Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe

• University of Ghana

Background Many Delta residents are dependent on climate-sensitive resources for their survival. Nonetheless, these resources are susceptible to climatic change and variability. The Volta delta of Ghana is severely impacted by sea-level rise resulting in flooding, salinisation and permanent loss of lands, with relentless social and economic consequ...

As global climate change intensifies, the question of what makes a place habitable or uninhabitable is critical, particularly in the context of a potential future climate outside the realm of lived experience, and the possible concurrent redistribution of populations partly associated with such climatic shifts. The concept of habitability holds the...

Non-technical summary Cities typically treat migration and sustainability as separate policy domains. When migration is highlighted in the context of sustainability in urban destination areas, it is typically understood to have no, or at worst, negative impacts on sustainability. As a result, migration and migrants are commonly left out of sustaina...

Universal health coverage is a core strategy for attaining Sustainable Development Goal 3 of ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing. Migration, like gender, is a social determinant of health and access to health insurance. Complementing recent studies on equitable access to health care, this paper examines the relationship between internal...

Governments globally are adapting to sea level rise through a range of interventions to improve everyday lives of communities at risk. One prominent response is planned relocation, where people and communities are enabled to move from localities exposed to coastal erosion and inundation as a result of sea level rise. Managed retreat has significant...

The role of migration as one potential adaptation to climate change is increasingly recognized, but little is known about whether migration constitutes successful adaptation, under what conditions, and for whom. Based on a review of emerging migration science, we propose that migration is a successful adaptation to climate change if it increases we...

Research on the impacts of COVID-19 on mobility has focused primarily on the increased health vulnerabilities of involuntary migrant and displaced populations. But virtually all migration flows have been truncated and altered because of reduced economic and mobility opportunities of migrants. Here we use a well-established framework of migration de...

Occupant exposure to airborne pathogens in buildings can be reduced by a variety of means, including adequate provision of outdoor air by ventilation. This is particularly important in buildings, such as hospitals, which may house a higher number of infected individuals relative to the wider population. In tropical Africa, however, there is evidenc...

The decision to migrate involves multiple causes and motivations with environmental factors subsumed by economic and other dimensions. Deltas are rich in natural resources but are also vulnerable to environmental hazards making them a hotspot for out-migration. In spite of some infrastructural interventions, specifically in the Volta Delta, to mini...

Theoretical emphasis on combining geophysical and socioeconomic characteristics in assessing vulnerability is growing but with little empirical support. Similarly, there is increasing consideration of cumulative vulnerability to multiple stressors, yet empirical studies are scant. This study seeks to assess the geophysical and socioeconomic determi...

Introduction Despite widespread advocacy for exclusive breastfeeding, and the associated benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for both infants and mothers, there is low prevalence in both developed and developing countries. Additionally, although several studies have been conducted on exclusive breastfeeding, very few of such studies have linked bir...

Global response to climate‐sensitive infectious diseases has been uncertain and slow. The understanding of the underlying vulnerabilities which forms part of changes created by forces within the Earth system has never before been critical until the coronavirus disease 2019, “COVID‐19” pandemic with the initial developmental phase linked to weather...

Background Despite the health and economic benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, there is evidence of a decline globally and in Ghana. Previous studies addressing this problem are mostly quantitative with only a few of such studies using qualitative or mixed methods to examine the predictors, benefits, ways of improving and managing exclusive breast...

This paper explored the extent to which the awareness of climate change affects the choice of climate change adaptation practice by smallholder pineapple farmers. This study used a cross-sectional data collected from 150 farmers in the Nsawam Adoagyiri Municipality, Ghana. We applied the Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to identify sub-population of pin...

While material conditions of migrant populations on average tend to improve over time as they become established in new destinations, individual trajectories of material and subjective well‐being often diverge. Here, we analyse how social and environmental factors in the urban environment shape the subjective well‐being of migrant populations. We h...

Deltas are geographically and socio-ecologically distinct systems, with a unique climate and contextually high vulnerabilities to climate dynamics. Hence, they require specific climate change adaptation and policy responses, informed by delta-scale analysis. However, available climate knowledge on deltas is based mainly on broad-scale analysis that...

