Denny

Finally! A full video. When I got the invitation to do a full Ghanaian Food takeover at Snapchat hq, I couldn't believe it! But I knew exactly what to do in that moment . I am so grateful to Snapchat for the opportunity to showcase Ghanaian food culture ❤️🌟.

The state, despite all the power at its disposal, has been unable to stop galamsey. The state has also been paying a premium for gold from galamsey, only to sell that same gold at a discount and incur losses. These losses are then justified as policy costs that generate significant benefits. However, none of this cost–benefit analysis accounts for the environmental damage and long-term public health costs. It’s all about the short-term macroeconomic gains. The state must act swiftly to #StopGalamseyNow

Ghana: With a strong local currency, it becomes difficult to question the level of attribution and the losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana under its Domestic Gold Purchase Programme in the public square. Raising concerns is not about winning an argument, but about ensuring that someone listens in time to reexamine the credibility of the policy and its ability to deliver sustainable outcomes. Read more 👇 acep.africa/when-policy-cr…

“Go to central region, no water…..go to Koforidua, the water cannot be treated….” #StopGalamseyNow

Just minutes from the Kwanyako Treatment Plant, residents face water shortages as their only source — the Ayensu River — now flows thick brown #JoyNewsFocus || #JoyDigital || #StopGalamsey

120+ medical officers accross Ghana, caring for patients every day. Yet, they can’t even afford the very care they provide. If this were your life, how would you survive? #PayMedicalOfficersNow

I think the important thing about this day is that no matter your parents' struggle in life, they will always do their best to make sure it's actually your day. Love your parents oo chale

TOR is gearing up to restart full operations by October — a move expected to cut Ghana’s fuel import bill and save the nation up to $400 million every month. Acting MD Edmund Kombat says the goal is to refine up to 60% of Ghana’s own crude oil. #CitiNewsroom

Today, I’m tired. @MTNGhana, you have given me the worst Fibre broadband experience ever. My broadband has not worked since the day it was installed. And that’s been over 7 weeks now. I have called 116 on more than 7 different occasions spanning 6 weeks.

1. When I talk about the lack of "national learning" being Ghana's problem, I want my Ghanaian compatriots to be honest with themselves. 2. How many important areas of national life - electricity, health, education, transport etc - have you seen improve steadily over time because we studied national failures and adopted new strategies? 3. If you can't point to an area and describe how the nation learnt from previous policy mistakes and which new methods were applied to cause which improvement, then you must agree with me. 4. But I also acknowledge that most citizens are very busy. They don't have time for the complex details. This is the case worldwide. Citizens want RESULTS. Politics, worldwide, is thus about results. 5. But results don't pop out from thin air. Careful plans and actions in MULTIPLE contexts and areas lead to the aggregate results that citizens care about. In short, POLICIES lead to the POLITICAL results that voters vote for. 6. No policy is perfect. Policy mistakes will always happen. In every serious society, therefore, there are groups of citizens who scrutinise, debate, and contest over policies to ensure that the nation learns about and from policy mistakes and gets better at delivering results that citizens care about. 7. The problem in Ghana is that there is no real link between policy and politics. I call this KATANOMICS. There is zero accountability for policy mistakes and near-zero social understanding of policy success. At the same time, there is intense political competition over results. So, politicians constantly cut corners (like borrow recklessly) to deliver what LOOKS LIKE RESULTS. (Sometimes, this is done in a "state enchantment" manner that also lines the pockets of their friends and cronies. But that's another story.) 8. Let me give you an example of our inability to learn from policy in Ghana: Zipline. 9. In 2018, a Californian startup from Half Moon Bay (just outside San Francisco) showed up in Ghana with a tech concept it had piloted on a very small scale in Rwanda. Drones carrying medicines and blood products will be catapulted from a depot. The drone will hover over a clinic, drop the products, and return to base. 10. The justification for this program was that there are clinics in places with such bad roads that this was either the only way or the best way to get products to them. 11. The delivery will be based on a "Just in Time Demand-Driven" model. When the nurse needs to administer an injection, blood infusion, or snake venom, it will send a message (mostly via WhatsApp) to the depot. The depot will then respond within a few hours by shooting the product over. 12. When this concept first came up, some think tanks like IMANI examined the concept very closely. We argued that this concept cannot replace the main national medicines distribution network and must be confined to a very small segment that genuinely can't be helped in any other way. 13. We based our argument on the following: a) the main national distribution system based on Central & Regional Medical Stores is falling apart. Many regional medical stores have no vans. The reason why many clinics don't have medicines in stock is due to this problem and others (such as underfunding) and not necessarily because of bad roads. b) drone delivery is very expensive. At that time, based on the contract we saw, we calculated the cost of delivery to be around $18 per kilo. Our analysis showed that drone delivery would be 10x more expensive than the use of tricycles (where there are bad roads) or vans. c) The Just in Time model would disrupt standard inventory planning. Etc. 14. Naturally, in an environment, where policy is never really debated properly and the results of the debate factored into what politicians do, IMANI was totally ignored. Instead of a small program, a large initiative involving, at one point, about 6 depots was rolled out. Dozens of drones started zipping about, dropping stuff. 15. The strategy of how exactly to stock the depots was never thought through. A kind of take-and-pay contract was devised. The Californian startup raised hundreds of millions of dollars based mainly on the juicy contract signed with Ghana, which, mind you, relinquished all rights to the emergent intellectual property even though the country was being used as a testbed. 16. Due to the standard poor planning, it didn't take long before the millions of dollars in unpaid bills to Zipline started to mount. The Ministry of Health had never incorporated drone delivery into any of its medium-term policy strategies. It hadn't budgeted for them properly. Clinic staff started to over-use the system. Instead of emergency deliveries, routine products costing a few cents per box were being catapulted by drones in small quantities. 17. Zipline, naturally frustrated by the failure of Ghana to pay its bills, complained to the American government and various senators who started to pressure the government of Ghana to start paying up. 18. The usual murkiness and opacity in which most serious policies are executed in Ghana means that no one outside a small group in government knows exactly how much Zipline charges per kilo today. Or how much the take-or-pay component is. Or how much arrears have piled up. Or even the full cost-benefit implications of the contract. There has been no official independent monitoring and evaluation. What studies there have been were commissioned by Zipline itself and did not cover the full cost-benefit matrix. 19. Then the government of the day changes. Given that the new government when it was in opposition in 2018 was very critical of the Zipline program, one can be forgiven for thinking that some transparency would be forthcoming. Wrong assumption. KATANOMICS is not a problem with one party or the other. It describes the policy-politics dysfunction in Ghana regardless of who is in government. Thus, even though the current govt is better at consulting and more open to feedback, the fundamental issues remain. 20. A few days ago, the Minister of Communications and Digital Innovation visited Zipline. Besides himself with joy at seeing the drones zip in and out, he immediately made policy on the spot. He now wants drones to deliver pesticides and fertilisers! To farmers in remote corners. 21. If medicines, that have a very high value-to-volume ratio can't be drone-transported cost-effectively, just imagine the costs for doing drone delivery of pesticides and fertilisers. How sustainable would it be to be dropping 1-kg NPK fertiliser bags costing $2 each in the bush at, say, $15 per flight? The most important point here, though, is not whether this is a good idea or not. It is about whether we are ever interested in NATIONAL LEARNING. It is about whether we are capable of dispassionately analysing the results of what we do and building on the insights in an open, transparent, and rigorous manner. 22. Question is: what was the Minister grounding his policy proposal to extend Zipline to agro-inputs on? It clearly isn't a careful assessment of any policy lessons. Is it? It isn't based on any well-debated pros and cons. Is it? Cost-benefit analysis? Forget it. 24. Until policy begins to have high-stakes political implications because there is a policy community large enough to make politicians think twice before they launch programs, they will keep going for shiny trophies that LOOK LIKE RESULTS. Pseudo-results that would be politically rewarded. 25. Then they will bill citizens for these shiny trophies, and collect votes on top. PS:- Read more about IMANI's 2018 Zipline analysis here: imaniafrica.org/2018/12/imani-…

