Voices of resilience: Amplifying women's voices through songs for locally-led action and inclusion in Northern Ghana

This case study describes a project in Northern Ghana that used the co-creation of songs to amplify women's voices in climate advocacy. By combining local lived experiences with scientific research, the initiative created radio-broadcasted songs that addressed climate risks and social issues, overcoming barriers to women's participation in formal decision-making.

• In the Upper West region of Ghana, women are excluded from formal decision-making processes, which prevents them from influencing agendas regarding climate change and its social impacts, despite bearing the brunt of climate-related disruptions.
• The project employed a participatory knowledge brokering approach where women's groups and researchers co-created songs over several months, integrating local wisdom with scientific insights to address climate issues and non-climatic concerns such as land and property rights.
• The resulting songs were broadcast on local radio stations and reached approximately 200 communities, effectively facilitating discussions on climate-related issues, including the effects of climate change on rainfall patterns.
• A significant challenge during the project was the language barrier, specifically the difficulty of translating technical and scientific climate terms into local languages without direct equivalents.

APA

Climate and Development Knowledge Network (2024). Voices of resilience: Amplifying women's voices through songs for locally-led action and inclusion in Northern Ghana. https://cdkn.org/resource/voices-resilience-amplifying-womens-voices-through-songs-locally-led-action-and-inclusion-northern-ghana

Chicago

Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Voices of resilience: Amplifying women's voices through songs for locally-led action and inclusion in Northern Ghana. 2024. https://cdkn.org/resource/voices-resilience-amplifying-womens-voices-through-songs-locally-led-action-and-inclusion-northern-ghana.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |title=Voices of resilience: Amplifying women's voices through songs for locally-led action and inclusion in Northern Ghana |date=15 October 2024 |url=https://cdkn.org/resource/voices-resilience-amplifying-womens-voices-through-songs-locally-led-action-and-inclusion-northern-ghana |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climateanddevelopmentknowledgenetwork2024voices, author = {{Climate and Development Knowledge Network}}, title = {{Voices of resilience: Amplifying women's voices through songs for locally-led action and inclusion in Northern Ghana}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2024}, month = oct, url = {https://cdkn.org/resource/voices-resilience-amplifying-womens-voices-through-songs-locally-led-action-and-inclusion-northern-ghana}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }