsequently, included in-service professional development with distance education as a priority. The institutional capacity at the University College of Education of Winneba and at the University of Cape Coast to design and provide distance education for in-service teachers was an important factor in the government's decision to use distance learning to upgrade teachers' education.

Graduate Nursing Education in Ghana

Project purpose: The project aimed at increasing Ghana's capacity to educate and train the nurses required to meet priority needs in the health sector in a sustainable manner.

Key results to date: The new master's program in nursing has been operational since September 2000 and has enrolled 27 students (23 females and 4 males) in five cohorts. All capital equipment to support the program and library resources to support the courses are in place and journals and other resources needed for thesis preparation have been acquired. The first- and second-semester courses have been taught three times by Ghanaian faculty members. Thesis seminars are currently being co-taught for the fourth time to second-year students. Students in the first cohort have convocated in 2004. Furthermore, the project provided opportunities for faculty and student exchanges. As a spinoff of the project, a clinic has been opened at the school of nursing to provide counseling for university students and faculty and to train peer educators in health-related subjects, including reproductive health.