@gsmanzano12 @MGHNeurology @BWHNeurology @harvardmed Congratulations Giovanna!

Proud to share I have been promoted to Assistant Professor at HMS! What a week! @MGHNeurology @BWHNeurology @harvardmed

I just released an article on my journey to matching into residency. Tried to be as detailed and honest as possible, hopefully it answers some of the questions I’ve been getting lately. Grateful for all the kind messages. Hope it helps someone out there @raphaeleloka/an-unconventional-match-821765c99d3c" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">medium.com/@raphaeleloka/…

@HelenaBaffoeB @OslerResidency @CleClinicLCM @CWRUSOM @SarnoffCardio Congrats Helena!!

Overflowing with gratitude—thrilled to be heading to Johns Hopkins @OslerResidency for Internal Medicine! Deepest thanks to my incredible support system and mentors. All glory to God… I’M COMING HOME! 💙 #Match2025 #CCLCMMATCH #CWRUMatchDay2025 #MedTwitter

We are ECSTATIC to announce and welcome our newly matched residents for the MGB Adult Neurology Class of 2029 and MGH Pediatric Neurology class of 2030! Congratulations to everyone and we cannot wait to meet you!! 🥳🎉🧠

@SaraAlZubi1 Real😭🤣

One of the necessary reforms is for board positions at SoEs to be advertised and competitively filled. SIGA would have responsibility to oversee that. Once the boards are in place, they would competitively hire the CEOs. It’s absolutely insane that presidents have so much power to appoint the CEOs of SoEs. They appoint cronies they can control and expect the SoEs to put up magical performances 😜

@yaron__zango Lol this matter

I Dey die 😂

Not starting a detox today because I have a liver and kidneys

He’s wrong. An economy which cannot borrow internally or externally but must repay $4bn & GHs100bn from 2025-28; energy sector debt over $2bn; BoG needs GHs70bn from govt to recapitalize; public pension arrears to be paid; 111 uncompleted hospitals w/ no funding source.

We are DONE with @MassGenBrigham’s delays and union-busting tricks. MGB residents and fellows rallied together last week at both MassGeneral Hospital and Brigham and Women’s for a fair contract! ✊