non-farm activities and poverty alleviation in ghana
KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
NON-FARM ACTIVITIES AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN RURAL GHANA: A CASE STUDY OF ASSIN-SOUTH DISTRICT
BY
CALEB NAT WOOD
4599110
CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Poverty is the condition of having insufficient resources or income. In its most extreme form, poverty is lack of basic human needs, such as adequate and nutritious food, clothing, housing, clean water, and health services. Extreme poverty can cause terrible suffering and death; and even modest levels of poverty can prevent people from realizing many of their desires. The world’s poorest people many of whom live in developing areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe struggle daily for food, shelter, and other necessities. They often suffer from severe malnutrition, epidemic disease outbreaks, famine, and war. It is due to the idea of reducing the incidence of poverty that the government of Ghana adopted the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy, which represents comprehensive policies to support growth and poverty reduction in the country. With this the Government of Ghana aims to create wealth by transforming the nature of the economy to achieve growth, accelerated poverty reduction and the protection of the vulnerable and excluded within a decentralized democratic environment. In Ghana, like other developing countries, the evidence of poverty is seen mostly in the rural areas. Over 60% of Ghana’s population lives in the rural areas, and as such past governments have adopted various programmes and policies aimed at reducing poverty and promoting rural development.
While in developed nations poverty is often seen as either a personal or a structural defect, in developing nations the issue of
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
NON-FARM ACTIVITIES AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN RURAL GHANA: A CASE STUDY OF ASSIN-SOUTH DISTRICT
BY
CALEB NAT WOOD
4599110
CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Poverty is the condition of having insufficient resources or income. In its most extreme form, poverty is lack of basic human needs, such as adequate and nutritious food, clothing, housing, clean water, and health services. Extreme poverty can cause terrible suffering and death; and even modest levels of poverty can prevent people from realizing many of their desires. The world’s poorest people many of whom live in developing areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe struggle daily for food, shelter, and other necessities. They often suffer from severe malnutrition, epidemic disease outbreaks, famine, and war. It is due to the idea of reducing the incidence of poverty that the government of Ghana adopted the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy, which represents comprehensive policies to support growth and poverty reduction in the country. With this the Government of Ghana aims to create wealth by transforming the nature of the economy to achieve growth, accelerated poverty reduction and the protection of the vulnerable and excluded within a decentralized democratic environment. In Ghana, like other developing countries, the evidence of poverty is seen mostly in the rural areas. Over 60% of Ghana’s population lives in the rural areas, and as such past governments have adopted various programmes and policies aimed at reducing poverty and promoting rural development.
While in developed nations poverty is often seen as either a personal or a structural defect, in developing nations the issue of