Adib Nehmeh 2
Adib Nehmeh 2
Ashanti’s life begins in her family hut. But, as only 25 per cent of the Ghanaian population consults a doctor, her mother dies a few hours after delivery. The traditional midwife is not able to stop the haemorrhaging. Her mother joins the hundreds of women who die in childbirth every year – the maternal mortality rate in Ghana is 200 women per 100,000. Ashanti is underweight, born below 2kg. The under-five mortality rate is 111 per thousand live births.
The school is a big hut, with no equipment and running water. She is however lucky to go to school at all. In Ghana, 21 per cent of boys and 41 per cent of girls have never gone to school, and 38 per cent of men and 64 per cent of women are illiterate. Ashanti does not even finish her first year at school when she is subjected to a circumcision ceremony with other girls in the village: she is five years old. In the north of Ghana, 77 per cent of girls undergo female genital mutilation between the ages of 5 and 13.
Unfortunately, after three years of school, she is forced to leave in order to help her family. She begins to work with her family in the fields. In Ghana, 2.5 million children aged 5–17, or 40 per cent of children in that age group, work. The owner of one of the fields in which she works takes a liking to her. He is
50 years old. He tells Ashanti’s father that he likes her and wants to marry her. The father agrees. In return, he can continue working in the field and receive
a minor allowance. When Ashanti reaches puberty, she cannot imagine herself to be the wife of the owner of the land, who is 38 years her senior. She decides to run away to the capital, Accra, where she will work as a ‘porter’ (‘Kayayee’) in the market. She lives in the street, where she is subjected to all kinds of abuse. Of the children who work in the capital city, 23 per cent are attempting to escape poverty in the countryside. The majority of them are girls.
Ashanti’s father calls her back, claiming that he is ill. When she returns, she finds out that, in reality, one of her brothers has stolen two cows from a family in another tribe. As a punishment, the family of the person who committed the theft has to send one of their daughters in servitude to the aggrieved tribe. To date, 4700 cases of tribal servitude for life (‘Trokosi’) have already been recorded in the country.
For 40 years, Ashanti lives in servitude to the other tribe, without any rights (or compensation) whatsoever. She gives birth to three children: two
POLICY CASE STUDIES
boys and a girl. Her life suddenly takes another turn when the son of the village chief dies from a fever. She is accused of witchcraft, and is sent, along with her daughter, to a witch camp: 3000 women and 500 girls are currently estimated to live in such camps.
Questions
13.1 Identify the areas of public policy which affect Ashanti’s life.
13.2 If you were the members of a Ghanaian women’s organization, which area would you prioritize? Why?
Parts
» Economic growth can be sustained without considerations for human flourishing
» A bird’s-eye view The idea of human development has been circulated in policy circles and public
» 1 The Basic Needs Approach The best shorthand way of describing basic needs is:
» Innovation systems Innovation systems can be defined as ‘the network of institutions in the public
» The relationship between economic growth and human flourishing
» Rawls’ theory of justice in a nutshell
» Rawlsian justice versus the capability approach
» What do we need for a capability theory of justice?
» From theories of justice to just practices and policies
» The importance and limitations of measurement
» Income poverty measurement: Identification
» Measures of multi-dimensional poverty Measures using aggregate data: The Human Poverty Index (HPI)
» Measuring freedom Most frequently, when trying to measure multi-dimensional poverty or
» Testing the theory This view, which suggests that economic development is determined in part by
» 1 The embeddedness of a microfinance market in gender relations in Kenya
» Institutions and markets in the human development approach
» A mechanism for exercising agency in the public sphere
» Instrumental value The intrinsic value of democracy, that the ability of people to take part in
» 3 The democratic construction of social welfare-related values in Costa Rica
» From democratic theory to practice
» Political participation at global level
» 7 Gender equality in education: Human capital, human rights and capabilities
» Health as output The reverse has also been argued, where wealth is seen to be a necessary input
» Health at the heart of inter-locking deprivations
» 2 Fatima’s story: The coincidence of health deprivation, illiteracy and material deprivation 4
» Anthropological perspectives
» Cultural freedom The 2004 Human Development Report asserts the importance of culture as a
» Religion as a dimension of well-being
» The possibility of reasoning
» Randy Spence and Séverine Deneulin
» Macro-policy Constitution and legal system
» Policy in the private, non-profit and international sectors
» A human development perspective
» Technical assistance programme
» Post-conflict policy in Liberia
Show more