Joseph Kofi Teye

Local institutions and adaptive capacity to climate change/variability in the northern savannah of Ghana

Ghana faces several challenges from climate change/variability. Local institutions provide the framework within which idiosyncratic capacities of local people can be exercised in their adaptation to climate change. This paper examines the importance of formal and informal institutions for building adaptive capacity. Both formal and informal institutions play different but complementary roles in enabling or preventing the ability to cope, benefit and adapt to climate change. Responses to climate change in northern Ghana are dependent on the nature of institutions that grant people access to resources; define their exposure to climate threats; and dictate the rate of recovery from debilitating disasters. The effectiveness of institutions is constrained by their limited spatial and temporal reach, limited financial and human resources, and sometimes the faulty strategy designs and implementation procedures. Traditional institutions may malfunction when modern interpretations of tradition are in the interests of custodians of tradition rather than the ordinary poor. We emphasize the need for synergy between institutions that support adaptive capacities of the poor, and request corrective measures to institutions that lead to maladaptation.

Exploring the autonomous adaptation strategies to climate change and climate variability in selected villages in the rural northern savannah zone of Ghana

Evidence abounds attesting to changes in the global climate. In Ghana, climate change and climate variability have brought several exposure-sensitivities on different people and at different times. Due to the multiplicity of climate change and climate variability effects, adaptation strategies invariably could be influenced by several factors. This paper assesses the adoption of adaptation strategies in the rural northern savannah zone of Ghana as a result of climate change and variability. Using two villages each from Savelugu Nanton, West Mamprusi and Kassena Nankana East Districts, which are slightly different as case studies, the paper unearthed panoply of varied adaptation strategies in each of them including intensification of irrigation; integration of livestock production; changes in tillage practices; fertiliser application on farms; shift from agriculture to non-farm jobs; seasonal migration and purchase of drought insurance for maize. The results indicate that the relativity in adoption and utilisation of the different adaptive strategies are interlinked with geographical, social, economic, institutional and political factors and processes in the villages. The findings drum home the essentiality of location-specific planned adaptation strategies for climate change through a bottom-up approach, in order to ensure their effectiveness and sustainability.

Benefits, challenges and dynamism of positionalities associated with Mixed Methods Research in Developing Countries: Evidence from Ghana

Although mixed methods designs have gained visibility in recent years, most of the publications on this methodological strategy have been written by scholars in the developed world. Consequently, the practical challenges associated with mixed methods research in developing countries have not been adequately discussed in the literature. Relying on a case study in Ghana, this article examines the benefits and challenges of combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in a single research. The article also demonstrates how the positionality of a mixed methods researcher varies from one context to another. Based on the findings of this study, some recommendations have been made for managing the challenges associated with mixed methods researches.

Condom use as a means of HIV/AIDS prevention and fertility control among the Krobos of Ghana

Abstract Prior to the 1980s, family planning programs in Ghana mainly focused on fertility reduction through the use of contraceptives in general. Since the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, family planning programmes have only emphasized condom use, for the dual purpose of HIV prevention and fertility reduction. There are speculations that such campaigns will not only increase the use of contraceptives in general but increasingly lead to a shift from the use of hormonal methods to the condom. For such speculations to be realized, the two purposes of using condoms must be compatible. Unfortunately, this issue has not been fully explored. Using data collected on a sample of 110 respondents, this article analyses the compatibility between condom use for fertility reduction and HIV prevention with special reference to the people of Krobo Odumase, in Ghana. The study reveals that there are sometimes conflicts between fertility motives and condom use for HIV prevention. Age, gender and marital status are strong variables that shape such fertility motives, which in turn influence the propensity to use condoms. The study also shows that certain gendered cultural practices, such as yosedofiermi, disempower women in negotiating for condom use.

Supplementing urban water supply with rainwater harvesting in Accra, Ghana

This article examines the challenges associated with rainwater harvesting and usage in peri-urban Accra. Data collected from 357 heads of household reveal that rainwater harvesting has the potential to supplement existing water sources in peri-urban Accra. However, high investment costs for rainwater harvesting facilities, short-term tenancy arrangements, the perception that rainwater is not clean, and the unique dry climate of the Accra Plains emerge as key challenges limiting domestic use of rainwater. Public education for house owners to invest in rainwater harvesting facilities and governmental support will be needed to increase investment in rainwater harvesting, purification and usage.

