Dr. Gloria Essilfie, Coordinator of the Takoradi Learning Centre of the Ghana Communication Technology University (GCTU) has been awarded a prestigious International Journal Award for her co-authored article entitled “Women’s empowerment and child health outcomes in Ghana.”
Dr. Essilfie’s paper was adjudged the top-cited paper in the Africa Development Review for 2020-2021 and was co-authored with Joshua Sebu and Samuel Annim, who is a Professor of Economics and the Government Statistician.
Commenting on the award, Dr. Gloria Essilfie, who is an Economics lecturer, expressed delight at the recognition first because she believed their research focussed on an extremely crucial developmental issue, and secondly because she entered academia with an avowed intent to change the narrative around good research on women empowerment only coming from the global north.
She was also excited to have had the opportunity to collaborate with seasoned economists and data science scholars from Ghana.
On the award-winning journal article itself, Gloria noted that women empowerment has been a major contributor to the nutritional outcome of children since women are primary caregivers and can influence their children’s nutritional status both directly and indirectly through childcare practices.
The focus of their study, therefore, was to conduct an econometric analysis to unearth the determinants of child malnutrition in Ghana by testing “whether the mother’s empowerment as measured by mother’s years of schooling relative to partner, domestic violence and mother’s decision making on the health of the child and other household factors (including those related with children, infrastructure, household, and policy) are connected with children’s nutritional status.
The article showed that children with mothers who are relatively better educated tend to have better nutritional status. The study also found that a lack of women’s empowerment (domestic violence) is associated with child malnutrition.
The article concluded by noting that children with mothers who have less empowerment are likely to have poor nutritional status compared to their counterparts. Overall, the article also demonstrated the importance of education, autonomy, and domestic violence as critical factors of improving the nutritional status of children.
The study recommended that the Ministry for Gender and Social Protection in Ghana should educate male partners on the need for women’s participation in decision‐making at the household level as well as make formal education accessible to women.
Published by Wiley, the Africa Development Review is a professional journal devoted to the study and analysis of development policy in Africa. Published four times a year for the African Development Bank, the review emphasizes the policy relevance of research findings and is a most revered outlet for African Developmental Policy Research.
The Ghana Communication Technology University is a leading public university in Ghana focused on information technology course delivery and research that spans communication management, information technology, computer science, engineering, information systems, and development policy issues.
Source: Ghana Web
Add Comment