Global Leadership Training Program in Africa
2013
Final Report

Filling Gaps for Scientists: New Roles of Research Activities in Climate Adaptation in
Ghana

Yuki Ohashi
June 28th, 2014

United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability
MSc. Environmental GovernanceGLTP in Africa

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Ohashi

Abstract
Ghana has encouraged the national policy to cope with climate change under the strong politicalleadership. The policy is funded on the scientific evidences, and scientists contributed toforming the policy direction. Further utilization of scientific knowledge for the policy should beenhanced. This research explored the potential future roles of scientists in Ghana throughinterviews on scientists, policy makers, UN officers, and local people. Diverse roles of scientists
were investigated by identifying structural challenges, satisfaction rate, and expectations fromothers. I found that scientists work for different levels and various institutions at national levelsuch as providing information for the government, evaluating national policies, and managing
the institutional conflicts. Under the political intentions, scientists could be better off for climate
policy. However, local communities that have actual challenges such as flood and drought onagriculture due to climate change are lacking scientific support. Limited involvements ofscientists to the communities were observed while many researches are already conducted. The
opportunities and places could be given for both scientists and local communities under the
support of local governments since they have reliance from the residents than scientists.
Arrangement of several international programs and NGO activities should be additional
possibility to include the scientific knowledge and technology from outside.

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要旨
ガーナでは、強い政治的なリーダーシップのもと、気候変動に適応するための取り組みが推進されている。その政策の基礎を構成し、方向性を決定する上で科学者の貢献は重要なものであったが、更なる科学的知見の活用が将来的に期待される。そこで、現地の科学者、政策決定者、国連関係者、地元の人々へのインタビューを通して、科学者の多面的な活用の可能性を、組織構造的な問題点、当事者の満足度、外部からの期待という点から考察した。調査の結果、ガーナの国レベルでの科学者の役割は、政策へのインプ
ット、施策の評価、各分野との調整等、多様化されており、政府の意向もあり、今後の発展にも期待できることが分かった。その反面、地方での科学者の気候変適分野での役割は非常に限られており、組織的、地域的に改善の余地が認められた。特に、北部の半乾燥サバナ気候での気候変動による農業被害や水害への対策という点で、住民のニーズや期待は高く、科学者が研究内容をフィードバックする場や、住民との交流を促進する場を設けることで、地域の発展に貢献できる可能性がある。また、ガーナ農村部で同時に展開されている、国際プロジェクトや NGO の活動の連携を促進することも発展への課題として残されている。

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1. Introduction
Climate and ecosystem changes have influenced the global economy and local livelihood inmany ways in the last few decades. The report in 2010 suggested that the total economic loss
due to ecosystem change caused by human being is two trillion US dollar every year (TEEB,
2010). Climate impacts will drive 5% loss of global GDP after global temperature increases
which is equivalent to the loss from the world war, according to the Stern et al., whereas if theaction is taken now it will cost only 1% of it (2006). One main factor of the economic loss is thedamage on agriculture since it is vulnerable to the change in nature. The capital for cultivation
like water, lands, minerals, and seeds could be harder to gain or use in the same condition than
before. As 65% of people live on agriculture in average in developing countries, climate andecosystem impacts lead to the degradation of their livelihood (UNCTAD, 2010). Farmers earnhardly to sustain their livelihood by just agriculture, so they need to work outside thecommunity as a sideline for adaptive strategy (Smit et al., 2006).

