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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.
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Africa in Contemporary Perspective
An important feature of Ghanaian tertiary education is the foundational African Studies Programme which was initiated in the early 1960s. Unfortunately hardly any readers exist which bring together a body of knowledge on the themes, issues and debates which inform and animate research and teaching in African Studies particularly on the African continent.
This becomes even more important when we consider the need for knowledge on Africa that is not Eurocentric or sensationalised, but driven from internal understandings of life and prospects in Africa. Dominant representations and perceptions of Africa usually depict a continent in crisis. Rather than buying into external representations of Africa, with its ‘lacks’ and aspirations for Western modernities, we insist that African scholars in particular should be in the forefront of promoting understanding of the pluri-lingual, overlapping, and dense reality of life and developments on the continent, to produce relevant and usable knowledge.
Continuing and renewed interest in Africa’s resources, including the land mass, economy, minerals, visual arts and performance cultures, as well as bio-medical knowledge and products, by old and new geopolitical players, obliges African scholars to transcend disciplinary boundaries and to work with each other to advance knowledge and uses of those resources in the interests of Africa’s people.
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MCQs on the Law of Tort: Test Your Knowledge of Tort Law
As Professor Kwame Frimpong notes in his foreword, questions in this book are practical, based on decided cases, as well as hypothetical issues and situations. The book is relevant for all common law faculties of law offering Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) programmes, and other institutions offering the Law of Torts to their students. The book is intended to be a supplement to the standard existing textbooks used by lecturers, and is intended to be a tutorial aid, to be used by lecturers in tutorials, and students in testing their knowledge on the topics covered during lectures. In Ghana, the book also covers Law of Tort topics that are examinable for the entrance examination to the Professional Law programme at the Ghana Law School. It is my hope that the book will be an essential learning tool for students in Ghana and common law world.
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SeedTime: Selected Poems I
In memory of all the Ancestral Voices who prepared the field for our SeedTime…
SeedTime I brings together Selected Poems from Kofi Anyidoho’s first five collections, beginning in reverse order with poems from AncestralLogic & CaribbeanBlues (1993), A Harvest of Our Dreams (1984), EarthChild (1985), Elegy for the Revolution (1978), and BrainSurgery (1985). BrainSurgery, the earliest of these collections, was never published as a collection until it came out together with EarthChild (Woeli Publishing Services, 1985), even though several of the poems had appeared in various journals, magazines and anthologies.
SeedTime: Selected Poems I is a backward glance to those magical years of birth waters flowing across a landscape filled at once with danger and hope, with dying and rebirth in the mystery and miracle of new beginnings so soon after countless brushfires. But the doubt returns again so close behind the hope as we offer trembling prayers in new poems from an old loom: See What They’ve Done To Our SunRise. Yet, somehow, we must open our minds and souls to the Forever Promise of New SeedTimes. This world cannot, must not crumble under our watch.
“Quintessential Anyidoho…a harvest of the master craftman’s gems across time and space. SeedTime brings a refreshing newness to old songs, and, for new ones, a touch of creative genius we have come to associate with the poet’s pedigree; a timeless legacy of a poet-laureate, whose voice waxes even stronger in his twilight years.” − Mawuli Adjei, author, poet and literary scholar
“A collection of haunting poems in which we SEE the turbulent variety of our history, and HEAR the English language teased to express the many rhythms of the African’s eternal homesickness.” − Prof. A. N. Mensah, Department of English, University of Ghana
₵100.00SeedTime: Selected Poems I
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Frank Wood’s Business Accounting Volume 1 (11th IFRS Edition)
Every year, thousands of students rely on Frank Wood’s best-selling books to help them pass their accountancy exams.
Business Accounting Volume 1 is the world’s best-selling textbook on book-keeping and accounting. Now in its eleventh edition, it has become the standard introductory text for accounting students and professionals alike.
New to this edition:
- Uses IFRS as its framework to explain key concepts and practice
- Fully updated review questions for exam practice
- Additional and updated worked examples for areas of difficulty
- Expanded introduction to the language and history of accounting
Features:
- Easy-to-follow explanations of contemporary accounting practice, including double entry book-keeping and the preparation of financial statements
- Clear and logical progression through topics
- Activities designed to reinforce your understanding of key concepts
- Over 300 review questions, including past Examination Board questions
- 100 multiple choice questions with answers
- Regularly-updated companion website including further self-test questions and accounting standards updates
Business Accounting Volume 1 is used on a wide variety of courses in accounting and business, both at secondary and tertiary level and for those studying for professional qualifications.
