Women Academics From Ghana

"If anyone wants to make a mark in life, then there was the need to invest in one’s personal development. Spend time and effort developing yourself. Jesus private prayer life was the key to His robust public ministry."

"Lifelong learning must not be confined to the classroom or to any age in life as life is dynamic; and the day you stop learning, you become intellectually dead and cease to be relevant to your society."

"We should be less focused on assessing students based on memory, and more on application. For that to happen, we need to focus on teacher training, incentivise our brightest students to go into teaching and keep small class sizes to allow for more interaction."

"students must be challenged to focus on critical thinking and analytical skills since rote learning has not been helpful, there is the need to create avenues for students to explore their creative sides, music and dance."

"It’s a combination of hard work, identifying opportunities and taking advantage of those opportunities, and some favour from God that makes great."

"I recounted a recent story of my first time meeting former mentee, Frances Nakakawa, at a conference in Finland after which she became mentee and Director of AAAWE Uganda. As a single mother of three in Uganda, she had to make the difficult decision of sending her children to a boarding school to balance her work, studies, and caring for her children. And even after placing her children in private school, the distance, worry, and longing to see them was often a distraction during her studies."

"This paper analyzes the determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to developing countries and examines why Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been relatively unsuccessful in attracting FDI despite policy reform. The results indicate that the factors that drive FDI have a differential impact on FDI flows to SSA. Specifically, infrastructure development and a higher return on capital promote FDI to non-SSA countries. In contrast these factors have no effect on FDI to SSA. Openness to trade promotes FDI to both SSA and non-SSA countries, however, the marginal benefit from increased openness is less for SSA-suggesting that trade liberalization will generate more FDI to non-SSA countries than SSA countries. Another important finding is that there is an "adverse regional effect" for SSA: a country in SSA will receive less FDI by virtue of its geographical location. These results suggest that Africa is different!"

"That in order to enable more women to benefit more from economic activity and participate in policy-making there is a need to look beyond primary education. Although gender parity in primary education has been nearly achieved in most countries, women and girls now need increased opportunities for secondary and tertiary education in order to occupy visible and powerful roles in the society. Currently, the gender gap remains wide between females and males in secondary and tertiary education."

"One way to increase the number of women in Secondary and tertiary education is through the 'Role Model Effect'. The more women you have as teachers in Secondary school, the better the performance of female students"

"Education is crucial. In order for Women to fully participate in policymaking, in government, we need to look beyond primary education."

"The mentoring effect is taking someone under your wing encouraging them to reach their highest potentials."

"People should know that life is not a race and should not expect to make within a year what someone took so many years to make. Just know where you are coming from and know where you are going and how to get to where you want in life."

"There are certain traits you learn at home and of course you continue learning in school but what is prevalent in the house is what really influences you. So growing up under such an environment, you learn contentment and whatever you have, you thank God and use it."

"Beyond building connections within institutions, the APN has helped me to meet contacts working on similar topics throughout Africa. Sometimes, when I am writing a paper and want to have an idea of those that are doing similar work or topics, I first go through my APN contacts and see if anyone has done something in this field, what their thinking is, and then build on that. Future APN grantees should take advantage of the large and growing network, in formal and informal ways, because it’s really a great resource."

"This happens both locally and across the continent. For example, there’s another APN Alumnus at the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD), also here at the University of Ghana, Legon with me, Dr. Amanda Coffie (IRG 2016). Amanda reached out to me so we can get together and do some talking on what she’s working on, just informally. Also, I share information and articles with another Alumnus from LECIAD, Dr. Peace Medie (IRG 2015, BMC 2016)."

"Yes, I definitely think that APN grantees and prospective applicants should take advantage of the broader APN network as much as possible. I think that is the broader benefit of the grant, becoming part of a constantly growing pool of people: colleagues, experts, mentors, and practitioners working on peacebuilding."

"The opportunity to do good research certainly. However, additionally, the networking and the other processes, such as training workshops, around the grant meant that I had the opportunity to engage multiple times with other grantees and to be mentored in that sense to sort of reshape my ideas. I also had the opportunity to organize a regional training workshop for practicing journalists in the West African sub-region on reporting about peacebuilding, with a couple of APN grantees as resource persons. One of them, Dr. Peace Medie, just last week sent me a published article based on an aspect of the lecture she gave for that workshop. So it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle of sharing ideas and research and publication opportunities."