They require thetechnological advancement and knowledge support through policy implementation at the local
level to sustain agriculture. The latest IPCC report warns that it is clear that climate change will
exacerbate their livelihood on agriculture especially in Africa (IPCC WGII, 2014).
Ghana is one of many countries in Africa that suffers from negative climate impacts on theircommunities especially for agriculture. The country has experienced relatively stable economic
growth in the last few decades compared to other African countries. Poverty rates halved in ten
years from 1990s and the GDP will be doubled by 2015 from the level of 2005 (Breisinger et al.,2008). However, climate impacts started to cast a dark shadow on the future potential of thenational development. Although the contribution of agriculture to its economy decreases every
year, farming is still one of the main pillars in Ghana. About 30% of GDP came from agricultureand 50% of population lives on farming (De Pinto et al., 2012). However, recent unstable
rainfall tendency threatens the agriculture and people living on farming partly due to the climatechange (Antwi-Agyei et al., 2012). The government should cope with the climate impacts for
agricultural production and local livelihoods by the adaptation policy based on reliable scientificdebate.
Science is the primary components of national policy to gain the reliability from people
which is crucial for implementation. To take up the scientific knowledge, the institutional
opportunities ought to be open for scientists to work with policy at first. Then, the scientists
should be independent from the government while doing researches and publicizing so thatscience cannot be affected by any pressure such as political, organizational and economical ones.
As long as they are hired by the government, they would have pressure. Thus, it is essential tohire scientists in different agencies and at different levels as well as to ensure the opportunities
to reflect the voices of the third parties such as professors outside the government. Those
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Ohashiconsiderations are required for not only policy planning at national levels but also in policy
implementations at local levels.
Currently Ghana has the governmental structure that containing several entities to act on
climate policies (Figure 1). At national level, Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology
and Innovation (MESTI), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and National Development
Planning Committee (NDPC) take major roles under strong leadership of the former president(Hens et al., 1999). While MESTI coordinate the different institutional actions, EPA provides
the necessary information for policy planning supported by various national research institutions.
Many of governmental scientists work for those institutions as well as NDPC which develop
national policy on climate change. At local level, District Assemblies (DAs) take responsibilities
for implementing the national policies at local level. National Disaster Management
Organization (NADMO) is another key actor to implement working closely with thecommunities. Although DAs and NADMO have connection with central government in theform of human resource exchange, those have much less opportunities for scientists to tackle thechallenges at the local sites.
This research aimed to explore the ways for scientists to expand their roles in climate issues
in Ghana by identifying the gaps between the current roles of scientists and expected roles ofscientists in the future for climate adaptation. While the interface of policy and science arestudied as interdicipliney area, many are in international context. The relationship of scientists
and policy makers might be different in developing countries (Jones et al., 2008). The best andefficient way might be influenced by state’s backgrounds as well as effective integration ofinternational cooperation into national implementation and community development for climatechange while satisfying both interests. This research would find out challenges andopportunities for the scientists in institutional structure and perception of people in Ghana
through interviews.

2. Study Area
This study was conducted in Ghana located in Western part of Africa. The population isabout 24million including various tribes. The official language is English whereas many
languages are used at local level. The Northern part of Ghana is in dry Savanna area whereas
Southern part located in rainy tropical forests. Both have rainy seasons and dry seasons in a year.
The economy of Ghana has developed consistently compared to other African countries partly
due to the political stability. In this country, two cities were selected for this research to conduct
this research, Accra and Tamale (Figure 1). Accra is the capital city located in south end of
Ghana which has growing population and economy. Most of the ministry offices and major
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Ohashiprivate companies are based in Accra as well as the international organizations and foreigncompanies. This city is literally the engine of development of Ghana. On the other hand, Tamale
is a typical rural center of the country. It is located in the Northern state and worked as thecenter of the North area of Ghana because of the major infrastructures such as the main highway
and airport connecting to Accra. Most of the population in this city lives on agriculture, andtraditional communities continue their lives in the harsh environment. The climate is Semi-Arid
Savanna.

Figure 1. The map of Ghana. The study area was capital city of Ghana, Accra at the south end,
and Tamale in Tamale in the Northern part (Retrieved from Easy Track Ghana website).

