Institutions

The Dodowa Health Research Centre was set up as part of an agreement with the then British Oversees Development Agency (ODA), now DFID to have Operations Research satellite stations in the early 1990’s. The studies focused on developing and evaluating community and district-based health interventions and obtaining information to improve the process of health policy, planning, and service delivery in the Ghana Health Service. At the time, the Head of the Research and Health Management Team was vested in one person and as a result, staff whose primary work was health administration conducted research as part of their work but after some time a core staff solely for research was put together and the two groups worked closely together. This was critical to the success of the type of research conducted in the centre. Due to the growing nature of the centre, the two functions (Head of Research and Head of health administration) were separated in May 2004 but very close links are still maintained with the District Health Management Team.

The centre is one of the three health research centres of the Ghana Health Service tasked with the responsibility of conducting research within the health sector. It is sited as the name suggests in Dodowa, the district capital of the Dangme West District of the Greater Accra Region. The district is rural but is gradually catching up with the rapid urbanization of the peripheral areas surrounding the city of Accra. It has the largest land surface area (about 1,700 square km) in the region and is bounded on the North by the Akuapim Ranges; to the South by Tema; to the East by River Volta and the West by Ga District. The land is flat and at sea level with isolated hills. Among the hills are the ancient ‘SHAI HILLS’, which is presently a tourist attraction. The vegetation is mainly coastal savannah however, Dodowa boasts of a forest, which is popularly known as the ‘ Dodowa Forest’.

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The district is divided into four administrative sub-districts, which are:

Dodowa (Shai) sub-district, Prampram sub-district, Great Ningo sub-district (formerly Old Ningo) and Osudoku sub-district. The Osudoku and Old Ningo sub-districts cover a greater land area than the Prampram and Dodowa sub districts. At the same time, they have the worst roads in the district. Apart from Akuse road leading into Asutsuare town, and the old Asutsuare road, none of the roads in the Osudoku sub-districts is tarred. Even the tarred roads are not in very good condition. In the rainy seasons, some of the villages are inaccessible except with a four-wheel drive. At the same time, the scattered nature of the population means that a lot of effort is needed to reach a few people.

The population is, however not dense, with an estimated population of 120,065 and a 2005 estimated population growth rate of 4.4 per cent. Baseline information gathered for the setting up of a demographic surveillance system in the district indicates that the population of the district is 98, 681. Details of the population will be presented in the section on DSS.

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Most of the population live in scattered small communities of less than 2000 people. It is completely rural with wide spread poverty - subsistence farmers, fishermen and petty traders and a handful of artisans and civil servants. The district is deprived and, therefore, has most people migrating out to find jobs and as such always seemed to have a projected population, which was more than the actual. When the 2000 census was carried out, this was found to be so. However, the new projection of 4.4 percent applied to the whole of Greater Accra Region again puts the district at a disadvantage. To this end, the research centre has plans of putting a demographic surveillance system in place to have an accurate population base and to keep track of the people in the district.

Each sub-district has a health institution with either one or two community clinics. In total, there are six community clinics, two in Dodowa, one in Prampram, two in Osudoku and one in Ningo, which also serves as a Community Health and Planning Services (CHPS). There is another CHPS centre at New Ningo, which is within the Prampram sub-district. There are four private health institutions in the district, which send monthly returns to the District Health Administration. These institutions are Ebenezer Clinic, Grace Maternity Home, Afienya Community-Based Clinic and St Andrews Catholic Clinic.

Institutional Relationships

The center, which is one of the three health research centres, responds technically to the Health Research Unit which is one of the four units of the Policy planning Monitoring and Evaluation Division (PPMED) of the Ghana Health Service and administratively to the Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate. The center, through its activities and functions contributes to the over all objectives of the Division, which are:

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The centre has close working relationships with the Dangme West District Health Administration; the Dangme West District Assembly, the Navrongo and Kintampo Health Research Centres. Students pursuing the Masters in Public Health Programme (MPH) at the school of Public Health, University of Ghana, come to the district for their field attachment and spend time at the research centre seeking technical support. The centre collaborates with other institutions like

Objectives of the Centre

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