We are accepting applications for our MA and PhD in Social Policy Studies.

Apply through the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) website.

Note: We will not admit a new cohort of MRPP students for the 2025/2026 academic year (applications are not open for the 2025/2026 academic year). There will be new admissions for 2026/2027 academic year.

Many youth in Global South countries grow up without one or both parents due to international migration. In the literature, these youth are called ‘left-behind’ but I prefer the term ‘stayer youth’ to avoid any negative connotations about them. Often, these youth reside in different caregiving arrangements. Research investigating how this affects their life chances or subjective wellbeing is mixed.

This paper formulates a life cycle model that incorporates a key feature of the labour market in developing countries—informal workers do not have access to pension hence lack formal protection against income and longevity risks when they are old—to the study effects of introducing a non-contributory universal non-mean tested pension to elderly informal sector workers. We use data from Ghana to estimate the behavioral parameters of the model and then simulate the changes induced by the pension in welfare and fiscal costs.

The Centre for Social Policy Studies (CSPS) at the University of Ghana co-organised a two-day philanthropy conference in Ghana. This was in collaboration with Star Ghana Foundation (SGF), the Ghana Philanthropy Forum, the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), the CSOs SDGs Platform, and the National Youth Authority.

Taxes are not just about money and not just of interest to economists. Using as a starting point recent flashpoints such as the E-Levy controversy in Ghana and tax protests in Kenya and other African countries, the panel showed the connection between taxation and wider political and social issues. This interactive panel discussed the relationship between taxes and trust in the state, elections and public mobilisation, informality, and gendered social relations.

This hybrid event was a collaboration between: