Browsing by Author "Boadu, Evans Sakyi"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Between Power and Perception: Understanding youth perspectives in participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) in Ghana
    (pubmed, 2019-07) Boadu, Evans Sakyi; Ile, Isioma Uregu
    Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) approaches have been touted as an important concept for local participation in social interventions programmes. Utilizing a process analysis approaches, the PM&E data gathered through key informant interviews, formal surveys, and policy frameworks were analyzed. The study revealed three dominant power struggles between youth and programme implementers in three districts at the Greater Accra region, Ghana. The first and pervasive form of power dynamics involves the youth and programme implementers. The second involves a variety of arrangements with the government on one hand and implementers and youth on the other side. The third is who qualifies to be a beneficiary and for that matter participate in the PM&E. In these three forms of power struggles the paper reveals superior implementers control of who participate in the programme PM&E and at what stage in the process. The power imbalance between programme implementer and target beneficiaries impeded the level of beneficiaries’ participation in the PM&E.
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    Evaluating the commitment of South Africa to the principles of separation of powers
    (Springer International Publishing., 2022) Boadu, Evans Sakyi
    Background: Historically, the concentration of unchecked power in the hands of a single individual or group of people has mostly resulted in suppression and oppression of other peoples’ rights. In constitutional democracies, the notion of division of powers is employed to deter the misuse of power within and among the arms of government and to ensure that there are checks and balancing of powers. The concept further ensures that everyone has equal access to civil liberties.
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    Evaluating the rights of children and young people in Africa: The policies and practices in South Africa
    (Springer International Publishing., 2022) Boadu, Evans Sakyi; Alaji, Friday
    South Africa is not an exception to Africa’s several policies and legislative frameworks that seek to promote and protect children, and young people, respectively. While on the one hand, the majority of children and young people are protected by these policies and legislation, the reality on the other hand is that many live-in debilitating situations in various parts of the continent including South Africa. Regrettably, there is a lasting uncertainty surrounding some of these pieces of legislation and policies set out explicitly to promote and protect children’s and young people’s rights at the global and national levels, despite several laudable policies and legislations
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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.