Tamale: A study on gender-sensitive climate change adaptation for sustainable livelihoods in Northern Ghana has called for targeted interventions to support women farmers to improve household food security. The study, commissioned by Youth Advocacy on Rights and Opportunities (YARO) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), was launched at a two-day conference in Tamale attended by representatives of government agencies, civil society organisations, and academia from the five regions in the North.
According to Ghana News Agency, the conference aimed to deliberate on climate change, food security, and their effects on vulnerable populations, especially women, while generating actionable recommendations to mitigate the effects of climate change on communities in the northern part of the country. Conducted in April this year, the study examined gender-based differences in awareness, perceptions, adaptation strategies, and the perceived impacts of climate change on livelihoods and household food security in northern Ghana.
Data for the study were collected from 500 farmers across the Northern, North East, Savannah, and Upper East Regions. The findings revealed that men and women adopted different climate adaptation practices and faced varying barriers in adapting to climate change. Notably, the perceived benefits of adaptation strategies, such as improved farm productivity, increased income, acquisition of assets, better dietary diversity, and enhanced food security, were found to be gender neutral.
The study established that implementing multiple climate adaptation strategies significantly reduced food insecurity, with female farmers recording substantial benefits when such measures were effectively implemented. It also identified socio-economic and institutional factors as major influences on climate adaptation decisions among farming households.
The study called for promoting multiple climate adaptation strategies through extension services and farmer-based organisations to improve productivity, incomes, and food security. It recommended developing gender-specific training and support programmes tailored to the agricultural activities of both men and women.
Highlighting the importance of local extension agents and farmer-based organisations, the study suggested providing training, establishing demonstration plots, distributing toolkits, and offering continuous mentoring support suited to gender roles within farming communities. It also called for improving awareness creation, communication systems, financial access to climate-smart technologies, and governance structures to address barriers to climate adaptation.
The study urged the government and development partners to provide micro-loans and subsidies to farmers to facilitate access to climate-smart technologies. Mr. Bennin Hajei, Director of YARO, speaking during the conference, noted that climate change had a strong gender dimension in the northern part of the country, where women played central roles in food production and household food sustainability.
Mr. Hajei encouraged communities to refrain from indiscriminate tree felling, tackle plastic waste pollution, and protect water bodies to ensure environmental sustainability and food security in the country. Madam Eunice Asiedu, Programmes Coordinator at FES, emphasized the need for community involvement in policy formulation to ensure interventions address the real needs of the people. Professor Gordana Kranjac-Berisavljevic from the University for Development Studies called for inclusive measures to bridge the digital gap to ensure a just transition toward digitalisation and modernisation.