Urban Poverty, Livelihood, and Gender: Perceptions and Experiences of Porters in Accra, Ghana

This paper reports the results of interviews and group discussions elicited from a sample of forty males and eighty females who were working as porters in Accra, Ghana. The purpose of the paper is to generate and analyze new information about the nature and experience of poverty among this group. Porters of both sexes self-report livelihood strategies are affected by their lack of capital assets. Their perception of poverty is shaped by culturally accepted traditional beliefs regarding gender roles and gender ideologies. Further research is called for to confirm these results, but they already have implications for national and international policies that seek to address critical issues of exclusion and inequality.