• A Practical Handbook on Personal Development

    “…one must first look into oneself before looking out for achievements. Thus self-knowledge as a foundation to personal development is crucial to any type of personal attainment. This is what this book is about!

    It leads you step by step to discover your own potential and how you can skilfully release this potential to achieve a life that wins.” – The Late Rev. Prof. Elom Dovlo (Former Head of Department for the Study of Religions – University of Ghana, Legon) – Foreword

  • Gateway to a Criminal Justice System

    Abron S. Touré, received a BA in Philosophy from Brandeis University in 1973, a BS Chemical Engineering Northeastern University in 1983, and MS in Administration from Boston University in 1991. He now resides in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he works as an author and real estate consultant.

    I would to thank Dr. Kenneth Kipnis retired professor of philosophy University of Hawaii for his help and support and for introducing me to the subject of Plea Bargaining as an ethical concern. Would also like to thank my two dear friends, Alexander Aikens, JD retired banker and part-time Professor at Brandeis for his continued moral support. Special thanks to Ralph Martin, JD, former District Attorney Middlesex County Massachusetts, and Executive Vice President of Northeastern University for his explanations and expertise on the subject. Their comments helped me stay focused and cannot be understated. Finally, my sincere gratitude to the creative skills that went into making the artwork for the book jacket. Such skill and genius must not go unrecognized. Unfortunately, the name of the individual is Unknown!

    Further, be mindful, when reading the text, much of the story is carried in the footnotes.

    — The Author

     

  • The Baobab: A Journal of the Council on Foreign Relations-Ghana (Vol 1, No 1 – January 2020)

    IN THIS ISSUE

    From the President of the Council

    Editorial

    The Need for a Diplomatic Think Tank

    Ambassador James Victor Gbeho

    Council on Foreign Relations Overdue

    HE Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana

    Kofi Annan Biography

    Memories of a Good Man from Africa

    Amb Patrick Hayford

    Getting to Know Kofi Annan

    Excerpts from A Conversation With Mary Chinery-Hesse

    (Interview by Lady Ann-Essumạn)

    Kofi Annan, Africa and the Responsibility to Protect

    Ramesh Thakur

    Ghana in United Nations Peace Operations, A Tool of its Foreign Policy

    Colonel Festus Boahen Aboagye (Retired)

    Peacekeeping Experiences, Creating National Bonds

    Major General HK Anyidoho (Retired)

    Rethinking a New Global Order

    V Antwi-Danso, PhD

    Partnerships for Peace in West Africa and the Sahel: Challenges and Opportunities

    Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas

    About the Contributors

    Editorial Policy and Guildlines

    History of CFR-Ghana

  • The Baobab: A Journal of the Council on Foreign Relations-Ghana (Vol 2, No 2 – July 2020)

    IN THIS ISSUE

    From the Managing Editor

    Editorial

    Members in the News

    Covid-19: 10 Policy Priorities for Africa’s Recovery, Growth and Transformation

    The Eco and West African Monetary History

    Nkechi S. Owoo

    Special Review Essays and Features on: Ghana, Liberia and Africa in Historical Transitions

    Renaming the Gold Coast Ghana

    Kabral Blay-Amihere

    Still Contested After All these Years

    David Owusu-Ansah

    Ghana: The Secession Movement and the Trans-Volta Togoland

    Boni Yao Gebe

    Charles Taylor’s Journey into Exile and Prison

    DK Osei

    Perspectives-Five Decades of Africa’s Development

    KY Amoako

    About the Contributors

    Editorial Policy and Guidelines

    History of the CFR-Ghana

  • The Corrupt Elites: Anatomy of Power and Wealth in Ghana

    The Corrupt Elites is a simple and straight-forward narrative which explains the incidence of corruption in Ghana within successive historical epochs. The book argues that the Ghanaian state is sustained by a network of exclusive institutions built by the elites to facilitate the plunder of the nation’s wealth. This is because the elites are economically and politically weak to create wealth for themselves. The creation of exclusive institutions to facilitate corruption intensified from one historical epoch to another; it became a national scourge especially from the 1990s with devastating social consequences.

    The book supports this narrative about corruption with concrete and credible illustrations.

  • A Developing Country’s Health System Challenges: Addressing Ghana’s ‘NO BED SYNDROME’

    I am a Ghanaian trained doctor currently working in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. My experience as a health service provider, medical practitioner in the private and public health sectors, and as a patient in Ghana has exposed me to various challenges faced in health care provision in a developing country like Ghana.

    There have been high-profile cases of patients losing their lives because they haven’t been able to get emergency beds in Ghana. This phenomenon in Ghana has been called the ‘no bed syndrome.
    Developing countries have more challenges with health financing, human resources, health infrastructure, information technology, emergency systems, public health, and patient empowerment.

    This Healthcare management and leadership book has taken four years to write and largely comprises my reflections on various challenges confronting Ghana’s health sector vis a vis my experiences in the United Kingdom.
    This Health book seeks to proffer solutions to Ghana’s health system challenges and directly tackles the aged long problem of ‘no bed syndrome’ in Ghana.

  • Banking Management and Operations

    Banking books commonly focus on the management of the bank and its financial statement. Such books are specialized reading for students of bank management or administration.

    This book, ‘Banking Management and Operations ‘, do not ‘teach’ banking; it rather elicits some of the weaknesses and challenges in banking management and practices that relate to their day-to-day transformation. It, therefore, suggests sacred considerations for added efficiency by tightening the loose screws in operations and management practices. It looks at the need for customer protection, satisfaction, and customer confidence which have become more crucial. This is critical in 21st-century business practices which sometimes assume that high fliers, profit rankers, spectacular achievers; or words, attitudes, and actions of Management and Personnel are conducted with honesty and goodness.

    Let us remember that for every credibility gap, there is a gullibility filled with miscreants hovering around them.

     The book provides simple professional tools to integrate specific functional thoughts in banking operations and management in one shell. It also forewarns practitioners, students, and consumers that banking business threats are like growing viruses in all forms, in the face of rising financial crime waves, cybercrime, money laundering and terrorist activities.

    The two critical functions, management and banking operations have been selected to run through the book. They clearly identify with each chapter and show how their interplay can make things happen in order to meet strategic objectives or reasonably protect stakeholders.

    The chapters cover a collection of banking concepts, relevant strategic management information requirements and related job functions that fit into bank specific enterprise risk management.

    Clearly, identified and appropriate ICT application platforms products and services within banking legal framework and conventions are offered. The value propositions answer the question:

    ‘How do we protect customers’ monies and provide satisfying services to them.’

  • A Memoir of a Pragmatic Ghanaian Diplomat

    A Memoir of a Pragmatic Ghanaian Diplomat has fulfilled one of the author’s dreams since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Accra, in October 1974.

    The book gives brief historical analyses of the Ga Adangme ethnic group of Ghana and Ghana as a former colony under British rule, 1844-1957. It traces the author’s early years and schooling, his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the University of Ghana, Legon (1982-86 & 1989-90), as well as his studies at the University of Sierra-Leone (IPAM), Freetown (1992) and the China Foreign Affairs University, Beijing (2010).

    The book touches on the author’s diplomatic career in Japan, the Russian Federation, the Czech Republic, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Great Socialist Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, where he served in various capacities, the last position being Minister, in Tripoli. It also depicts the author’s private life as a Chorister and Member of the Ghana Red Cross Society.

    The book further deals with the author’s assignments as Deputy Director of Passports, Deputy Director of State Protocol Office and his attachment to the office of His Excellency Alhaji Aliu Mahama (of blessed memory), former Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana. The book chronicles other duties the author performed at the Foreign Ministry, Accra, namely, in Administration, Finance and Accounts, Inspectorate and Audit, Americas, Europe, Africa & Regional Integration, International Organisations and Conferences, Information and Linguistics, as well as Middle East and Asia Bureaux.

    The book reviews risks, uncertainties and pressures in the Diplomatic Service and how to deal with them. It chronicles the rights, responsibilities and obligations of Diplomats, as well as the essence of doing things befitting the status of Diplomats.

    In the penultimate chapter, the author makes a proposal for the establishment of a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Practical Training Institute in Acera to deal exclusively with practical diplomacy, diplomatic orientation and preparation of ambassadors-designate and officers for postings to Ghana Missions abroad, to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, professionalism and sense of curiosity in diplomatic assignments abroad and at home.

    The author retired from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in February 2011, having worked for almost 36 years – his last post in Accra being Director of the Middle East and Asia Bureau of the Foreign Ministry.

    The author was married to Mrs. Dorothy Nana Ama Allotey (of blessed memory) and has four children: David, Mavis, Deborah and Ruth. Mr. Allotey’s book, Ghana’s Foreign Policy in Comparison with That of Japan and Russia Since 1960 is a good textbook for students of International Relations and Diplomacy and all who desire to understand the intricate workings of foreign policy and their effects on our daily lives.

