Empowerment through Education and Reproductive Health Communication in Ghana
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Development. Copyright © 1999 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (199903) 42:1; 67–69; 007345.
SID On-line Dialogue
Empowerment through Education and Reproductive Health Communication in Ghana MIRANDA GREENSTREET
ABSTRACT Miranda Greenstreet highlights some of the findings of a SID study in Ghana focusing on transfer of knowledge over reproductive health issues. The bewildering pace of change in Ghanaian life comes through the voices of the participants of the study as they also give their views on the shift from traditional to modern life.
The Ghanaian context Ghana has a population of 18.2 million (1997) and a total fertility rate of 5.5 with nearly half the population (48 percent) consisting of young people below 15. It is important to place these demographic shifts in the context of the changes in education if we are to understand how women are to be empowered through better access to reproductive health practices. Educational provisions across Ghana are uneven though improving. There is a distinct disparity between the northern and the southern part of the country. The level of literacy is well above 50 percent in the South and approaching 60 percent in urban centres, whereas the literacy level is below 40 percent in the North. Gender bias plays a big role here. Whereas illiteracy among men is approximately 56 percent, the rate for women is around 70 percent, with the rate increasing as one moves towards the North. A study of life stages in Ghana This article is based on the study prepared by the Ghanaian partners of the SID project on women’s empowerment and population policy. The study investigated the reproductive health conditions of adolescent and reproductive women within the context of the changing social and economic milieu. Interviews with men and women in southern Ghana were undertaken with a view to developing non-formal education programmes assisting women in different life stages
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Development 42(1): SID On-line Dialogue to make self-determined and empowering reproductive and productive life choices. The Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) (1993) revealed that 85 percent of adolescents are sexually active by the time they are 19. Given the poor education and the scant awareness of preventative measures, there is a high rate of unplanned pregnancies in this age group. Adolescents were therefore the particular focus in the study. The education level of the participants In the study 8.8 percent of the men involved were not educated whereas 41.7 percent of the women were illiterate or had a minimum education. Two out of five women participants had never attended school or had had access to only the first years of primary school. Of those who attended school, there were more boys than girls in each grade. Interestingly, fewer girls (74.2 percent) than boys (86.8 percent) thought that girls should be educated to the highest level. As a result girl
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