Paper long abstract:

This paper is concerned with the linkages between young people’s health, well-being and mobility potential in Ghana. Although mobility constraints and transport failures are often implicated in studies concerning access to health services, they have rarely been considered in any detail. Research focused on the linkages between health, well-being and mobility in a child/youth context is particularly sparse. Empirical evidence from Ghana allows us to compare the impact of mobility and transport constraints in diverse types of geographical location on young people’s health and well-being. We focus not only on the more obvious connections around differing physical access to health services in contrasting locations (distance; freedom to travel; availability of cheap, regular, reliable public transport; transport availability in referral situations), but also on the potentially significant implications of Africa’s enormous transport gap (and consequent demands for young people’s labour as pedestrian porters, especially in remoter rural locations) for health and well-being . Our evidence comes from a very diverse range of sources, including intensive qualitative research with children and adults (in-depth interviews, accompanied walks, focus groups, life histories), and a follow-up questionnaire survey administered to children aged 7 -18 years. The research was conducted in eight different sites i.e. urban, peri-urban, rural and remote rural sites in two different agro-ecological zones (coastal zone, forest zone). Our aim in the paper is to draw attention to the diversity of connections between young people’s mobility constraints and health and well-being, the diversity in experience both across geographical locations and within different locational contexts (with reference to factors such as age, gender, birth-order, socio-economic status, patterns of health service and transport provision etc.), and to suggest areas where further research is required.