Climate change presents significant threats to human health, especially for low-income urban communities in the Global South. Despite numerous studies of heat stress, surprisingly little is known about the temperatures actually encountered by people in their homes, or the benefits of affordable adaptations. This paper examines indoor air temperatur...

Environmental change influences population movements at various temporal and spatial scales. Yet individual decisions to migrate involve multiple motivations including perceived environmental risks and economic opportunities. We analyze how perceptions of environmental risks affect migration decisions and future migration intentions. We use cross-s...

There is a current upsurge of climate-related disasters globally with urban centres emerging as hotspots for climate risks such as floods, underlain by population growth and urbanization challenges. Yet, the literature on urban floods suggests limited estimates of "perceived vulnerability", the latter increasingly gaining acceptance in climate chan...

Sub-Saharan Africa is among the regions that contribute least to global climate change, yet it is among the most vulnerable to its impacts due to low levels of economic and technological development. The frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events in the region are rising at a faster rate than the population capacity to deal with the attendan...

Food security and human migration are both major developmental issues for governments, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. However, scholarship on the links between rural out-migration and food insecurity remains ambiguous about migrants in their destination and lacks ample comparison with the place of origin. Using data from the nationally represe...

Globally, cities have made efforts to shift to low-carbon emission development (LED), amidst air pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and high temperature anomalies. However, the emphasis on cities to help shift the global economy to LED has been on a single individual sector approach operating in silos rather than the inter and intra-specifi...

Many cities in the Global South are facing challenges as they increasingly experience extreme weather events, which disproportionately affect the urban poor. Focussing on severe heat and surface water flooding, this paper explores how these extreme weather events impact on infrastructure provision and livelihoods in low-income urban communities in...

Extreme weather events pose significant threats to urban health in low- and middleincome countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where there are systemic health challenges. This paper investigates health system vulnerabilities associated with flooding and extreme heat, along with strategies for resilience building by service providers and com...

It is well known that urbanisation and climate change are likely to induce more floods in existing flood-prone African cities. Previous contributions on the causes of flooding in urban areas mostly do not consider the actors involved in adaptation and do not acknowledge the diversity of knowledge they possess. In this study, the causes of urban flo...

What are the possible trajectories of delta development over the coming decades? Trajectories will be determined by the interactions of biophysical trends such as changing sediment supplies, subsidence due to compaction of sediment and climate change, along with key socio-economic trends of migration and urbanisation, agricultural intensification,...

Deltas exemplify trends of great acceleration in the Anthropocene, including the shape of demographic and mobility transitions. The human core of the Anthropocene involves three principal phenomena: Increased human health evident at the population scale; movement of people to urban settlements; and growth in aggregate populations. Based on this res...

The Volta Delta has fragile biophysical features affected by damming the Volta River and sand mining among other anthropogenic activities. The disrupted ecosystem adversely impacts livelihoods although efforts have been employed to reduce these impacts including both infrastructure and policies. This chapter describes the biophysical and socio-ecol...

Addressing climate change in any given context will require information and understanding of the nature, causative factors and the extent of the impact, in order to develop strategies to curb the menace. In developing the strategy, it is important to review the current knowledge on climate change with respect to health, livelihoods, gender and poli...

The chapter describes the various processes engaged in selecting and implementing an appropriate intervention package in three resource scarce communities in Accra, namely James Town, Ussher Town and Agbogbloshie. It further describes the processes for the selection of stakeholders and key experts, the identification and definition of climate chang...

Diarrheal disease is a critical health condition in urban areas of developing countries due to increasing urbanization and its associated problems of sanitation and poor access to good drinking water. Increasing floods in cities have been linked to the risk of diarrheal disease. There are few studies that specifically link flooding with diarrhea di...

This poster describes the drivers and constraints in Indigenous Knowledge System application in smallholder farming.

Background Monitoring coastal erosion and flooding in deltaic environment is a major challenge. The uncertainties associated with land based methods and remote sensing approaches affect the levels of accuracy, reliability and usability of the output maps generated. This study monitored flooding and erosion activities in a flood prone fishing commun...