  • Kuenyehia on Entrepreneurship: A Textbook on Ghanaian Entrepreneurship with Real Life Success Stories

    Kuenyehia on Entrepreneurship is a ground-breaking resource for students of Entrepreneurship, focusing on local content from Ghana, one of the World’s fastest growing economies.

    Part textbook, part reference book for enthusiasts of entrepreneurship, it adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, covering an amalgam of business subjects including human resource management, organizational behaviour, operations management, strategy, marketing, finance and law. Assuming no prior knowledge of business, it illustrates fundamental concepts with practical examples drawn from research conducted in Ghana, occasionally supplemented by anecdotes from global companies such as Apple and Google.

    Key to its uniqueness is a wide-ranging collection of profiles of successful Ghanaian entrepreneurs as well as sections on particular challenges for prospective investors in Ghana – local content which makes this Ghanaian textbook on entrepreneurship a must-read for both Ghanaian students of entrepreneurship and investors with an interest in the Ghanaian economic renaissance.
  • Local Government and Decentralisation in Ghana

    Developments since the publication of the First Edition of this book in 2010 have compelled the revision and publication of this Second Edition.

    In 2011, the Fifth Government of the Fourth Republic launched a new ‘National Decentralisation Policy Framework’ (NDPF 1) and an accompanying National Decentralisation Action Plan’ (NDAP 1). The Local Government Service was operationalised in the same year, resulting in the migration of over 30,000 civil servants from the Civil Service to the Local Government Service.

    Prior to these, the Local Government Departments of District Assemblies) (Commencement) Instrument, 2009, L.1. 1961, had been enacted, allowing for the conversion of the de concentrated Departments at the district level into devolved Departments of the District Assemblies. The Local Government (Urban, Zonal and Town Councils and Unit Committees) (Establishment) Instrument, L.1. 1967, was enacted in 2010. The long-awaited Composite Budget was introduced in 2012.

    With the expiry of the NDPF 1/NDAP I in 2014, a new NDPF 11/NDAP 11 was launched in 2015 for the period 2015-2019.

    A new Local Government (Sub-Metropolitan District Councils of Metropolitan Assemblies (SMDCs)) (Establishment, Composition and Functions) Instrument, 2015. 11. 2223, was enacted to provide for uniform composition and functions for the SMDCs in all the six Metropolitan Assemblies.

    A National Development Planning (System) Regulations, 2016, enacted to support the National Development Planning and Act, 1994, 148. A Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, 2016, Act 925, was passed to establish a Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority and to devolve the Department of Country Planning to the MMDAs.

    The disparate laws on local government were consolidated into one Local Governance Act, 2016, Act 936. A new Sports Act 2016, Act 934 and a new decentralised National Youth Authority Act 939 were also enacted.

    It is these reforms that the Second Edition of the book has sought to capture, in addition to some elaborations on some of the theoretical underpinnings of local government and decentralisation in Ghana. The sections of Acton Civil Society Organisations and Non-State Actors and Women in Local Governance have been improved. Some aspects of the proposals of the Constitutional Review Commission on local government and decentralisation have been used. Some textual changes have also been made.

  • Decentralisation Reforms in Ghana: The Experiences of the Fifth and Sixth Governments of the Fourth Republic

    What were the decentralisation reforms? What did they consist of? What were their origins? Who authorised them? What were their outcomes? What Impact have they had on the local governance and decentralisation landscape In Ghana?

    The answer to the first question is that they were new initiatives and innovations designed to accelerate the pace of and improve upon decentralisation implementation in Ghana.

    The answer to the second question is that they consisted of a National Decentralisation Policy Framework and a National Decentralisation Action Plan I (2010-2014) and II (2015-2019), an Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCC), an expansion in the number of districts, a consolidated Local Governance Act, a re-branding of the Office of the Head of Local Government Service, the operationalisation of the Local Government Service and the introduction of a system of Inter-Service/Inter-Sectoral Collaboration and Cooperation. It also covered the enactment of National Development Planning (System) Regulations and a Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, the introduction of a Regional Integrated Budget System (RIBS) and blueprints for an Inter-Governmental Fiscal Framework (IGFF) and an Inter-Governmental Fiscal Transfer (IGFT) system.

    The answer to the third question is that the reforms were traceable to the 2008 manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the party which won the Presidential and Parliamentary elections of 2008 and 2012 and therefore formed the Fifth and Sixth Governments of the Fourth Republic.

    The answer to the fourth question is that the reforms were authorised by Presidents John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama who successively were Presidents of the Fifth and Sixth Governments of the Fourth Republic.