"I came to the subject by accident, by being invited primarily by training institutes such as Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) to lecture for one of their courses. For example, next week I am teaching part of a course on gender and conflict, where I will speak about gender, media, and conflict. So, you can imagine that chairing the conference panel at Wilton Park on “Case Studies: The Role of Civil Society across Regions,” particularly focusing on gender, provided me with another opportunity to expand my knowledge and challenged me to think about issues in a different way. Therefore, when I teach that course, this experience will inform some of the perspectives that I bring to it."

"As a researcher with a multidisciplinary focus, I am always looking for opportunities to expand my research agenda in ways that are meaningful, particularly in relation to African development. The APN has impacted my perspective and focus, in that I am now more consciously deepening my knowledge on peacebuilding, security, and development."

"The report also found that many journalists had the feeling that law enforcement agencies and the judiciary did very little to protect their safety."

"It was discovered that in most of the media houses, there was no clear-cut promotion mechanisms."

"In terms of working conditions of the media, the study found that journalists worked in precarious conditions, with some of them working without any contract or receiving salary at all."

"The study found that the traditional media organisations were heavily dependent on the pharmaceutical industry, especially herbal products, for adverts."

"Generally, many organisations in Ghana are not profitable and are, at best, breaking even and cannot fund investigative reports because of the cost involved."

"Political faces behind broadcast media ownership mean that partisan actors and governments can control public discourse, and this is not good for our democracy."

"While there were growing tendency towards media empire-building, the National Communication Authority (NCA) had a laissez faire attitude to questions about transparency of the media ownership."

"The study revealed that media ownership in the country was shrouded in opacity, with political faces found to be behind most of the broadcast media entities."

"In today’s world and with social media the children are going to learn about that which is a taboo in this country which is homosexuality."

"As the maxim underscoring the symbiotic relationship between democracy and media holds, where there is democracy, there must be free media and where there is free media, the political system being practised is bound to be democratic."

"Media are a public good and must be supported to survive, if nothing else in the interest of democracy."

"As we globalise and link up with the wider world, we need to always be reminded of what makes us unique."

"Investigative journalists are the most at risk of attack and state actors, including political appointees and police, are the worst perpetrators of attacks on journalists."

"We find the political capture of the broadcast media space, in particular, and the increasing concentration of the media in a few hands as worrying for the country’s democracy, and there is the need to address this situation."

"The 2024 election is about "reversing the negative trend" set by the current government and emphasized the need for accountability, prosperity, and job creation."

"Believe that only you can stop yourselves. It is not going to be about your parents, rich or poor; not the region you come from and whether it is endowed with resources or not. Remember that natural endowment is what it is; it did not come from the effort of anyone. It is nature that placed those resources there. That is why we call them natural resources."

"To all the little girls and boys across our country, always dream big; remain focused. You can grow to become anything you want to be."

"When there appears to be selective justice; when some offenders are not even placed on the hook but are hailed and promoted for being nasty and violent, the logical outcome is what we see."

"We are a people who jump over many hurdles. Walking that road is an act of courage. That experience is a forge of character."

"Making history is gratifying; but what really matters is not to be first through the door. What matters is to hold the door open for those behind us and create other avenues for self actualization for many more."

"Giving up is not an option. Stay the course. As a people, we have survived many unspeakable atrocities. Read and know your true history. We just celebrated the Year of Return. Read that history, very, very carefully. It has not been a nice cup of sobolo."

"I am not an economist but I understand the economy. Naana Opoku-Agyemang to critics"

"A major pillar is effective public education on the importance of effective education for all, especially for girls and women to ground their central role in the life of the family, society, self."

"If we base our conviction on the premise that everyone can learn, then we can reach out of school girls too, with different modes of learning. The longer we keep girls out of school, the further the number increases and the more the desire for global peace will elude us all."

"I found school to be a fun place, making friends, learning and discovering new things. The most impactful teachers were those who smiled, encouraged, tolerated, and who recognized that some flowers take time to bloom."

"Governments must continuously demonstrate that education is the fulcrum of all development, the hub around which all spokes - security, health, the economy, climate change, equality, human rights and others revolve."

"“Politics about fighting injustice, hunger, hopelessness, arrogance, selfishness, unbridled greed, corruption, state capture, disrespect of fellow human beings.”"

"“The NPP’s ‘It Is Possible’ is pure deception: look at their track record.”"

"“Politics should be geared towards development and devoid of insults and acrimony.”"

"“When you are going into an election and you are very sure that the right structures have been put in place … whatever outcome you get, you are compelled to accept it.”"

"“My age is not a nuisance, it is a blessing … I’m proud of every minute God has given me.”"