Analyzing the intersection of climate vulnerability and household food insecurity in northern ghana: a sustainable livelihoods approach
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Date
2024
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University of the Western Cape
Abstract
Achieving food security in the face of accelerating food demand, competition for depleting resources, and the failing ability of the environment to buffer increasing anthropogenic impacts is globally accepted as the foremost challenge of the present time. Without doubt, climate change is one among a set of interconnected trends and risks facing agriculture and food systems, especially in the rural settings of developing countries. In Africa, rural households are adversely impacted by climate change. This is because, besides institutional challenges regarding effective implementation of adaptation policies, rural households depend on natural resource-based livelihoods, and have the weakest ability to adapt to the impacts, rendering them more vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. The Northern Ghana region is characterised by high incidence of poverty and food insecurity among rural households, due to among others, biophysical factors such as the unimodal nature of rainfall, and the socio-economic, institutional and political factors that affect the livelihoods of the people. Among the six questions, the principal question is, what are the intersections between climate vulnerability and food insecurity at the rural household level? In answering this and other questions, the study draws on the sustainable livelihoods framework and other theories to ascertain the state of climate vulnerability and the food security status of rural households, and how local institutions can enhance their adaptive and coping capacity through effective implementation of adaptation policies in Northern Ghana.
The study was positioned within a combined strategy of concurrent triangulation and concurrent nested strategy, a mixed methodology approach that utilized interviews, focus group discussions, cross-sectional surveys and secondary data. Data was collected from 363 households and 11 institutions in Northern Ghana. In assessing rainfall anomaly, the Standard Precipitation Index was computed using Rain-Based Drought Indices Tool (RDIT) Software. Further, with the composite indicator approach, the extent of vulnerability of the municipalities and households in relation to livelihoods, climate change and food security was computed. With formative-formative higher order construct, smart PLS-SEM was used to estimate the extent to which food availability, accessibility, utilization, stability and other resilient factors influence rural household food security. Institutional diagnostics was carried out using online survey data and interviews.
The Standard Precipitation Index showed that there has been high climate variability leading to series of droughts in Northern Ghana over the past 30 years.
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Keywords
Climate vulnerability, Food insecurity, Norther Ghana, Household, Analyzing