“The book is very consistent in approach and level…the early chapters on double-entry book-keeping lay a solid foundation for all future studies in financial accounting” Penny Gardner, Napier University, Edinburgh
“A benchmark for all accounting books” Sarah Knight, Finance Courses’ Co-ordinator, Huntingdonshire Regional College
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Frank Wood’s Business Accounting Volume 2 (11th IFRS Edition)
Every year, thousands of students rely on Frank Wood’s best-selling books to help them pass their accountancy exams.
Business Accounting 2 is a rigorous introduction to some of the more advanced concepts in financial accounting. Here you will find coverage of:
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- Accounting for limited companies and groups
- Special accounts
- Financial analysis and accounting ratios
- Issues in international financial reporting
- Costing, budgeting and variance analysis
- Planning, control and decision-making
This new IFRS edition continues a tradition of meeting the changing needs of those studying financial accounting. Its accessible approach makes the book suitable for a wide variety of courses in accounting and business, both at secondary and tertiary level and for those studying for professional qualifications. The book also covers introductory aspects of management accounting, suitable for use at all levels up to and including professional foundation level courses and first-year degree courses.
Classic Features:
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- Easy-to-follow explanations of contemporary accounting practice
- Clear and logical progression through topics
- Activities designed to reinforce the understanding of key concepts
- Over 300 review questions, including past examination board questions
- A comprehensive Companion Website at www.pearsoned.co.uk/wood including further self-test questions and accounting standards updates
“The topics are addressed in the right order and the book is easy to navigate… The analysis both in company accounts and group accounts is one of its strengths and the examples, illustrations and activities are very helpful.” – Dr. Christos Grambovas, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK
“The explanation of consolidation accounting is very clear, and it is enriched with a relevant number of examples and cases. In comparison with other similar publications, I consider Business Accounting 2 strongly competitive.” – Dr. Patrizia Tettamanzi, Università Bocconi, Italy
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From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland: Urban Mutations in Tanzania
The name Dar es Salaam comes from the Arabic phrase meaning house of peace. A popular but erroneous translation is ‘haven of peace’ resulting from a mix-up of the Arabic words “dar” (house) and “bandar” (harbour). Named in 1867 by the Sultan of Zanzibar, the town has for a long time benefitted from a reputation of being a place of tranquility. The tropical drowsiness is a comfort to the socialist poverty and under-equipment that causes an unending anxiety to reign over the town. Today, for the Tanzanian, the town has become Bongoland, that is, a place where survival is a matter of cunning and intelligence (bongo means ‘brain’ in Kiswahili). Far from being an anecdote, this slide into toponomy records the mutations that affect the links that Tanzanians maintain with their principal city and the manner in which it represents them.
This book takes into account the changes by departing from the hypothesis that they reveal a process of territorialisation. What are the processes – envisaged as spatial investments – which, by producing exclusivity, demarcations and exclusions, fragment the urban space and its social fabric? Do the practices and discussions of the urban dwellers construct limited spaces, appropriated, identified and managed by communities (in other words, territories)? Dar es Salaam is often described as a diversified, relatively homogenous and integrating place. However, is it not more appropriate to describe it as fragmented?
As territorialisation can only occur through frequenting, management and localised investment, it is therefore through certain places – first shelter and residential area, then the school, daladala station, the fire hydrant and the quays – that the town is observed. This led to broach the question in the geographical sense of urban policy carried out since German colonisation to date. At the same time, the analysis of these developments allows for an evaluation of the role of the urban crisis and the responses it brings.
In sum, the aim of this approach is to measure the impact of the uniqueness of the place on the current changes. On one hand, this is linked to its long-term insertion in the Swahili civilisation, and on the other, to its colonisation by Germany and later Britain and finally, to the singularity of the post-colonial path. This latter is marked by an alternation of Ujamaa with Structural Adjustment Plans applied since 1987. How does this remarkable political culture take part in the emerging city today?
This book is a translation of De Dar es Salaam à Bongoland: Mutations urbaines en Tanzanie, published by Karthala, Paris in 2006.
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Concise Text On The Law Of Contract in Ghana (Hardcover)
This book is strictly designed for undergraduates who have followed a course of lectures based on standard works on contract law. It is intended to supplement your course materials, lectures and textbooks; it is a guide to revision rather than a substitute for the amount of reading that you need to do in order to succeed. Contract law is a vast subject as evidenced by the volume of material contained in standard works on the subject. It follows that a revision work cannot cover all the depth and detail that the student needs to know, and it does not set out to do so. The aim is to provide a concise overall picture of the key areas for revision.
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Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism
In Oxford Street, Accra, Ato Quayson analyzes the dynamics of Ghana’s capital city through a focus on Oxford Street, part of Accra’s most vibrant and globalized commercial district. He traces the city’s evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. He combines his impressions of the sights, sounds, interactions, and distribution of space with broader dynamics, including the histories of colonial and postcolonial town planning and the marks of transnationalism evident in Accra’s salsa scene, gym culture, and commercial billboards.
Quayson finds that the various planning systems that have shaped the city—and had their stratifying effects intensified by the IMF-mandated structural adjustment programs of the late 1980s—prepared the way for the early-1990s transformation of a largely residential neighborhood into a kinetic shopping district. With an intense commercialism overlying, or coexisting with, stark economic inequalities, Oxford Street is a microcosm of historical and urban processes that have made Accra the variegated and contradictory metropolis that it is today.
“Oxford Street, Accra offers a fresh portrait of a rising African metropolis by one of the most original and skilled critics of the African condition. Deeply researched and packed with detail and bold in scope and analysis, Oxford Street, Accra is a unique addition to the growing body of work on contemporary African Urbanism. This extraordinary book shows the extent to which the future of urban theory might well lie in the global South.” – Achille Mbembe, author of Critique de la raison négre.
KEY SELLING POINTS:
- Oxford Street, Accra is a must-buy as an invaluable companion and compass for both newcomers and returning visitors to Accra.
- Oxford Street, Accra was chosen as one of the ‘UK Guardian’s 10 Best City Books of the World in 2014.’
- Oxford Street, Accra was also the Co-Winner of ‘The Urban History Association’s Top Award in the International Category For Books Published About World Cities in 2013 – 2014.’
- Oxford Street, Accra contains an encyclopedic knowledge of the City of Accra, tracing the city’s evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day.
- The book offers a microcosm of historical and urban knowledge of the making of the city that have transformed Accra into the sophisticated metropolis that is it today.
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Principles & Practice of Taxation
This book covers all the principles and practice of taxation in Ghana. The book is current and straight to the point, devoid of any technical tax jargons. The cases and exercises at the end of each chapter capture the applications of the principles. Some of the cases are quite lengthy; particularly the style of examiners, the objective is to expose users to both principles and dynamics of the practice of taxation as well as examination.
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Social Structure of Ghana: A Study in Persistence and Change
When Social Structure of Ghana was first published in 1981, it became the only comprehensive and sociological attempts to examine the institutional framework of the entire Ghanaian society. It still is. In this 1999 edition, the author updates most of the data on Ghana, and analyses in greater detail some of the issues raised therein. These issues include the military in politics, religious sectarianism, social problems, educational reforms and the world of work, and the shifting loyalties of Ghanaians to kin groups, tribes and the nation.
As the twentieth century comes to a close, this book probably represents the last major publication on Ghana that analyses the country’s human and material resources for confronting the challenges of the next century.
The book will continue to be useful for studies in sociology, ethnography, political science, African studies, medical sociology value systems, nursing and social work.
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Highlife Time 3
Highlife is Ghana’s most important modern home grown dance-music that has its roots in traditional music infused with outside influences coming from Europe and the Americas. Although the word ‘highlife’ was not coined until the 1920s, its origins can be traced back to the regimental brass bands, elite-dance orchestras and maritime guitar and accordion groups of the late 19th and very early 20th centuries. Highlife is, therefore, one of Africa’s earliest popular music genres.
The book traces the origins of highlife music to the present – and include information on palmwine music, adaha brass bands, concert party guitar bands and dance bands, right up to off-shoots such as Afro-rock, Afrobeat, burger highlife, gospel highlife, hiphop highlife (i.e. hiplife) and contemporary highlife.
The book also includes chapters on the traditional background or roots of highlife, the entrance of women into the Ghanaian highlife profession and the biographies of numerous Ghanaian (and some Nigerian) highlife musicians, composers and producers. It also touches on the way highlife played a role in Ghana’s independence struggle and the country’s quest for a national – and indeed Pan-African – identity.The book also provides information on music styles that are related to highlife, or can be treated as cousins of highlife, such as the maringa of Sierra Leone, the early guitar styles of Liberia, the juju music of Nigeria the makossa of the Cameroon/ It also touches on the popular music of Ghana’s Francophone neighbours.