This study addressed a basic conceptual gap in research on the relationship between women’s autonomy and contraceptive behavior and included intention to use in the measure of unmet need for family planning. The study used data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. The weighted sample included 2,017 sexually active, non-pregnant, fecun...

Background: The study analyzed smallholder farmers’ perception with regards to climatic and socio-economic changes influencing their agriculture livelihoods and coping strategies thereof in the transition zone of Ghana. Methods: We used semi-structured questionnaires for household survey involving 59 households and focus group discussions (n=60) fo...

Understanding the relationship between food access and welfare is critical in the design of social welfare policies, but the literature on this relationship is scarce. Employing the framework by Van Praag (1968) to a household survey data on Ghana, we investigate the monetary income required by households with inadequate food access to reach a give...

Education influences aspects of demographic behaviour and outcomes including a child sex preference. Sex preferences of children have been studied in different societies because of its associated social and demographic implications. Using the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, we examined the association between educational attainment and se...

Recently, there has been significant debate about whether ‘environmental migration’ can constitute a form of adaptation to environmental change, as opposed to forced or flight migration. The Foresight Report on Migration and Environmental Change (2011) suggested environmental factors are one driver of migration, as well as political, social, econom...

How climate change adaptation practices can constrain development and deliver maladaptive outcomes in vulnerability hotspots is yet to be explored in-depth using case study analyses. This paper explores the effects of climate change coping and adaptation responses in three case study villages across the Central Gonja district of northern Ghana. The...

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are confronted with climatic and non-climatic stressors. Research attention has focused on climatic stressors, such as rainfall variability, with few empirical studies exploring non-climatic stressors and how these interact with climatic stressors at multiple scales to affect food security and livelihoods....

Obesity in the sub-Saharan Africa region has been portrayed as a problem of affluence, partly because obesity has been found to be more common in urban areas and among the rich. Recent findings, however, reveal rising prevalence among the poor particularly the urban poor. A growing body of literature mostly in Western countries shows that obesity a...

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are confronted with climatic and non-climatic stressors. Research attention has focused on climatic stressors, such as rainfall variability, with few empirical studies exploring non-climatic stressors and how these interact with climatic stressors at multiple scales to affect food security and livelihoods....

Background: The world's population is increasingly becoming urbanized. If the current urban growth rate is to continue, new and unprecedented challenges for food security will be inevitable. Dietary diversity has been used to ascertain food security status albeit at the multicountry and country levels. Thus, household-level studies in urban settin...

The article looked at the possibility of integrating indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge in fisheries management under the scenario of climate change and variability in an urban coastal community in Ghana, The objective was to explore fisher folk’s perception of temperature and rainfall variability impact on fish catch. Focus group discus...

This paper examines the onset and cessation dates of the rainy season over Ghana using rain gauge data from the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) over the period of 1970–2012. The onset and cessation dates were determined from cumulative curves using the number of rainy days and rainfall amount. In addition, the inter-annual variability of the ons...

Empirical studies of residential flood vulnerability have generally concentrated on either the geophysical characteristics or the socio-economic characteristics of a given region, rather than a combination of the two. In addition, studies using subjective assessments of flood vulnerability are not very common. However, due to the fact that people’s...

Although there have been a lot of studies on climate change adaptation, the cultural dimension has generally been left out of the debate. This study uses household surveys and focus group discussion to methodically assess cultural dimensions (using Hofstede) of communities, and how these dimensions influence preference for adaptation options to flo...

Globally, there is an increasing prevalence of high blood pressure (HBP) among adults and youth. However, the mechanisms of how the risk factors (physical inactivity and obesity) relate with blood pressure (BP) are not well known especially among the urban poor youth in low and middle income countries. Meanwhile childhood and adolescent physical in...

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: Most studies on climate change and schistosomiasis transmission have mainly been on the development of models to understand the nature of the relationship. Globally, no attempt has been made to understand the relationship from the point of view of community member...

Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana lacks well-engineered sanitary landfill sites. Increased urbanization and concomitant real estate growth lead landfills to compete with residential land use, resulting in closer proximity between landfill sites and residential neighborhoods. The effects of landfills on the property values of nearby r...

Cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) is one of the infectious diseases likely to be affected by climate change. Although there are a few studies on the climate change-CSM nexus, none has considered perceptions of community members. However, understanding public perception in relation to a phenomenon is very significant for the design of effective communi...

Several recent international assessments have concluded that climate change has the potential to reverse the modest economic gains achieved in many developing countries over the past decade. The phenomenon of climate change threatens to worsen poverty or burden populations with additional hardships, especially in poor societies with weak infrastruc...

This paper illustrates the power of geography in solving spatial problems. We demonstrate how an urban system can be produced to meet spatial development objectives stated in Ghana’s nascent National Urban Policy. Even though the growth pole, functional, territorial and economy of affection approaches have been used to theorize the role of towns, w...

A number of studies exist on the relationship between climatic factors and malaria prevalence. However, due to scarcity of data, most of the studies are based on biophysical experiments and do not control for socioeconomic covariates. This research, which uses data on Ghana, contributes to the thin literature that addresses this limitation. We foun...

Background and objectives: Current research on the influence of caregiving practices on children’s nutrition status and well-being have often overlooked the importance of the caregivers’ mental health, and even when taken into account, seasonal and environmental factors are not considered. Although researchers concur that climate change will have b...

Sub-Saharan Africa faces major urban challenges, so many governments of the region have responded by developing national urban policies. We present emerging urban-system demographic trends in Ghana by locating our analyses at the nexus of the relationship between urbanization and societal imperatives. Our analyses show, first, that the claim that G...

ABSTRACT: Ghana is among the few African countries that began to experience fertility decline in the late 1980’s. The fertility decline was drastic between 1988 and 1998 when the TFR dropped from 6.4 to 4.6. The rate of fertility decline however slowed down since then, the TFR having dropped from 4.6 in 1998 to 4.4 in 2003 and then to 4.0 in 2008....

This paper has analysed the effects of the presence of Liberian refugees on cost of goods, /services, and business activities with its associated , pressure on the limited resources and /facilities including , social vices and environmental activities based on perceptions of hosts and refugees. The analysis included gender and type of occupation fr...

Migration is at the centre of demographic research on the population–environment nexus. Increasing concerns about the impacts of environmental events on human population are fuelling interest on the relationship between migration and environmental change. Using data from the Climate Change Collective Learning and Observatory Network Ghana project,...

Several studies have indicated that fertility transition has been taking place in some sub-Saharan African countries, including Ghana. There is a need for a continuous systematic attempt to identify the factors associated with the transition. Accordingly, the present study was based on the Bongaarts framework and its reformulation by John Stover to...

This paper analyses fertility patterns among various subgroups of Ghana’s population since 1998 using data from the last three Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys (GDHS) of 1998, 2003 and 2008. The impacts of sexual activity, contraceptive use, abortion, postpartum infecundability and sterility on fertility in each population subgroup are quantifi...

Sub-Saharan Africa faces major urban challenges, so many governments of the region have responded by developing national urban policies. We present emerging urban-system demographic trends in Ghana by locating our analyses at the nexus of the relationship between urbanization and societal imperatives. Our analyses show, first, that the claim that G...

Although some scholars describe migrant farmers as ‘exceptional resource degraders’ others do not. This paper uses evidence from the transitional agro-ecological zone of Ghana, to examine whether there are substantial differences between households of migrants and the host population regarding agricultural land use. The aim is to determine whether...

While there are many studies of the impacts of climate change and variability on food production, few studies are devoted to a comprehensive assessment of impacts on food systems. Results of a survey of food systems and household adaptation strategies in three communities in the Afram Plains, Ghana, reveal how extreme climatic events affect rural f...

This paper examines the role of population in agricultural practices in food crop production in Ghana. Perspectives from Malthus and Boserup (land use extensification and intensification) and multiphasic response theory are drawn upon to postulate linkages between population and these two forms of response in land use. Data from a 2001 household su...

Although sub-Saharan Africa does not contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, significant adverse impacts of climate change are anticipated in this region. Countries in West Africa, which are heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture, are projected to experience more frequent and intense droughts, altered rainfall patterns and increase...

This study explores the implications of recent extreme rainfall and flood events in the Sahel and the wider West African region for climate change adaptation. Are these events merely a temporal nuisance as suggested by the lingering desertification discourse or will more climatic extremes characterize the region over the next century? After reviewi...

