The government and development stakeholders have called for greater involvement of local communities in climate action in the country.
That, they said, would make the country’s adaptation measures more effective as the people most affected by climate change could help identify and shape solutions.
The stakeholders were the Deputy Minister of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Rita Naa Odoley Sowah; the Head of Affairs at the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Ingrid Skjolaas, and the Deputy Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Ghana, Shaima Hussein.
They were speaking at the closing and dissemination of results of the Promoting Green and Climate-Resilient Local Economies in Ghana (LoCAL-ACE) project in Accra last Thursday.
Project
The 30-month project was implemented by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, with funding from the Government of Norway.
It supported six municipal and district assemblies to strengthen local climate governance, climate adaptation planning and climate-resilient local economic development.
The project supported 35 climate-smart and climate-resilient investments, including irrigation systems, climate-proof produce storage, cassava processing facilities, water systems, protected vegetable production and organic waste composting.
The investments were implemented in Ada East, Effutu, Adansi South, Sekyere Kumawu, Nzema East and Ahanta West.
According to the project results, 69,519 people reported stronger climate resilience, exceeding the target by 32 per cent.
Women accounted for 49.7 per cent of the beneficiaries, while young people represented 46.8 per cent.
The project also strengthened the capacity of 239 national, district and community actors and supported the preparation of district climate risk and vulnerability assessments and other tools to improve climate-responsive planning.
Inclusion
At the event, Ms Sowah said communities must remain at the centre of climate action and urged stakeholders to ensure that investments made through climate finance were maintained after projects ended.
She said climate change was already affecting livelihoods, farming, infrastructure and local economies, making it necessary to include the local communities in tackling the issue.
According to her, the interventions had helped local governments respond to specific challenges facing their communities while also creating opportunities for livelihoods and local economic activity.
She said the government welcomed the evolution of the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) into LoCAL+, which would provide an opportunity to complement public climate finance with private-sector and market-based financing.
Sustainability
Ms Skjolaas also said climate adaptation could not be effective if communities were treated merely as recipients of interventions designed elsewhere.
“Local communities cannot only receive climate solutions.
They have to be involved to identify and shape them,” she said.
She said although national policies and international cooperation were important, much of the actual work of adapting to climate change had to take place where people lived and worked.
For her part, Ms Hussein said the gains from the project had to be sustained through stronger domestic systems, wider access to climate finance and deeper private-sector engagement.
