Jacob Songsore

University of Ghana | Legon · Department of Geography and Resource Development

Large urban agglomerations in Sub-Saharan Africa such as Accra face multiple vulnerabilities due to overlapping risks. These include everyday risks related to poor quality water and sanitation, to city level air, water and industrial pollution risks and vulnerabilities to natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, storms and pandemics. Some of...

With many disasters taking place in urban areas of Africa on a regular basis, affecting millions of people each year, there is an increasing need to understand the processes by which the risks from potential disasters develop in urban areas. To address this, the African Urban Risk Analysis Network (AURAN) has been formed in January 2003 by six Afri...

Women play key roles in the care and management of the home and in environment affecting heath risks and family well being. Results from a qualitative survey in Accra indicate that environment problems in and around the homes are a particularly serious health burden for women and children, escalated by poverty. These issues warrant more attention i...

Many disasters take place in urban areas, affecting millions of people each year through loss of life, serious injury and loss of assets and livelihoods. Poorer groups are generally most affected. The impact of these disasters and their contribution to poverty are underestimated, as is the extent to which rapidly growing and poorly managed urban de...

In many low-income cities, environmental problems in and around the home impose an enormous burden, particularly on women, children and the elderly. Practical strategies are needed to assist women in diminishing or transcending the environmental hazards associated with their traditional roles. This paper examines the gender dimension of local envir...

As people struggle to improve their well-being it is the environment which both provides ma-terials whilst at the same time constraining the effort. This interconnection between human aspiration and ecological integrity is a rather complex one incorporating links between popu-lation numbers and per capita resource demand, pattern of culture, organi...

This field study assesses the feasibility of routine data linkage of health and environmental indicators in Accra, Ghana. In Accra, as in most low-income developing countries, there is no coherent management information system available covering environmental, demographic and health aspects of the city. These categories of data are, however, collec...

presents findings from a study of household environmental problems that included a 1,000 household survey and tests for air and water pollution. After presenting a conceptual model summarizing key interactions between environment, wealth and health in Accra, the authors analyze intra-urban differentials in household environmental conditions by leve...

Reviews state policies and the development of institutional credit in this largely neglected rural region and attempts to situate credit unions in the context of this general development. A major proposition which is advanced is that the co-operative credit union movement has served more as a vehicle for the penetration of capitalist production rel...

This study attempts to evaluate the role of credit unions as an alternative and potentially viable source of institutional credit for development in the region. It also attempts to unravel some of the prevailing tensions between different interest groups as to whom should benefit and in what degree from the capital resources of the institutions. Th...

Based on a study of the Wa area of northwest Ghana, a statistical index is developed to measure the extent of association, mainly in terms of agricultural services, between Wa town and the outlying centres in its urban field. A significant variation exists in the intensity of Wa's impact, the degree of impact decreasing with distance from Wa. Using...

This paper is an output of the Sida, DANIDA and DFID funded project entitled: Improving urban water and sanitation provision globally, through information and action driven locally. This project was carried out by IIED and five of its partners in Angola, Argentina, Ghana, India and Pakistan. The project aims to document innovative and inspiring exa...