Land is a very important asset and a means to sustain livelihood. In the face of a rapidly growing global population, increase in technological capacity, and affluence, the earth’s land cover has been transformed, especially in developing countries. At the same time, social organisation, attitudes, and values have also undergone profound changes. I...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the population-food crop production nexus, and within it assesses the differences between male- and female-headed households. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the demographic pressure, market price incentives theories and other mediating conditions, namely: environmental, techno-manageri...

Prior to the 1980s, Ghana witnessed an alternating cycle of boom and scarcity, culminating in the introduction of structural adjustment policies in the early 1980s. This paper uses data from the Ghana Forestry Services, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, FAO Yearbook of Forestry Products, Ghana Timber Marketing Board, Quarterly Digest of the Ghana S...

The Volta River basin in Ghana, about 160,000 km2, is experiencing rapid deforestation. Paper uses satellite, household survey and population census data to relate trends and patterns of population in the Volta River sub-basins to forest cover. It assesses amount of forest available in 1990 and 2000, and the relationship between population and fore...

The Volta River basin, which covers about 400,000 km2 is one of the most economically deprived areas in Africa (average annual income is estimated at US$ 800 per year) although precious mineral resources (gold, diamond, manganese, bauxite etc.) abound. Rain-fed and some irrigated agriculture is the main economic activity of the majority of the popu...

The transitional agro-ecological zone of Ghana, located between the richly endowed south and the impoverished north, has attracted seasonal and permanent farm migrants, mainly from northern Ghana, who now live side by side with the indigenous people. While migrants have higher numbers of Muslims, indigenous people are mainly Christians. Although th...

Land is a very important asset and a means to sustain livelihood. In the face of a rapidly growing global population, increase in technological capacity, and affluence, the earth's land cover has been transformed, especially in developing countries. At the same time, social organisation, attitudes, and values have also undergone profound changes. I...

Although studies have revealed some of the factors behind Ghana's fertility transition, much effort is still needed to explain the contribution to the transition of social factors such as beliefs, practices, customs, etc. Most of the studies have used macro-level data (mainly the Demographic and Health Surveys), and have therefore been unable to un...

RAPID POPULATION GROWTH has consequences for food production in Ghana. This paper assesses the trend and pattern of population growth in the country from 1960 to 2000, and projections for 2010, in ten administrative regions of Ghana, using population census data. In addition, it assesses crop production from 1960 to 2002, using data from the Ghanai...

Multiplicative and mediating variables are combined with a demographic variable, in non‐linear multiple regression models to assess the effect of population growth on agricultural land use in two agro‐ecological zones of Ghana. The paper uses data from a retrospective household survey (conducted among 1568 farmers in 504 households in 24 communitie...

The transitional agro-ecological zone of Ghana (10,630 km2) is the leading producer of grains, cereals and tubers. Located between the resource-endowed south and the impoverished north, it has attracted seasonal and permanent farm migrants mainly from northern Ghana, who now live side by side with the indigenous people. This paper examines the diff...

The Kassena-Nankana and Ejura-Sekyedumase districts are located in two contrasting agro-ecological zones of Ghana. While the Kassena-Nankana district is located in the dry savannah agro-ecological zone, the Ejura-Sekyedumase district on the other hand is located in the derived savannah agro-ecological zone, and this has implications for fertility....

The Volta River basin in Ghana, which covers about 160,000 km 2, is one of the most economically deprived areas in West Africa. Rain-fed and some irrigated agriculture is the main economic activity of the majority of the population living in this region. Rapid population growth and low economic standards of living have brought in their wake a lot o...

The Volta River basin in Ghana, which covers about 160,000 square kilometres, is one of the most economically deprived areas in West Africa. Rain- fed and some irrigated agriculture is the main economic activity of the majority of the population living in this region. Rapid population growth and low economic standards of living have brought in thei...

Agriculture is the main economic activity of the majority of the population living in Ghana. It contributes over 40% of Gross Domestic Product and employs about half of Ghana's labour force. Due to that much attention has been placed on sustainable management of agricultural resources in the country. About 13,628,179 hectares representing 57.1% of...