How Do Our Research Benefit Communities?

By: Prosper Adiku, Prince Ansah, Rahina S. Alare and Wendy Boakye

Photographs: Prosper Adiku & Prince Ansah

Background
Transformative Scenario Planning (TSP) workshops involving a diverse set of stakeholders identified access to water and political commitment as key factors undermining agriculture and food security in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Disaster Risk Reduction, Ecosystem management, Sustainable food and livelihood adaptation, market systems and Smart water management are identified as important areas for action in the effective management of the aforementioned barriers for enhanced agriculture production and improved food security. Access to water through irrigation and other water management mechanisms will play major roles to keep vulnerable farmers active during the dry season as they engage in dry season farming. To achieve this, governance support and NGO assistance must be strategically positioned to create the enabling environment for an all year round farming thus promoting alternative livelihood options for vulnerable people.

In addition, vulnerability to climate change and other stressors have greater negative implications for women due to low adaptive capacity resulting from difficulties in accessing farmland, limited alternative livelihood options, and inadequate access to information and traditional customs that serve as barriers to adaptation. For example, one finding revealed that only 7% of women farmers owned farmlands compared to almost 80% for male famers. In agrarian districts like Nandom and Lawra, these factors continue to deepen women vulnerabilities depending on the available livelihood options.

Education and awareness creation are essential components of the global response to climate change. UNESCO provides support and guidance to countries in meeting their commitments under the Paris Agreement and UNFCCC Article 6 on education through its Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) program which focuses on the young people to enhance their understanding, address impacts and promote attitudinal and behavioral changes that helps them adapt to climate change. Thus beyond the focus on the thematic areas, broadening of the scope of the audience to the climate change discussion through effective dissemination and education will engender further action towards local adaptation.

To support its Research into-Use (RiU) activities in response to the adaptation challenges identified in its research activities, the ASSAR Ghana Research Team has over the last few weeks (15-20 January) rolled out key activities focused on community stakeholders within the Lawra and Nandom districts of the Upper West Region with the focus of building local adaptive capacity. In all, three main activities were carried, these include; ASSAR Grant for Local Adaptation Support (ASSAR-GLAS) and Scenario-Based Capacity Building (SBCB) workshops, and the Climate Adaptation through Youth Innovation (CATYI) Competition for Senior High Schools.

About 30 women champions involved in leading, coordinating and training self-help groups in livelihood options/programmes at the community level from vulnerable communities participated in the two-day ASSAR-GLAS capacity-building workshop (15-16th January) held at the Farmer’s Hall in Nandom. The training workshop was aimed at building capacity in support of alternative livelihoods and promoting enterprise linkages for women groups in the districts and focused on the following;

• Capacity building of women leaders in livelihood opportunities and available enterprise programmes
• Training on the most appropriate ways of accessing, communicating, and using local level climate information
• Capacity building in advocacy activities that promotes women empowerment and resource equity at the local level
• Mobilizing women leaders and practitioners for dialogue on women vulnerability to climate change and their role in strengthening resilience for the most vulnerable in their communities.

The women leaders were taking through various factors that need consideration in alternative livelihood activities particularly agro-processing and how to adopt the LEAN Business Canvas in testing the validity of new business ideas as well as in reviving existing ones through value addition, branding, effective customer targeting and marketing. Gender Desk Officers (GDOs), representatives from the Rural Enterprise Programme (REP) and the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development (CIKOD) and the district level Business Advisory Centres (BUSAC) provided information to participants on available resources that support women enterprises and how these can be accessed.

Mrs. Evelyn Ziem (participant, Lawra) presenting her business model based on the ‘LEAN Business Canvas’

The Scenario-Based Capacity Building (SBCB) workshop is a capacity building activity that focuses on promoting dry season gardening through Smart water management that enhances sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable communities in Nandom and Lawra districts. In all, about 40 participants drawn from vegetable farmer associations, community leaders along the Black Volta, input dealers, government programme leads (GSOP, MoFA, GIDA) and NGOs such as International Development Enterprise (iDE), NANDIRDEP and NETAFIM actively involved in or supporting vegetable farming in the region. During the two-day workshop, participants and facilitators engaged in small groups to discuss the

• Strengths and weaknesses of existing activities on water management and governance support for dry season farming in the districts paying particular attention to the gaps that may exist.

The workshop also helped to expose the irrigation farmers associations to opportunities available through the local government and NGOs for the promotion of dry season farming in the region and what requirements are in place to access such opportunities. Representatives from the regional office of the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) provided detailed information the various sources of support schemes available and encourage them to form recognisable farmer associations to ensure access to such facilities. The workshop ended with a field visit to an irrigation facility where a practical demonstration of how to effectively operate irrigation facilities was carried out for the farmers.

The ‘CLIMATE ADAPTATION THROUGH YOUTH INNOVATION (CATYI)’ Competition which involved 6 teams from three (3) schools (Birifoh, Lawra and Nandom Senior High schools) in the two districts. The competition consisted of two stages; an intra-school competition where two teams were selected to represent each competing school and the finals where three top teams were awarded various prizes. The competition which took the form of oral presentations with titles revolving around the ASSAR Thematic areas was held on Saturday, January 30 at the Lawra District Assembly Hall seeks to:

• Enhance the capacity of the students in the identification and communication of local environmental problems and solicit for innovative solutions to community-based environmental and climate impacts
• Promote dialogue and information exchange on climate and environmental issues through a competitive process (a competition of ideas).

In the build up to the competition, the ASSAR Team paid visits to various schools to engage the students in talks on climate and environment issues and enrolled interested schools in the competition. Subsequently, the team visited the competing schools to interact with the teams regarding their progress towards the final competition.

The top three teams received various cash prizes and educational materials and certificates. The ultimate winners, the PUNDITS team from the Nandom Senior High School (NANSEC) will be embarking on a three-day familiarization trip to the University of Ghana as part of their prize package!

Congratulations to the ENTIRE ASSAR GHANA TEAM for pulling these through!!!

 The grants for the implementation of these activities are in recognition of the need to go beyond academic capacity building within ASSAR to do more to strengthen the capacities of those living and working in the ASSAR study sites. The Grants for Local Adaptation Support (GLAS) are intended to draw from findings of ongoing ASSAR research to support the most vulnerable groups in each region on overcoming top barriers to and supporting enablers of their adaptation.