Education and Employment Outcomes in Ghana through the Lens of the Capability Approach

Sarkodie, Adu Owusu; Agyei‐Mensah, Samuel; Anarfi, John K.; Bosiakoh, Thomas Antwi

doi:10.11564/28-2-597

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 3 publications

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“…If capabilities means having the freedom to be, to achieve, to aspire to a wellbeing goal, then the resources available to retirees and the conversion factors provide the necessary endowments that are useful for attaining desired functionings in various dimensions of wellbeing and ultimately overall wellbeing (Robeyns, 2017;Sarkodie, Agyei-Mensah, Anarfi, and Bosiakoh, 2014). The interaction of these endowments enables individuals to achieve their desired functionings in dimensions of life they have reason to value.…”

Section: Towards a Mixed Methods Capabilities Model For Understandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

From pension to wellbeing: A study of retirement income and wellbeing of retirees in Ghana

Andoh¹

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A major challenge for governments and policy makers around the world, including Ghana, is how to provide retirement incomes that are able to ensure wellbeing in retirement. Without adequate pensions, poverty rates, which are already high among retirees, will be much higher. In the context of a developing country like Ghana where informal social support for the elderly is declining due to the processes of urbanization and migration, formal social security intervention is an indispensable tool for ensuring equitable development and economic growth. The 2014 UN Development Report, for instance, calls for access to basic services, including pensions, in order to improve the capacities of vulnerable population groups, including the elderly, to withstand livelihood shocks. The notions of capability/functionings and conversion factors in Amartya Sen's capability approach have been used in this thesis as a conceptual framework to analyse the effect of incomes, socio-demographic characteristics and conversion factors on health, housing, food, social, financial and overall wellbeing of Ghanaian retirees receiving a social security pension under the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pension scheme (Act 766, 2008). The study employs a mixed methods research design in a two-phased data collection process. Phase I is a survey of 330 SSNIT retirees. Phase II involved in-depth face-to-face interviews with 12 purposively selected respondents from the sample in phase 1. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed to address three research questions: (1) What is the effect of financial and non-financial factors (retirement income and personal characteristics) on the different dimensions of wellbeing in retirement ?; (2) Is overall wellbeing of retirees better predicted by financial factors than non-financial factors?; and (3) In what ways do personal and environmental characteristics enable retirees to translate their retirement income into achieved functionings in overall wellbeing? It was found that both pension income and total individual income have statistical associations with all dimensions of wellbeing (health, housing, food and social), with the exception of financial wellbeing. The qualitative data points to the key role of money in meeting the desired wellbeing of the respondents. Access to health care, house ownership and non-payment of house rent, family support in cash and kind, healthy food choices, continuous family and community engagements, and financial independence are some additional key drivers that enable the achievement of desired health, housing, food, social and financial wellbeing. iii The analysis shows that while both financial and non-financial factors influence overall wellbeing, the effect of financial factors, measured by their regression coefficients, is bigger than that of any non-financial factor. In effect, income better predicts the overall wellbeing of respondents than non-financial factors. Qualitative interviews with respondents confirm that without sufficient income, ...

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Section: Towards a Mixed Methods Capabilities Model For Understandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

From pension to wellbeing: A study of retirement income and wellbeing of retirees in Ghana

Andoh¹

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Insights for Measuring Social Value: Classification of Measures Related to the Capabilities Approach

2017

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A path to professional capability: The Career Start Programme in Bulgaria as a strategy to youth development

Yakova,

Politov,

Gerganov

2024

Soc Policy Adm

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This article looks into the Career Start Programme in Bulgaria through the prism of Sen's capability approach, and more particularly—the application of the approach to career guidance, employment programmes and youth labour market activation [Correction added on 15 August 2024, after first online publication: The full name of the programme in the previous sentence has been defined in this version.]. It analyses the programme's effects on its beneficiaries in enhancing their capability for work and capability for knowledge. Through qualitative and quantitative data analysis, we examine: (1) how the programme affects the participants' meaningful choices to aspire for and get a desired job and to develop sustainable career paths, and (2) how the programme influences the participants' capability for learning and skill acquisition. We find that, as a whole, the programme has positive influences on the larger part of its beneficiaries, as it equips them with the necessary capabilities to develop their future careers. We, however, observe certain issues with the programme calling for adjustments, so that young participants are better empowered to participate in the design of youth initiatives and formulate NEET‐related and youth employment policies that will be more conducive to their career paths in the future and to their aspirations for jobs they value.

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Education and Employment Outcomes in Ghana through the Lens of the Capability Approach

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

From pension to wellbeing: A study of retirement income and wellbeing of retirees in Ghana

From pension to wellbeing: A study of retirement income and wellbeing of retirees in Ghana

Insights for Measuring Social Value: Classification of Measures Related to the Capabilities Approach

A path to professional capability: The Career Start Programme in Bulgaria as a strategy to youth development

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