    The answer to the fifth question about outcomes is the new structures, procedures and processes for decentralisation implementation, the improved quality of human resources in the local government sector, and the more efficient systems of checks and balances in the sector.

    The answer to the sixth question lies in the District Assemblies (MMDAs), the better service delivery by the Metropolitan, Municipal and of service delivery, the renewed interest in local governance by the citizenry and the claro Si rate reforms such as the elections of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDC Wand making the MMDAs partisan.

    These and answers to other questions posed by the reforms are answered in this book by the two people who should know, namely, the authors Professor Kwamena Ahwoi and Dr Callistus Mahama.

    Professor Kwamena Ahwoi is the longest-serving Minister of Local Government and Rural Development in Ghana (1988-2000). He was the Chairman of the High Level Strategic Task Force that produced the Decentralisation Policy Frameworks and Action Plans, He chaired the Legislative Review Task Force that resulted in the enactment of the Local Governance Act, 2016, Act 936 and was consultant to both the Ministry of Local Government and the IMCC during the period.

    Dr. Callistus Mahama was a member of the High Level Strategic Task Force, a member of the Legislative Review Task Force, the Executive Coordinator of the IMCC and the Head of the Local Government Service during the period.

    The two authors therefore write from a position of knowledge and experience and this is reflected in the contents of the book.

  • The Bold New Normal: Creating The Africa Where Everyone Prospers

    Have you ever wondered what it will take to transform each African country into a prosperous nation where each citizen has a real opportunity to thrive? Africa’s narrative has been shaped by a vision of the future that remains bleak. A vision that says a little more is okay for the African. It is time to challenge and change our paradigm of what great outcomes look like for an African country.

    It is time for The Bold New Normal of an Africa where citizens of each country genuinely have the opportunity to prosper.

    The formula for sustainable prosperity has been tried and tested world over. Why then do we continue to hope that a different method, that has thus far failed the continent, will create sustainable prosperity?

    The Bold New Normal is a timely publication that coincides with the 400th anniversary of the start of slavery: the year of return. 400 years since the unraveling of African began, it is time to piece her back together and focus forward. It is surely the time for The Bold New Normal!

  • Knowledge Management and Network for Capacity Development: A Focus on Institute of Directors Ghana (Hardcover)

    The book examines how directors in Ghana share tacit knowledge and experiences on the board. The rationale is that there is the tendency for boards In Ghana to lose tacit knowledge, experiences, skills and particularly up to date knowledge required to inform their decision making due to lack of practical knowledge management system for directors’ capacity development. The focus is to examine how the Institute of Directors Ghana (IODG) can manage knowledge with the view to tackling challenges leading to losing tacit knowledge, experiences, and skills of boards in Ghana.

    The objective is to influence boards of organizations in Ghana to recognize and initiate knowledge management practices, as well as adopt policies that support the application of practical knowledge management systems and interpersonal networks for directors’ capacity development in Ghana.

    The results revealed the existence of records of minutes of meetings indicating a latent existence of knowledge management system within organizations but not formalized as a knowledge management system. Also, significantly missing was technology for knowledge transformation.

    The book recommends knowledge management systems backed by technology for acquiring and sharing directors’ knowledge for successful knowledge transformation.

  • Guts and Grit: The Compelling and Inspirational Stories of Six Successful Ghanaian Entrepreneurs

    How can a nation address the menace of a growing number of unemployed youths? Why is the private business endeavour perceived largely as a big risk? What does it take for one to brave the storm and establish a flourishing enterprise? This book highlights the success stories of some of Ghana’s current entrepreneurs despite all the obstacles they have faced. Guts and Grit serves as a revelation to our public officials and the society at large towards a behavioural change in how private enterprises are seen, regarded and treated.

    The frank and engaging case studies provide the catalyst for dismantling the obstacles to achieving business success. The success stories so freely shared offer a source of inspiration and a springboard to the young people who would be willing to take up entrepreneurship.

    ***

    Guts and Grit is a book that chronicles the gut-wrenching stories of entrepreneurs who have braved significant odds to build viable businesses in a developing economy context.

    In choosing to write this book, Alex Banful, the author could not have made a better choice. The choice of entrepreneurship should not be surprising, given that there is at least four decades of scholarship to demonstrate that entrepreneurship, new business venturing, and the development of small and medium enterprises are crucial to Africa’s growth.

    Guts and Grit will soon become a leading cross-over entrepreneurship textbook that will be useful

    for executive training, undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes in Africa and other emerging economy contexts.” − Prof. Robert E. Hinson, Ph.D., DPhil.; Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Kigali, Rwanda

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