Ambiguities of Forest Management Decentralization in Ghana

Abstract This article examines the outcomes of forest management decentralization in Ghana. It has been demonstrated that despite claims that Ghana has adopted forest management decentralization policy, actual forest management powers and rights over forest resources are still retained by the central government. The government is only interested in using the decentralization policy to reduce expenditure and extend its control over forest resources. Nevertheless, it has employed policy ambiguities to hide its true intentions from international donors. In order to contain international donor demands for equity in the distribution of natural resource revenue, a small stream of forest revenue is paid to a few unelected traditional rulers and district assembly officials, who are actually within the executives patronage networks. In the absence of any meaningful reward system and secure rights over forest resources, community forestry committees are not functioning properly.

Agricultural commercialisation models, agrarian dynamics and local development in Ghana

The renewed commitment of African states to modernising agriculture has reignited longstanding debates about different models of agricultural commercialisation. Which forms of commercialisation models will reduce land dispossession and the impoverishment of smallholders, and transform smallholder agriculture and the wider economy? Of the three broad models of agriculture commercialisation in this debate – plantation, contract farming and medium-scale commercial farming – contract farming has been identified as central to the future of Africa’s commercial agriculture. This paper provides empirical evidence from Ghana on the impacts of these three models on land, labour/employment, livelihoods and local economic linkages. Our findings show that the plantation and the commercial farming areas have highly commercialised land relations, land scarcity and high land prices, compared to the outgrower area where traditional systems of accessing land still dominate, enabling families to produce their own food crops while also diversifying into wage labour and other activities. Food insecurity was highest in the plantation area followed by the commercial area, but lowest in the outgrower area. Here, semi-proletarianised seasonal workers combine self-provisioning from their own farms with wages, and this results in better livelihood outcomes than for permanent workers in plantations and commercial farms. Due to the processing units in the plantation and the outgrower models, they provided more employment. However, the casualisation of labour and gender discrimination in employment and access to land occur in all three cases. All three models generated strong economic linkages mainly because they combined attributes such as processing, provided markets for nearby farmers, induced state infrastructural development and diffused technology in competitive ways. The effects of the models on household and local development are coproduced by their interaction with pre-existing conditions and wider national economic structures.

Social Networks, Migration Trajectories and Livelihood Strategies of Migrant Domestic and Construction Workers in Accra, Ghana:

Recent studies indicate that poor migrants are more likely to depend on social capital among other resources for livelihoods in host communities. Relying on insights from the social networks theory and using qualitative data from two migrant sending regions and one migrant destination area in Ghana, this paper examines the role and effects of networks of social capital on migration processes and livelihood strategies of migrants in the construction and domestic work sectors in Accra, Ghana. The paper argues that different categories of migrants fashion out specific migration strategies based on a complex intersection of social networks, which is shaped by specific contexts. Therefore the various ways in which migrants access, maintain and construct different types of networks in varied social locations and with diverse people needs to be interrogated in a more nuanced way and their policy implications addressed.

An Assessment of Determinants of Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change/Variability in the Rural Savannah of Ghana

The varied stressors posed by climate change and variability to the livelihoods of agrarian societies in many developing countries call for an examination of the determinants of adaptive capacity. Data collected through a questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, is used to explain the determinants of adoption of five major adaptation strategies. The analysis reveals that while adaptive capacity in the northern savannah zone is generally low due to high levels of poverty and poor state presence, it varies spatially resulting from locational, individual and community socio-economic and institutional factors. Adaptive capacities are rooted in the nature of household and community assets as well as societal rules and policies. Both community level factors and characteristics of individual farmers condition the idiosyncratic variables defining the capacities to adopt specific adaptation strategies to climate change threats. Important farmer characteristics that determine critical adaptation strategies in the northern savannah include age, sex, assets, family size, size and type of land, skills/education, and perception of climatic changes. This paper recommends that local resilience building mechanisms be scaled up while modern mechanisms should be introduced for dealing with the impacts of climate change.

Dealing with Climate Change in the Coastal Savannah Zone of Ghana: In Situ Adaptation Strategies and Migration

Although environmental change represents a global developmental challenge (Foresight, 2011; Piguet, 2013), there is enough evidence to suggest that climate change/variability particularly affects people living in poor and drier regions of Africa (Odada et al., 2008; Mertz et al., 2009). Farmers in Africa are particularly affected by changes in temperature and rainfall patterns because they depend on rain-fed agriculture (Van der Geest, 2011; Yaro et al., 2014). Additional constraints, such as disease burden, poverty, weak governance and political instability, increase the vulnerability of farmers in Africa to climate change/variability (Stanturf et al., 2011). In view of the weak adaptive capacity in many parts of Africa, recurrent drought has resulted in low levels of crop production, food insecurity, water stress and poverty in drier regions of Africa (Dixon et al., 2001; Owusu and Teye, 2014). Communities in coastal areas are also being impacted by the rise in sea level and flooding (Stanturf et al., 2011).