There is also a section on the Black Diasporic input into highlife, through to the impact of African American and Caribbean popular music styles like calypsos, jazz, soul, reggae, disco, hiphop and rap and dancehall. that have been integrated into the highlife fold. Thus, highlife has not only influenced other African countries but is also an important cultural bridge uniting the peoples of Africa and its Diaspora.
₵250.00Highlife Time 3
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Ghana Law of Wills
The succession law of Ghana has undergone enormous change since the enactment of the Wills Act, 1971. Relevant literature has hardly kept pace with changes in statutory and judge-made law. The need for a comprehensive statement of the pertinent law has made itself felt for quite a long time. In response, several eminent jurists have grappled with some of the major problems associated with succession. The present account seeks to provide a detailed assessment, analysis, evaluation and critique of the law of wills of Ghana.
Basically founded upon analysis of the Wills Act, 1971 of Ghana and relevant English principles, the discussion here also traverses a wider field. The end result is an opus that interweaves essentially English concepts of the law of wills with equivalent Ghanaian developments. The topics for discussion are broadened to include indigenous forms of testation.
The book is broken into appropriate divisions and subdivisions to facilitate fuller discussion of each topic, largely along conventional formats for the analysis of the law of wills. The underlying theme is concerned with the devolution of a person’s assets upon death. Both the substantive and procedural laws are considered in some detail and on the basis of consistent principles of law. Various types of wills and rules for the making and revocation of wills as well as laws dealing with privileged wills, incorporation of documents, revival and republication, legacies and the construction of wills are analysed extensively with a view to encapsulating the corpus of the law of wills.
₵250.00Ghana Law of Wills
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An Outline of Islamic Customary Law In Ghana
This is an altogether original work in a virgin field. About two decades ago, the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana (the only in existence at the time in the country), introduced the study of Islamic law as an aspect or jurisprudence. The decision was informed by the reality of a significant Muslim segment of the Ghanaian population. It was a brave decision. The halls of academia had never resounded to Islamic law concepts; for up to that point Islamic law was treated as a Cinderella with no place in the legal curriculum, save for a few passing references in regard to marriage and succession laws. Almost single-handedly, I set about developing a corpus of Islamic customary law relevant to the needs of Ghanaian law students. This small volume is the result of efforts to put my thoughts in essay form and to make available to students and the wider public a book-length manual on the nature of Islamic customary law in Ghana. By obtaining and analysing data elicited from community leaders, ordinary Muslims and clerics and evaluating them in the light of settled principles of Sharia law, a distinctly Ghanaian brand of Muslim law emerges. At appropriate points, material derived from court verdicts is interwoven into the text. No attempt has been made here to deal with other systems of Ghanaian family law other than the Islamic.
The author has attempted to present the Muslim laws of family, property and succession within a reasonable compass to aid appreciation of the personal laws of substantial numbers of Ghanaians; and in a form that will be clearly understood.
Aside from Law 111 and the Marriage of Mohammedans Ordinance, Cap 129 (1951 Rev.), Islamic law has been subject to no comprehensive legislative reform. This is perhaps to be expected as the practised law of Muslims was frequently misunderstood, and hardly recognised and understood by administrators and legislators.
The author’s purpose will have been achieved if this book helps to free Islamic law from misconceptions common in our society.
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Law of Landlord and Tenant in Ghana
The present work brings to completion my effort to state the complete law of property of Ghana. It was inspired by my earlier work on the customary land law of Ghana. The customary law remains the heart of the Ghanaian land law, but the story of the property law of Ghana is incomplete without a comprehensive account of the received law of property. The present work, therefore, brings to a full circle my efforts to state accurately and wholly the property law of Ghana. The field of Ghanaian property law is dominated by a combination of foreign and indigenous concepts. Arguably, the theoretical aspects of the property law of Ghana stand in need of resolution of the tensions between the two sources of law.
The development of the English law of property was deeply marked by the early activities of the King’s Court and its administration of a centralised system of law as distinguished from an earlier system of localised customary law, varying from place to place. Modified by equity, its doctrines were developed from a centralised system of records. A course in property law ought to equip the student with the entire range of concepts in the field, closely analysed. Described elsewhere as a rubbish heap that has been accumulating for centuries and understood only by the professors, the English law of property does not lend itself to easy understanding. Imposing structure upon a subject comprising essentially English law of property and applying it to Ghanaian circumstances has not been easy. To help the student grasp the interlocking nature of the concepts, and to gain rounded and more profound insights about the various rights and liabilities attached to interests in land, a persistent effort is made to connect the material to Ghanaian cases and statutes.
₵250.00