IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bcp/journl/v6y2022i12p08-15.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information and Communication Technology in Rural Healthcare and Social Welfare Service Provision in Ghana – Prospects in the Face of Social Inequalities

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Kwaku Larbi Anderson

    (Center for Planning and Development of Social Services (ZPE) University of Siegen, Germany)

  • Johannes Schädler

    (Center for Planning and Development of Social Services (ZPE) University of Siegen, Germany)

  • Lars Wissenbach

    (Center for Planning and Development of Social Services (ZPE) University of Siegen, Germany)

Abstract

In recent times, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are being adopted more widely and variously by local governments across the globe to enhance citizens’ participation in the socio-political decision-making process. Potentially, ICTs, if properly designed and implemented, can improve civic participation in the context of information dissemination, request and feedback, and direct engagement in local policy debates in various areas of public service delivery. This paper presents the findings of a study that examined the prospects of enhancing citizens’ participation in local governance and development through ICTs in rural Ghanaian communities. The main objective was to explore the potential of ICTs to facilitate communication relating to social welfare and health-related services between rural dispersed communities and local government structures. The study was conducted in two purposefully selected municipalities, one being Nsawam-Adoagyiri, and the other Suhum, both situated in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Through community engagements and participatory design, digital competence, and the use of ICT tools for communication and participation in local governance were explored with the primary focus on public service delivery relating to health and social care.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Kwaku Larbi Anderson & Johannes Schädler & Lars Wissenbach, 2022. "Information and Communication Technology in Rural Healthcare and Social Welfare Service Provision in Ghana – Prospects in the Face of Social Inequalities," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 6(12), pages 08-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:6:y:2022:i:12:p:08-15
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/Digital-Library/volume-6-issue-12/08-15.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/virtual-library/papers/information-and-communication-technology-in-rural-healthcare-and-social-welfare-service-provision-in-ghana-prospects-in-the-face-of-social-inequalities/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Darren Chadwick & Caroline Wesson & Chris Fullwood, 2013. "Internet Access by People with Intellectual Disabilities: Inequalities and Opportunities," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-22, July.
    2. Amy Antonio & David Tuffley, 2014. "The Gender Digital Divide in Developing Countries," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-15, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bhandari, Aarushi & Burroway, Rebekah, 2023. "Hold the phone! A cross-national analysis of Women's education, mobile phones, and HIV infections in low- and middle-income countries, 1990–2018," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    2. Robert Ferritto, 2024. "Will policy help close the digital gender divide? An intersectional feminist policy analysis of Ethiopia's national digital policy," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 42(2), March.
    3. Erica L. Gallindo & Hobson A. Cruz & Mário W. L. Moreira, 2021. "Critical Examination Using Business Intelligence on the Gender Gap in Information Technology in Brazil," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(15), pages 1-9, August.
    4. Holden, Stein T. & Tilahun, Mesfin, 2021. "Mobile phones, leadership and gender in rural business groups," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    5. Amy Antonio & David Tuffley, 2014. "The Gender Digital Divide in Developing Countries," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-15, October.
    6. Muhammad Imran & Umair Qazi & Ferda Ofli, 2022. "TBCOV: Two Billion Multilingual COVID-19 Tweets with Sentiment, Entity, Geo, and Gender Labels," Data, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, January.
    7. Taron, Avinandan & Drechsel, Pay & Gebrezgabher, Solomie, 2021. "Gender dimensions of solid and liquid waste management for reuse in agriculture in Asia and Africa," Resource Recovery and Reuse Series H050720, International Water Management Institute.
    8. Pedro Malo-Perisé & José Merseguer, 2022. "The “Socialized Architecture”: A Software Engineering Approach for a New Cloud," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-20, February.
    9. Costa, Helia & Pisu, Mauro & Shreeti, Vatsala, 2022. "Short Term Cost of Cash and Mobile Financial Services: Evidence from a natural experiment in India," TSE Working Papers 22-1351, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    10. Yancong Zhu & Juan Zhang & Zhaoxi Zhang & Gina Clepper & Jingpeng Jia & Wei Liu, 2022. "Designing an Interactive Communication Assistance System for Hearing-Impaired College Students Based on Gesture Recognition and Representation," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-14, June.
    11. David Tuffley & Amy Antonio, 2015. "Enhancing Educational Opportunities with Computer-Mediated Assessment Feedback," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-13, August.
    12. García-Suaza, A & Rodríguez-González, D & Sarango, A & Mayorga, J. D & Pretel, A & Husain-Talero, S & Zarama, L & Urbano, J. C., Girón, D., Medina, N, 2022. "Los impactos de la inclusión financiera en los micronegocios: factores que explican aumentos en los ingresos y crecimiento de los negocios," Documentos de Trabajo 20418, Universidad del Rosario.
    13. Waqas Shair & Tatheer Zahra & Muhammad Tayyab & Neelam Kubra, 2022. "The Impact of the Digital Divide on Wage Gaps among Individuals in Pakistan," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 8(4), pages 97-107, December.
    14. Mellon,Jonathan & Peixoto,Tiago Carneiro & Sjoberg,Fredrik Matias, 2022. "The Haves and the Have Nots : Civic Technologies and the Pathways to Government Responsiveness," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10195, The World Bank.
    15. López-Martínez María & García-Luque Olga & Rodríguez-Pasquín Myriam, 2021. "Digital Gender Divide and Convergence in the European Union Countries," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 115-128, January.
    16. Taxiarchis Vouglanis & Athanasios Drigas, 2022. "The positive impact of Internet on the cognitive, psychological and social side of people’s personality with disabilities," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 35(1), pages 29-42, September.
    17. Hina Amber & Bezawit Beyene Chichaibelu, 2023. "Narrowing the gender digital divide in Pakistan: Mobile phone ownership and female labor force participation," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 1354-1382, August.
    18. Romero-Martínez, Ana M. & García-Muiña, Fernando E., 2021. "Digitalization level, corruptive practices, and location choice in the hotel industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 176-185.
    19. Krzysztof Krysta & Monika Romańczyk & Albert Diefenbacher & Marek Krzystanek, 2021. "Telemedicine Treatment and Care for Patients with Intellectual Disability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-12, February.
    20. Laura Freina & Rosa Bottino & Michela Ott & Filippo Costa, 2015. "Social Empowerment of Intellectually Impaired through a Cloud Mobile System," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-16, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:6:y:2022:i:12:p:08-15. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr. Pawan Verma (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.