School of Government

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/10566/1560

The School of Government was established by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in 1993 as part of a broad initiative to meet the education and training challenges of a post-apartheid society and as a means of supporting the process of social, political and economic transformation in South Africa and the Southern African region as a whole. It provides professional and academic training for the public sector at national, provincial and local levels, for NGOs, trade unions and other related organisations, and also engages in research, consultancy and policy advice.

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Browsing by Author "Boadu, Evans Sakyi"

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    Evaluation innovation in Africa: towards indigenously responsive evaluation (ire) philosophies, methods and practices in Ghana
    (African journal of science, technology, innovation and development, 2023) Boadu, Evans Sakyi; Ile, Isioma
    Evaluation within an indigenous society is a social activity. Thus, it requires both tangible and intangible or hidden factors such as cultural values, norms, communal relational structures, power dynamics, attitudes, consensus-building, community aspirations, empowerment and other practical knowledge to develop an inclusive evaluation framework. Utilizing a culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) approach, this study examined evaluative instincts rooted in indigenous values, relational patterns, knowledge systems and other cultural realities. Indigenous evaluation impulse exists in native ideas, social structures and other cultural realities but could these indigenous evaluative impulses augment and shape contemporary evaluation philosophies, approaches and practices in Ghana? The study observed that there are several tangible and intangible evaluative dimensions that are deeply-rooted in cultural values, maxims, norms and other social patterns within the indigenous communities. Consequently, comparable dimensions could be advanced and established in the present evaluation research to add further depth and rigour to the study in this field.
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    The paradox of youth empowerment: Exploring youth intervention programme in Ghana
    (Cogent OA, 2018) Ile, Isioma; Boadu, Evans Sakyi
    Empowerment is a necessary determinant of young people’s participation in national, regional and district or local level decision-making processes. For inclusiveness in any social intervention programme, the policy process should be allembracing sharing of knowledge and active stakeholders’ participation which includes the youth. This paper delineates the context of Local Enterprise and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) by focusing on the extent to which the programme beneficiaries (youth) were empowered to play active roles in the decision policy processes which goes beyond the rhetoric. In particular, to unpack the perception that young people empowerment in a youth-oriented programme has the potential of curbing the problem of exclusion. Inferences from the concept of an empowerment might be the premise for rethinking the debate surrounding youth empowerment in the initiatives oriented towards young people. Youth in Ghana has a very little aptitude and plays an inconsequential role in policy design; therefore, the need arises for youth empowerment to enable them to engage in the broader national policies. Having assumed a negative deviation after a further analysis using empowerment perception index (EPI), the study revealed that youth marginal involvement and consultation in decision making cannot constitute empowerment to any degree. Given the crucial implications of this for youth policy implementations at the national as well as subnational level, the paper recommended some pathways for ensuring youth empowerment in youth-oriented programmes in Ghana.
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    The politics of youth participation in social intervention programmes in Ghana: Implications for participatory monitoring and evaluation (pm&e)
    (Lifescience Global Canada Inc., 2018) Boadu, Evans Sakyi; Ile, Isioma
    Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) in project evaluation has gained impetus in recent literature. This paper interrogates youth participation in intervention programmes in Ghana with special reference to Local Enterprise and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP). With the aid of primary and secondary data, this paper unpacks the questions around programme target beneficiaries, their mode of participation and the impacts of current models on PM&E. The study reveals the key constraints of youth participation in PM&E, the evolving disapproval of the top-down approach while probing into the existing opportunities. The case study reveals that youth intervention programmes in Ghana are not only confronted with uncoordinated and overlapping ministries, department and agencies, but also there are power dynamics between stakeholders, in particular, target beneficiaries and programme implementers. The elusive intersection between beneficiaries and the implementing agency impacted negatively on the programme sustainability. The poor PM&E in youth intervention programmes in Ghana is a key reason that has hampered mainstream socio-economic development. The key lesson to be drawn from the case study is the need for matching perspectives of PM&E as well as a recognition and management of power disparities between target beneficiaries and programme implementers. Thus, realizing desired programme objectives will require a different approach to structuring, implementing and monitoring of youth intervention initiatives in Ghana.