Coastal climate risks and resilience: Lessons from Ghana. Felix Nyamedor Regional Inst. For Population Studies

Transcription

1 Coastal climate risks and resilience: Lessons from Ghana Felix Nyamedor Regional Inst. For Population Studies

2 Overview of Ghana s Policy Dynamics In 1995, Ghana s development landscape changed with a new approach (Vision 2020). Delivered through Medium Term Development Plans (MTDPs) priority was on Human Development, Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development. Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategies I and II replaced Vision 2020 to help achieve middle-income status (NDPC, 2005); Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda(GoG 2010) finally included climate change, yet the short term nature undermines adaptation.

3 The Project Project objectives: Capacity building and climate change awareness creation. Formulating climate risk communication framework Climate change risk assessment. Risk reduction and development mainstreaming

4 City at Risk- Ada Foah Ada Foah: River Volta estuarine and a tourist city. Population: 109, 225 which has high risk of coastal inundation. High population density (>132.4 persons per Km-2) with High poverty rates and high Salinisation of groundwater. Losses in farming and fishing.

5 Well coverage City at Risk- Ada Foah Stakeholders Inundation of homes Destruction of coastline and buildings

6 Community-based Reciprocal Learning Evidence- based Climate Change Policy Roundtable. The Ubiquitous-Learning Process (U-Learning). Surveys and focus group discussions Key Informants Stakeholder hands-on training Project tools CRisTAL Data Validation Data Validation

7 Key Finding Key Findings Relocation due to coastal erosion and sea flooding. Policy Dialogue inn Migration: Fisher folks and community members migrate to other communities that could help them continue with their work or provide them an alternative livelihood strategy. Alternative livelihoods: Others left in the community use oyster fishing and artisanship as coping strategies. Limited plans and preparation for disaster management Vacated room

8 Lessons Local people have skills to take care of themselves. Availability of local resources and traditional institutions are keys for building resilience. External mobilisation of resources to support resilience building should focus on networking. There is the need to share information because stakeholders have different kinds of information and interest. Lesson sharing with some key informants

9 Implications Climate change should become one of the parameters of risk assessment for development projects especially impact assessment. Communicating climate risk should be seen as a development tool and that it is evidence- based. Decentralisation should become a big part of climate change responses. Global policy frameworks and goals are not necessarily in tune with local conditions to build resilience. Resilience is built over time and locally vulnerable people have had their share of experience which should be harnessed to avoid other development risks.

10 Recommendations Coastal zones are fragile and dynamic ecosystems hence historical data/information including resident experience should drive policy decisions. Ecosystems-based approach gives opportunities to vulnerable population to debate the state of their environment with and without climate change. Harnessing local resources, knowledge and skill should form the baseline of research and development project formulation. The instability of livelihoods along the coastal belt should dictate local frameworks for CCD strategies, rather than globally motivated requirements.

11 Questions??? How best could climate change risk be well communicated and made a development tool? How can the gap between policy making process at different levels of planning be bridged to foster adaptation learning? What decision support tools are available for using research to inform policy and development planning? Thank you all