Speaker: Daniel Duah
Topic: “Building Regulations Enforcement in Ghana”
Date: Thursday, September 19, 2013
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Place: Room 201 International Center
Daniel Yaw Addai Duah is a Lecturer in Architecture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. He is also a practicing architect belonging to the professional body, Ghana Institute of Architects and is registered with the Architects Registration Council of Ghana.
Daniel is currently a PhD candidate in Planning, Design, and Construction (with a concentration in Construction Management) at Michigan State University. His main area of focus for his research is “Energy Efficiency in Buildings”. He holds a Master of Science Degree in Construction Management and Economics from the Greenwich University in London, U.K. and a Post Graduate Diploma and Bachelor of Science Degrees both in Architecture from KNUST.
About the talk:
The control of the building process has a long history predating many hundreds of years. As a result of the need to protect the health and safety their citizens, governments typically make laws, rules and regulations for the built environment. This involves developing technical requirements and procedures to regulate building construction by checking building plans against the requirements and issuing building permits. At specified stages of the construction process, inspections are made to ensure conformance with the regulations until completion where a certificate of occupancy is issued.
There has been a growing trend in the collapse of buildings in Ghana especially over the last decade. As a result, people have lost their lives or been injured, property and money have been lost, communities have been traumatized. A primary reason for this phenomenon has been attributed to the lack of or inadequate enforcement of building regulations. Compared to other developed countries such as the USA or the UK where there are very well established enforcement regimes, Ghana and indeed developing countries have some work to do.
The aim of the study is to contribute to the body of knowledge in the development of a robust and sustainable enforcement regime in developing countries using Ghana as a case study. This is achieved by doing a comparative study of the enforcement regime in the USA and Ghana. On that basis, proposals are made to strengthen and enhance the building regulation enforcement regime in Ghana (developing countries).