The what's, where's and why's of miscarriage: evidence from the 2017 Ghana Maternal Health Survey.

Objectives: Miscarriage remains a significant public health challenge in most low- and middle-income settings, including Ghana. We thus examined the sociodemographic and maternal characteristics associated with miscarriage in Ghana using the 2017 Maternal Health Survey dataset.

Study Design: This was a cross-sectional quantitative study.

Role of non-governmental organizations in poverty reduction in the global South: evidence from world vision Ghana, Kintampo South district.

Poverty is a global issue, particularly in the Global South. This has made its reduction vital, although official efforts have yielded modest results. As a result, non-state entities such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) arose to supplement the government's poverty reduction initiatives.

The effect of the capitation policy withdrawal on maternal health service provision in Ashanti Region, Ghana: an interrupted time series analysis.

Background: Payment methods are known to influence maternal care delivery in health systems. Ghana suspended a piloted capitation provider payment system after nearly five years of implementation. This study aimed to examine the effects of Ghana's capitation policy on maternal health care provision as part of lesson learning and bridging this critical literature gap.

Secondary cities under siege: examining peri-urbanisation and farmer households' livelihood diversification practices in Ghana.

Land formalisation and commoditisation are influencing peri-urban growth in secondary cities. This notwithstanding, studies on peri-urbanisation have not prioritized secondary cities and how land transactions shape city expansion and engender livelihood diversification. Few perspectives in urban theory and practice are derived from such secondary cities, while trajectories indicate that such cities are becoming the new face of urbanisation in the Global South.

Mapping research evidence on perinatal asphyxia within the sustainable development era in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review protocol.

Background: Approximately 45% of all under-five child deaths are among newborn infants, babies in their first 28 days of life, or the neonatal period every year in the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa Region. To facilitate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.2, innovative interventions are needed to address this challenge.

Exploring heterogeneity of national health insurance scheme enrolment among persons in the informal sector.

The Ghanaian government began implementing the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2005, anchored on the universal health coverage principle. However, informal sector workers contribute to the low enrolment into the scheme. This paper examines the factors that influence enrolment status in Ghana's NHIS among individuals in the informal sector.

From Ampesie to French fries: systematising the characteristics, drivers and impacts of diet change in rapidly urbanising Accra.

Unlabelled: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is urbanising rapidly. One of the most visible outcomes of this urbanisation process is the change in the diets of urban residents. However, diet change in the context of rapid urbanisation is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon that encompasses multiple intersecting historical, environmental, socioeconomic, and political aspects.

Mapping the vulnerability of indigenous fruit trees to environmental change in the fragile savannah ecological zone of Northern Ghana.

Following the incidence of environmental change globally and its negative consequences on livelihoods of local populations, vulnerability assessment has become central to mitigation and adaptation response in the global south. However, researches on vulnerability to climate change in the African continent have seldom focused on Indigenous Fruit Trees (IFTs) although they are an essential part of the strategic forest resources and livelihood systems of local communities. This paper explores the vulnerability of two IFTs, shea () and dawadawa () to climatic and other stressors that are not directly linked to climate change in rural Ghana and the implications for planning.

Mapping research evidence on implementation of the WHO 'best buys' and other interventions for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review protocol.

Background: The rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a global health concern. To reduce the burden of morbidity, mortality and disability due to NCDs, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed 'best buys' and other interventions for the prevention and control of NCDs by member countries. However, their extent of implementation especially in sub-Saharan African countries (SSA) is not known.

"It Was All Wrong and Shameful to Beat Her": Discursive Analysis of Men's Talk of Intimate Partner Violence.

In this article, our aim is to foreground men's discourses on gender-based violence as linked to gendered hierarchies, power struggles, and social respectability in Ghana. Situated within decolonial feminist theories and drawing on interviews, we argue that men's interpretations of masculinity and the possibility of perpetrating violence against women is significantly mediated by such intersectional factors as sociocultural background, education, and broader societal normative requirements. The findings deepen the understanding of the ambiguities and contradictions that characterize men's talk of violence.

Rearing livestock on the edge of secondary cities: examining small ruminant production on the fringes of Wa, Ghana.

