Climate Variability and Vulnerability of Rural People in Northern Ghana

摘要

Issues of reducing the vulnerability of people and countries to the impacts of climate variability are high on the international agenda. The literature indicates that the poor and most vulnerable are most sensitive to climate variability. Moreover, other stressors which aggravate society's vulnerability to climate variability need to be taken into consideration in order to fully comprehend the effects of climate change. This study examines the livelihood strategies of three vulnerable communities in Northern Ghana, a region characterized by increasing climatic variability and climatic extremes. It also reviews Ghanaian governmental policies formulated to help the vulnerable deal with their challenges. The three communities are located in the Bongo District of Upper East Region in Northern Ghana. The research included semi-structured interviews of 45 households (15 households were interviewed in each community), semi-structured interviews of key informants, 6 focus group discussions (2) held in each of the three communities and finally a content analysis of Ghanaian policies on climate. The data collected were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively using the Statistical Package for the Social Solutions Programme (SPSS). The study concludes that the government policies include strategies to address the needs of the vulnerable populace, but their impacts are not felt by those included in our research. We also conclude that there is an urgent need to put in place both structural and non structural interventions necessary to address the potential impacts of climatic variability on poor rural communities, such as, improved infrastructure in the study area, community-based early warning systems and risk-transfer instruments such as index insurance experimented within some African countries.