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The study investigated the effect of institutional mechanisms of micropension saving (MPS) schemes in extending coverage to informal economy workers. We used mixed methods as the research approach, and collected both quantitative and qualitative data for analysis. Using principal component analysis, multiple regression analysis and interpretative approaches that yielded themes, we concluded that more access provision, incentives and security result in increased informal economy workers’ participation in MPS. However, general form of financial information to informal economy workers was found to demotivate enrolment onto the scheme. Consequently, we recommended that corporate pension trustees should create institutional structures like pension education campaigns on national television and radio to promote the culture of pension saving.

In migration studies, research on backward linkages has received a lot of attention. However, research on rural-urban forward linkages is scanty. This article explored the forward linkages from rural households in the Upper West Region of Ghana to urban migrants in the mining town of Obuasi, which has a long history of attracting migrant workers. The study employed a qualitative research design using in-depth interviews to gather data from 26 respondents in Tizza, Kojokpere, Issa, Kaleo and Jang; and 13 urban migrants in Obuasi. Four focus group discussions were conducted in Obuasi to support and validate the in-depth interviews conducted in the rural communities. The study shows that the resource ows from Tizza, Kojokpere, Issa, Kaleo and Jang to urban migrants in Obuasi are in the form of social support, nancial and food transfers. The rural households view the resource ows as necessary for sustaining the livelihoods of their migrant family members and for maintaining a ective ties. The study establishes that reverse ows put nancial and social burdens on rural households and this burden drains resources of rural households.

Recent policy debates point to public service privatisation as a solution to the problems of state indebtedness, non-performance, and inefciency of the public sector. This privatisation agenda has raised concerns about the implications for jobs and working conditions. In developing countries like Ghana, where markets are weak or exhibit signs of failure, state policy becomes a vital avenue for securing decent working conditions for workers. Using an appraisal of Ghana’s Environmental Sanitation Policy and through the lens of institutional theory, the paper argues that the extent to which employment rights are framed, even at the policy stage, signals how labour rights will be impacted within privatised employment spaces. The analysis shows that the environmental sanitation policy ignores the interests of labour. The paper, therefore, recommends the need for inputs of labour market institutions such as trade unions at the policy stage. This is because trade unions remain the most credible source of response to the unrestrained exploitative tendencies of capital at the expense of labour.