
Austin Dziwornu AbloUniversity of Ghana | Legon · Department of Geography and Resource Development
Austin Dziwornu Ablo
PhD Development Geography
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39
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Introduction
Austin Dziwornu Ablo currently works at the Department of Geography and Resource Development , University of Ghana. Austin does research in natural resource governance, urban studies, entrepreneurship, agriculture and rural development.
Publications
Publications (39)
Despite years of investment into the water sector in Ghana, access to and expenditure on potable water for drinking and domestic use remain a challenge for most urban households. Within the urban context, however, the severity of water challenges varies from one residential community to another, with less research attention often given to such intr...
The COVID-19 lockdown measures exacerbated the struggles of societies with existing inequalities. Given that women are generally the most vulnerable in times of pandemics and associated economic downturns, the study seeks to understand the struggles that female farmers experienced during the COVID 19 crisis and their survival responses and liveliho...
In sub-Sahara Africa, sustainable agricultural sector has been trumpeted as the surest way for livelihood transformation through poverty reduction and ensuring food and nutritional security. Using mango farming as a case study, the paper determines how sustainable agriculture can be achieved by examining the environmental, social and economic impac...
In this paper, we analyse how processes of accumulation by dispossession take place and are exacerbated on Ghana's Volta Lake, the largest artificial lake in the world. Drawing on the case of an underwater timber ‘salvage’ project on the lake, we argue that contrary to dominant discourses in policy circles that the project would boost the local eco...
Screening and discussion of Talking Union, Talking Climate
Globally, demand for water resources is projected to increase due to climate change and population growth. In many developing contexts, water demand already far exceeds supply and alternatives are already required. Recycled water is increasingly seen as a source of alternative water supply to plug demand-supply gaps. This study examined the factors...
The energy transition in many African countries involves the shift from firewood to charcoal and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as the primary domestic energy source. In Ghana, the demand for charcoal is on the rise, leading to diverse socio-economic and ecological outcomes in the Savannah woodland. Based on data produced through interviews, focus g...
Many cities across Africa are characterised by poor planning, housing deficit, waste management challenges and land-use conflicts. Government efforts to address these challenges remain inadequate, with increased private sector participation in urban governance which in recent times has taken the form of privatised cities. Deploying governmentality...
The emergence of COVID-19 in December 2019 produced new geographic spaces characterized by physical and social distancing with concomitant surprises. In Ghana, management of the first and second waves of the pandemic garnered mixed reactions from the populace. Against these perspectives , this commentary explored the critical role of health promoti...
The rapid expansion of African cities has created both housing deficits and a pluralization of urban orders, including the growth of slum settlements. With an ever‐increasing middle class, urban sub‐Saharan Africa is now also characterized by large‐scale land acquisition processes linked to the construction of wholly private and increasingly enclav...
As coastal communities across the Global South confront the multiple challenges of climate change, overfishing, poverty and other socio-environmental pressures, there is an increasing need to understand diverse coastal governance responses and livelihood trajectories from a comparative perspective. This paper presents a holistic investigation of th...
Local participation is crucial for linking the oil and gas industry to broader economies. Direct employment in the oil and gas industry, albeit often on a limited scale remains critical for the transfer of expertise and know-how in many developing economies. Focusing on the social construction of carcerality – a set of spaces, practices and relatio...
The emergence and the rapid spread of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) have resulted in a global public health crisis. The debilitating social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable societies has given rise to questionings, blames, and accusations about how the pandemic has been managed at the national level. This study uses the...
Consumer perceptions are key to the success of strategies to address water scarcity. A decision pathway survey was used to investigate attitudes amongst South Africans (N = 668) in urban areas towards four alternative water sources. Results showed that storm and rainwater harvesting was the most (49.7%), and reclaimed wastewater the least acceptabl...
The discovery of oil and gas resources comes with many expectations about its potential to boost socio-economic development. However, for many developing countries, such good news often leads to decline in other sectors of the economy. The negative outcomes of resource extraction often referred to as the so-called ‘resource curse’ is the conundrum...
We examine the role of resource materiality in extractive labour protests in Ghana. Focusing on petroleum and gold mining, we centre contestations as part of the resources’ socio-natural constituents. Research data was obtained from social conflict databases, newspapers and field interviews. The analysis focused on themes and discourses on protest...
Urban living has become a dominant lifestyle in the 21st century. The period also comes with far-reaching changes in knowledge-gathering, which has become more compartmentalised, fragmented and specialised. This is reflected in the ways of working of both academic and government institutions, and has led to incomplete knowledge and understanding of...
The past decade’s petroleum industry-related urban expansion has fueled a growing demand for land with increasing conflicts in Sekondi-Takoradi. With an emphasis on land conflict resolution processes, it is argued that whether conflicts are resolved by traditional authorities or the court, actors with advantageous combinations of economic resources...
Urban sprawl has gained popularity in academic discourse in recent times, but the majority of the research was conducted in developed countries. There is a marginal body of works on the character and nature of urban sprawl in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), although the region is experiencing one of the fastest rates of sprawl. Urbanisation in SSA is ver...
The government of Ghana, in partnership with various Multinational Oil Companies (MNCs), implemented an enterprise development project for the oil and gas industry. The government framed the project within a context of Local Content Policy (LCP) while MNCs approached it as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Both LCP and CSR initiatives have b...
Coastal fisheries communities in sub-Saharan Africa are under high socioeconomic vulnerability in the face of environmental pressures. This article contributes to the current adaptation debate by revisiting the benefits of in-situ adaptation. We assess possible in-situ adaptation strategies amid ongoing vulnerabilities by comparing Ghana and Tanzan...
Local content policies are relevant policy tools that can ensure that natural resource extraction leads to the social and economic development of countries through local participation. With a focus on Ghana's local content policy and small and medium-scale enterprises (SME)'s participation, this article highlights the complexities pertaining to the...
Local content laws are essential for promoting positive synergies between extractive industries and broader economies. This paper is a critical evaluation of the employment effects of Ghana's local content law. It draws on the relational geography concept of scale – a constructed arena of activities that are highly interrelated – to examine the dyn...
Access to safe and adequate water and to sanitation has been a global developmental priority due to their intrinsic impacts on the achievement of the sustainable development goals. Despite the implementation of several measures to improve access to safe water and sanitation, urban dwellers in Ghana struggle to acquire water and access sanitation fa...
This paper examines the impacts of land acquisition for a gas processing plant at Atuabo on the livelihood of affected farmers. The paper explores the extent to which affected farmers participated in the determination of compensation paid out to them and whether and how the compensation package adequately caters for the lost livelihoods. Using the...
Whereas refugees and larger immigrant groups’ integration in the Norwegian labour market has received considerable research attention, less is known about the labour market integration of small, non-refugee immigrant groups from West African countries such as Ghana. The purpose of the article is to examine the role of social networks and social ide...
Local content laws have the potential to promote positive synergies between the extractive sectors and African economies. However, their success is a negotiated outcome of interaction between actors. The objective of the article is to emphasize the mechanisms by which local content requirements are negotiated between actors in Ghana’s oil and gas i...
In December 2010 Ghana pumped its first oil and a local content law was passed in 2013 to promote local participation in the oil and gas industry. This paper examines Ghanaian entrepreneurial activities and the dynamics of local participation in the emerging oil and gas sector. We explore Ghanaian entrepreneurs' strategies of mobilising networks to...