Building Resilience of Communities to Climate Impacts: Progress, Opportunities and Constraints to Delivering Locally-Led Adaptation in Ghana

This briefing by the Africa Policy Research Institute (APRI) examines the status of climate change adaptation in Ghana, focusing on the opportunities and barriers to locally-led adaptation. Based on case studies across three ecological zones, the analysis highlights that while local communities are actively employing indigenous knowledge and innovative practices to build resilience, they are constrained by limited financial resources, inadequate institutional support, and poor coordination between national and sectoral strategies.

• Climate change impacts in Ghana, including erratic rainfall, droughts, and sea-level rise, are negatively affecting health, food security, and livelihoods, leading to loss of income and constrained productive capacity.
• Local communities are actively implementing adaptation strategies using indigenous knowledge, such as climate-smart agriculture, community-led irrigation, waste recycling, and the use of energy-efficient cooking stoves.
• Ghana's national climate framework, including the 2020 Interim Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and the National Adaptation Policy Framework (2018), prioritizes community-led adaptation. The updated NDC contains 47 programmes of action, consisting of 13 adaptation measures and 34 mitigation actions.
• Significant barriers hinder the scalability and sustainability of local adaptation, specifically limited community access to national policy guidelines, financial and technical resources, and a lack of institutional support.
• There is a lack of alignment and coordination among the various national, subnational, and sectoral strategies designed to address climate change.
• External facilitation from the private sector, NGOs, and government is critical for accessing funding and knowledge. Examples include ORGIIS GHANA promoting climate-smart agriculture in the Kassena-Nankana West District and Advanced Packaging converting waste in the Ashanti Region.

APA

Arhin, A., & Tetteh, R. (2023). Building Resilience of Communities to Climate Impacts: Progress, Opportunities and Constraints to Delivering Locally-Led Adaptation in Ghana. Africa Policy Research Institute. https://afripoli.org/building-resilience-of-communities-to-climate-impacts-progress-opportunities-and-constraints-to-delivering-locally-led-adaptation-in-ghana

Chicago

Arhin, Albert, and Richard Tetteh. Building Resilience of Communities to Climate Impacts: Progress, Opportunities and Constraints to Delivering Locally-Led Adaptation in Ghana. Africa Policy Research Institute, 2023. https://afripoli.org/building-resilience-of-communities-to-climate-impacts-progress-opportunities-and-constraints-to-delivering-locally-led-adaptation-in-ghana.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Arhin |first1=Albert |last2=Tetteh |first2=Richard |title=Building Resilience of Communities to Climate Impacts: Progress, Opportunities and Constraints to Delivering Locally-Led Adaptation in Ghana |publisher=Africa Policy Research Institute |date=15 March 2023 |url=https://afripoli.org/building-resilience-of-communities-to-climate-impacts-progress-opportunities-and-constraints-to-delivering-locally-led-adaptation-in-ghana |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{arhin2023building, author = {Arhin, Albert and Tetteh, Richard}, title = {{Building Resilience of Communities to Climate Impacts: Progress, Opportunities and Constraints to Delivering Locally-Led Adaptation in Ghana}}, institution = {Africa Policy Research Institute}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://afripoli.org/building-resilience-of-communities-to-climate-impacts-progress-opportunities-and-constraints-to-delivering-locally-led-adaptation-in-ghana}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }