Browsing by Author "Takeuchi, K."
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Item Challenges and Potential Solutions for Sustainable Urban-Rural Linkages in a Ghanaian Context(Sustainability, 2020-01-09) Mensah, A.; Somanje, A.N.; Mohan, G.; Lopes, J.; Gordon, C.; Zhou, X.; Moinuddin, M.; Saito, O.; Takeuchi, K.Urban-rural linkages are an integral part of fostering development in both urban and rural communities. However, the focus on development tends to have an urban bias toward Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with an increase in urbanization. Ghana is one of the fastest urbanizing countries in SSA. This paper sought to identify the challenges of urban-rural linkages, their corresponding solutions, and contributions to Agenda 2030 that are context-specific to Ghana through a stepwise solution scanning technique. In step 1, the study applied a scoping process to identify the urban-rural challenges. In step 2, a solution for the identified urban-rural challenges in step 1 was co-designed. In step 3, each identified solution was assessed based on its potential to contribute to all three pillars of sustainability by ranking and prioritization. In step 4, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) interlinkages of the top five prioritized potential solutions were analyzed. The identified challenges were (1) inequality and gender gaps, (2) poor and lack of basic and economic infrastructures, (3) the limited e ectiveness of decentralization, and (4) food and nutrition security dynamics. The prioritized potential solutions were gender inclusiveness, investment in infrastructures, sustainable agricultural systems, e ective decentralization, and financial inclusion. This study recommends maximizing the synergies and minimizing the trade-o s between the SDGs of the potential solutions identified.Item Developing a Community-Based Resilience Assessment Model with reference to Northern Ghana(Journal of Integrated Disaster Risk Management, 2014) Antwi, E.K.; Otsuki, K.; Saito, O.; Obeng, F.K.; Gyekye, K.A.; Boakye-Danquah, J; Boafo, Y.A.; Kusakari, Y.; Yiran, G.A.B.; Owusu, A.B.; Asubonteng, K.O.; Dzivenu, T.; Avornyo, V.K.; Abagale, F.K.; Jasaw, G.S.; Lolig, V.; Ganiyu, S.; Donkoh, S.A.; Yeboah, R.; Kranjac-Berisavljevic, G.; Gyasi, E.A.; Minia, Z.; Ayuk, E.T.; Matsuda, H.; Ishikawa, H.; Ito, O.; Takeuchi, K.Faced with adversarial climatic and physical conditions and an inept socioeconomic development priorities, Northern Ghana remains one of the regions that are most vulnerable to climate-related shocks and disturbances in semi-arid Africa. Because of the effect of frequent floods, droughts, and bushfires, entire livelihoods in Ghana’s predominantly smallholder agricultural population are under threat. In this paper, we present a model for community-based resilience assessment. This model was developed through an experiment conducted in selected rural communities in the Tolon and Wa West Districts in the Northern and Upper West Regions of Ghana. This experiment underpinned an ongoing five-year collaborative research project, Climate and Ecosystem Change Adaptation and Resilience Research in Semi-Arid Africa: An Integrated Approach (CECAR-Africa), and involved researchers and scientists from institutions in Ghana and Japan. Drawing on the findings from extensive literature review, field surveys, focus group discussions, unstructured interviews with various stakeholders, and participatory observations, we developed a matrix for assessing the different categories of community resilience (ecological, engineering, and socioeconomic). The outcome of this resilience matrix, herein called an “integrated” assessment model, offers a mix of factors that could improve societal reorganization when faced with shocks or disturbances. The integrated model provides a workable assessment criteria and key indicators for community level resilience assessments. This experiment proved valuable and highly effective in selecting case study communities for CECAR-Africa. The next step will involve the testing and development of similar criteria and indicators to measure household level resilience.Item Enhancing resilience to climate and ecosystem changes in semi-arid Africa(Journal of Disaster Research, 2014-08) Takeuchi, K.; Gyasi, E.A.Coping with global climate and ecosystem changes requires developing countries with fragile socio-economic and resource management infrastructures to devise adaptation strategies. This project aims at developing an integrated strategy to build a community based management system which is resilient to climate and ecosystem changes as well as capable of maintaining optimum socio-economic standards and resource levels. By integrating research approaches based on extreme weather and climate, ecosystems and governance in underdeveloped semi-arid northern Ghana, the project recommends that effective strategies should involve a rural development agenda as well as flood and drought associated risk management in communities along the Volta River. The strategies should also lead to alleviating the economic disparity between northern Ghana and the rapidly growing south. Disseminating the integrated resilience strategy to other semi-arid areas of Africa Based on community field survey of major crops as well as investigation of climate and ecosystems, the project assesses impacts of climate change on agriculture and rural development, and develops infrastructure and local capacity to cope with frequent flood and drought events along the Volta River. The research process leads to integrated strategies that enhance resilience of farming communities in northern Ghana to cope with climate and ecosystem changes and other disasters. These strategies are made available as "the Ghana Model", which can be applied to similar situations in semi-arid regions of Africa.Item Impact of farm management practices and agricultural land use on soil organic carbon storage potential in the Savannah Ecological zone of Northern Ghana(Journal of Disaster Research, 2014-08) Boakye-Danquah, J.; Antwi, E.K.; Saito, O.; Abekoe, M.K.; Takeuchi, K.In recent times, there has been increasing interest in the importance of agricultural soils as global carbon sinks, and the opportunity of enhancing the resilience of degraded agroecosystems - particularly in savannah regions of the world. However, this opportunity is largely a function of land use and/or land management choices, which differ between and within regions. In the present study, we investigated the role of agriculture land use and farm management practices on soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in the savannah regions of northern Ghana. We evaluated selected land use types by using an integrated approach, involving on-farm interviews, community transect walks, land use monitoring, and soil sampling. Our results indicated that, at the landscape level, community land use and resource needs are important determinants of SOC storage in farmlands. We determined low SOC accumulation across the investigated landscape; however, the relatively high SOC stock in protected lands compared with croplands implies the potential for increasing SOC build-up by using recommended management practices. Low incomes, constraints to fertilizer use, low biomass availability, and reductions in fallow periods remain as barriers to SOC buildup. In this context, global soil carbon storage potential and smallholder food production systems will benefit from an ecosystembased adaptation strategy that prioritizes building a portfolio of carbon stores at the landscape level.Item Impact of LPG promotion program in Ghana: The role of distance to refill(Energy Policy, 2021) Adjei-Mantey, K.; Takeuchi, K.; Quartey, P.This study investigates the impact of a clean cooking intervention on primary fuel choice and on households’ willingness to pay for an improved LPG distribution model in Ghana. Using data obtained via a survey of 904 households in two beneficiary districts, we found that the intervention led to higher LPG usage. The program increases the probability of households choosing LPG as a primary cooking fuel by 24% and the rate of use of LPG among households by 33%. Furthermore, an analysis of willingness to pay shows that delivery preference is not statistically different between beneficiary and control groups. The distance to refill the cylinder significantly affects LPG usage and willingness to pay. A policy that brings LPG refill closer to households and reduces the time and money cost of accessing a refill station is key to increasing the adoption of LPG as the primary cooking fuel.Item Sustainability Assessment of Mine-Affected Communities in Ghana: Towards Ecosystems and Livelihood Restoration(Sustainability Science, 2017-09) Antwi, E.K.; Owusu-Banahene, W.; Boakye-Danquah, J.; Mensah, R.; Tetteh, J.D.; Nagao, M.; Takeuchi, K.Since the 1980s, many regions in Africa that are rich in mineral resources have undertaken significant reforms to attract foreign investments. While the reforms have broadly boosted mineral production and spurred economic growth, there is a general feeling among stakeholders in the mining sector that such investments have not lived up to their rhetorical promise of improving human well-being. In Ghana, such concerns are particularly pronounced in localities that host mining activities. In such areas, mining can have a series of sustainability impacts that affect manifold the local environment and the local communities. However, there is very little effort to systematically assess the local impacts of mining in Ghana and Africa in general. Our study develops a composite sustainability index that can provide a holistic assessment of the local sustainability impacts of mining. We apply this index to understand the sustainability of three communities surrounding the gold mine of the Newmont Ghana Gold Ltd., in the Ahafo South District of Brong Ahafo region. We combine indicators that represent the key local environmental, social, economic, and institutional impacts of mining to assess local sustainability during the active stages of mine development and operation. We use a series of different methodologies and participatory techniques to arrive at the different indicators, as well as to rate them. Results suggest that despite some between-community similarities for some environmental impacts, the local communities often had radically different scores for social, economic, and institutional aspects of sustainability. Based on the findings, we argue that restoration efforts need to be customized to reflect the between-community variation and go beyond simple landscape reclamation to include interventions that improve human well-being, secure infrastructure, and enhance the collaboration among stakeholders to enable the affected local communities’ transition to sustainability.