Gender and Climate Change, Perceptions and Adaptation Practices of Smallholder Farmers in Ghana: A Case Study in Shai Osudoku District

Abstract

Climate change has become the greatest global threat to humanity in recent times due to its multiple impact on the environment and society. Low income and developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa like Ghana face a murkier situation than those more affluent, due to their limited capacity and scarce resources to curb and adapt to climatic impacts. Ghana is a highly agrarian country and largely rainfed in its production of food crops, however, climate change is manifesting in climatic events such as droughts and floods affecting food and livelihood security.

Smallholder farmers, who make up more than half of the agriculture workforce and account for over 80% of the country's food production, are the most impacted. This is largely due to the poor adaptation practices as well as a lack of effective policies, programmes and budgets. Important underlying factors for the poor adaptation practices can be linked to the absence of gender responsive policies that don't address the different needs of women and men smallholder farmers as well as differences in perceptions and adaptation practices that are informed by gender roles, norms, class, age which intersect and influence adaptation practices.

This study will assess the differences in perception and adaptation practices between smallholder women and men farmers with regards to climate change in Shai Osudoku in Ghana. It will also review relevant climate change documents and establish its gender responsiveness and propose policy recommendations for the government of Ghana. This will be done through key informant interviews, Focus Groups Discussions and Content Policy Analysis.

The outcome of this study will be to (i) influence adaptation practices of smallholder farmers in Shai-osudoku through application of Gender Transformative Approaches (ii) inform policy decisions on integrating gender responsive budgeting in climate change policies, programmes and budgets by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA's) & (iii) contribute to literature on climate change in Ghana.