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Item Decentralised options für energy supply for sustainable economic development in rural Ghana(2014) Amaka-Otchere, Akosua Baah Kwarteng; Kohlmeyer, Christoph; Schmidt-Kallert, EinhardItem Child migration and educational progression in the Savannah regions of Ghana(2014-09-05) Tamanja, Emmanuel M. J.; Schmidt-Kallert, Einhart; Braimah, Imoro; Dick, EvaChild migration in Ghana has moved beyond the concerns of individual child migrants and their families, to one of national development concerns. Streets, pavements and other public spaces in the cities and towns - especially Accra - are flooded with children engaged in various activities. These children are not only a nuisance to road users and city authorities, but exert pressure on social amenities as well as threat to security. However, little is known about the education of children when they migrate. This requires research attention, to shed light on the phenomenon. In this study, I explore the motivations for migration of children from Bongo district to Accra in Ghana and examine how migration influences their pursuit of basic education. The study employed a mixed methods design involving observation, interviews with 35 child migrants, community discussions, interviews with experts and schedule officers of government and non-governmental organisations working on issues of child migration. Furthermore, questionnares were administred to 490 (250 migrant and 240 non-migrant) children in 10 schools in the district and their academic performance data obtained and analysed, using Mann-Whitney U Test, to find differences in their performance. Poverty, peer influence and pursuit of education emerged as major motivational factors, while non-migrant school children performed relatively better than their migrant counterparts. Nevertheless, the overall effects of migration on education was found to be mixed. Whereas it was negative or positive for some, others pursued apprenticeship as an alternative. I conclude that children in deprived regions migrate to escape unfavourable living conditions and to accumulate wealth in urban areas. However, involvement in migration has negative effects on performance in class with the likelihood of stalling progress in education. Furthermore, I recommend affirmative action by national and local government actors, in order to reduce poverty in rural areas while confronting the daunting challenges in rural schools to improve access and quality.Item The role of the Catholic Church in regional development in Northern Ghana(2010-11-25) Koya, Stephen Aayagryeb; Kreibich, Volker; Kroës, GünterItem Effects of civil society on urban planning and governance in Mysore, India(2008-02-14T10:57:20Z) Sadashiva, Manjunath; Kreibich, Volker; Patil, RaghavendraThe current global policy on urban governance in the cities of the third world seeks to harness associational forms of civil society as an interface for civic engagement and an instrument to achieve efficiency in service delivery. This normative and undifferentiated treatment of civil society has not only led to a wide spread scholarly debate on the very concept of civil society but also to the emergence of alternative radical and transformatory paradigms about state-civil society relations. Set in this backdrop, the thesis evolves a conceptual framework, develops research tools, and applies them in Mysore, a South Indian city, in pursuit of empirical evidence on the nature of civil society and the effects they induce on various spheres of urban planning and governance. In this regard, collective empowerment of individuals, changes in the institutional arrangements, and the outcomes of decision making processes are identified as the possible effects of associational civil society and are, therefore, used as dependent variables. On the other hand, the organizational attributes of civil society, the political opportunity structures, mobilization of social structures and the struggle over symbolic capital (for e.g. shaping public opinion) in the public sphere are conceptualized as determinants of the effects of civil society. The study reveals that the associational terrain of urban governance in Mysore is highly differentiated in terms of organizational attributes, ethnic composition, the degree of political orientation, functional domains and spatial levels. The state and the civil society are shown as sharing a mutually influential and inseparable relationship. The study generates ample empirical evidence to conclude that associational forms of civil society do induce effects on the level of collective empowerment of individuals, the public sphere and the institutions of urban planning and governance in the city of Mysore. These effects are depicted as outcomes of the complex interplay between various factors such as the differential organizational features of associations; socio-economic attributes of their constituents; their ability to organize and mobilize social structures; the strategies they use to influence public opinion in the public sphere; and finally the state’s response to their actions. The study also uncovers the potential of associational civil society to enhance rationality of urban planning in Mysore.Item Towards institutionalized citizen participation in local development planning and program implementation in Palestine(2006-12-20T11:27:57Z) Mousa, Walid; Kreibich, Volker; Kroes, GünterItem Promoting sustainable urban development in the Palestinian cities(Dortmund, Univ., Diss., 2006, 2006) Shaheen, Lubna; Kreibich, Volker; Wegener, Michael