The Government of Ghana has been urged to deepen its efforts of engaging, learning from and supporting local communities to adapt to climate change. This recommendation came from participants of a one-day multi-stakeholder workshop organized by APRI -Africa Policy Research Institute (APRI), in collaboration with the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC). The workshop was part of activities aimed at sharing research lessons from the project, ‘Climate Change Adaptation in Ghana: Strategies, Initiatives, and Practices’.

Dr Grace Mbungu, the Head of the Climate Change Program at the Africa Policy Research Institute (APRI), stated in her opening remarks that the ‘Climate Change Adaptation in Ghana: Strategies, Initiatives, and Practices Project’ is aimed at understanding the progress, challenges and opportunities of climate change adaptation in Ghana with a particular emphasis on locally-led adaptation. She stressed that locally- led adaptation empowers local stakeholders and gives communities a voice in decisions that directly affect their lives and livelihoods for greater impacts. According to her, Ghana’s climate adaptation progress and actions risk being ineffective if it fails to adequately prioritise local-specific views, concerns, innovations and voices of local stakeholders. She stated that “local communities that are at the frontline of climate change impacts are resourceful, capable, have deep understanding of their own complexities, and are always innovating to respond to climate change in unique ways. They often just need funding, decision-making spaces or other support to deliver their own effective adaptive solutions”.