Rapid urbanization exerts pressure on urban fringe resources in most cities in the global south. The resultant effect of this pressure is the rapid conversion of natural reserves and farmlands into residential and non-residential developments that affects crucial rural livelihoods including the production of small ruminants. However, scientific studies on the production of small ruminants on the fringes of cities in Ghana are limited.

Mapping evidence on the use of health promotion and disease prevention interventions as a strategy to sustaining pro-poor health insurance schemes: a scoping review protocol.

Background: Removing financial barriers and making healthcare accessible to all who need it remains an essential component of the United Nations' sustainable development goals. Pro-poor healthcare financing schemes are policies that enable patients to concentrate on obtaining absolute medical care when needed rather than worrying about the cost of care. The demand for health services in healthcare facilities has increased tremendously due to the increasing burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Power sources among district health managers in Ghana: a qualitative study.

Background: In Ghana district directors of health services and district hospital medical superintendents provide leadership and management within district health systems. A healthy relationship among these managers is dependent on the clarity of formal and informal rules governing their routine duties. These rules translate into the power structures within which district health managers operate.

Improving fire risk communication between authorities and micro-entrepreneurs: A mental models study of Ghanaian central market fires.

This study conceptualizes how fire management authorities can empower nonexpert public to participate in fire risk communication processes and increase their own responsibilities for managing fire preventive, protective and recovery processes effectively. Drawing narratives from 10 disaster management experts working at government institutions and nine micro-entrepreneurs operating self-sustaining businesses in different merchandized lines in Ghana, we analyzed the data thematically and explored new insights on mental models to generate a two-way fire risk communication model. The findings suggest that fire management authorities planned fire disasters at the strategic level, collaborated with multiple stakeholders, disseminated information through many risk communication methods, and utilized their capabilities to manage fire at the various stages of fire risk communication, but the outcomes were poor.

Promoting male participation in maternal healthcare in the Jaman North District in Ghana: Strategies and implementation challenges.

Promoting male participation in maternal healthcare is essential for improved maternal health outcomes. This study explored existing strategies to promote male participation in maternal healthcare and assessed their implementation challenges within healthcare facilities in the Jaman North District in Ghana. A qualitative approach was implemented in April 2020.

Why do women attend antenatal care but give birth at home? a qualitative study in a rural Ghanaian District.

Background: The Sustainable Development Goal Three has prioritised reducing maternal, under-5 and neonatal mortalities as core global health policy objectives. The place, where expectant mothers choose to deliver their babies has a direct effect on maternal health outcomes. In sub-Saharan Africa, existing literature has shown that some women attend antenatal care during pregnancy but choose to deliver their babies at home.

Are local development plans mainstreaming climate-smart agriculture? A mixed-content analysis of medium-term development plans in semi-arid Ghana.

In Africa, climate change impacts including, but not limited to, erratic rainfall and prolonged droughts are already affecting farmers' productivity and disrupting households' livelihoods. Following this realization are recommendations for implementing climate-smart agriculture (CSA) as adaptation and resilience pathways to address the negative ramifications of climate change impacts. While CSA mainstreaming is strong at the global and national levels, it remains a challenge at the local level.

The prospects of community-based natural resource management in Ghana: A case study of Zukpiri community resource management area.

The Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) model was adopted in Ghana in the 1990s to help conserve and increase the forest area of Ghana. Since its adoption, little is known about the prospects of the model in the scientific literature. To fill this gap, this study examined the management strategies, benefits and challenges of the Zukpiri CREMA in the Upper West Region.

"From experts to locals hands" healthcare service planning in sub-Saharan Africa: an insight from the integrated community case management of Ghana.

Background: Although community participation remains an essential component globally in healthcare service planning, evidence of how rural communities participate in the planning of rural-based healthcare programs has less been explored in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Objective: We explored communities' participation in health care planning in hard-to-reach communities, within the context of Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM), a community-based health program implemented in Ghana.

Methods: Qualitative data were collected from eleven (11) hard-to-reach communities through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) as well as district-level studies (Nadowli-Kaleo, and WA East districts of Ghana).