3. Methods
This research composed of three parts including two questionnaires and individualinterviews in Ghana (See Appendix A). First part was on key issues in Ghana; the questionnaire
asked people to rank the issues from the list in order of priority they impose for their lives in
Ghana. Second part was on main stakeholders; the questionnaire asked people to rank the
stakeholders in order of the importance for climate issues. Third part was the semi-structured
interviews. Interviewees were asked how they feel the current role of scientists for climate
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Ohashichallenges and future potential of scientists. Questions started from the background story of
their life and deepened the questions to the theme based on the answered questionnaires. First
two questionnaires provided quantitative data while interviews provided qualitative data
describing their perceptions. Main targets of this research were policy makers and scientists in
Ghana. I had interviewed 27 people including 10 scientists and 7 policy makers in national andlocal level. Other 10 people contain a local primary school teacher, one NGO members, one
Youth representative, one Embassy officer, two local workers, and three UN officials (Table 1).
Table1. The number of people interviewed and their occupations under the categories ofscientists, policy makers, and others.
Category
Scientists

Policy Makers

OthersWorking at#University of Ghana

5

United Nations University, INRA

2

West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL)

1

United Nations University, ISP

2National Development Planning Commission (NDPC)

3

Tolon District Assembly1

National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO)

1

Ghana Education Services (GES) Office in Tolon District

1

Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana

1

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

3

NADMO (local volunteer and worker)

2

Teacher of Primary school at Tamale

1

UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

1

NGO

1

Youth

1

Embassy of Japan1
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All interviews were conducted between March 1st and March 14th in Accra or Tamale while I
was staying there. Accra was the capital city developed most in Ghana while Tamale located in
Northern semi-arid area of Ghana.
3.1. Questionnaire 1: Rank issues in Ghana
Ghana has many problems within the country that threaten their livelihood. To determine thescales of impacts of climate change compared to other important national issues in Ghana, I
conducted survey when I visited various organizations for interviews. I handed the paper-formof questionnaire to the interviewees to rank the issues in order of importance; 1 as the mostimportant and 8 as the least (Table 2). Listed issues are climate change, economy, ecosystemchange, education, poverty, sanitation/ public health, water, and others. The reasons of ranks
were further discussed during the following interviews. The rank was averaged to compare thedifference between stakeholders.
Table2. Issues in Ghana ranked.
ISSUESA

Climate Change

B

EconomyC

Ecosystem Change

D

Education

E

PovertyF

Sanitation/ Public Health

G

Water

H

Others:RANK

3.2. Questionnaire 2: Rank stakeholders in climate issues in Ghana
Climate change is being mainstreamed under the strong political will. Mainstreaming
requires the collaboration between stakeholders with the leadership of the main conductor.
Effective and efficient implementation of the policy is based on reliability and expectations
from local people. Thus, I tried to identify the expected actors for climate issues in Ghana by
asking people to rank the stake holders listed in order of expectation; 1 as the most expecting
one and 10 is the least (See Appendix A). Listed stakeholders are national government, local
government, local community, Citizen (Individual efforts), international organization (e.g. UN),
NGOs/ NPOs, Youth groups, Researchers/ Scientists, Diplomatic efforts with other countries,
and others. The reasons of the ranks were further discussed during the following interviews.
Also, the average rank value was calculated to compare the results between subgroups of7

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respondents and to interpret how scientists were evaluated among other actors in climate
challenges.
Table3. Stakeholders for climate issues in Ghana ranked.
Stake Holders
A

National Government

B

Local Government

C

Local Community

D

Citizen (Individual Efforts)

E

International Organization e.g. UN

F

NGOs/ NPOs

G

Youth GroupH

Researchers/ Scientists

I

Diplomatic Efforts with other countries

J

Others:Rank

3.3. Semi-Structured Interviews to identify the gaps on scientists’ roles
Based on two questionnaires above, I made individual interviews with people to explore
roles of scientists in Ghana on climate issues. 20 out of 27 people had chance to answer theinterviews which consist of 6 scientists, 6 policy makers, and 8 others. Specific reasons why
they rank climate change and other issues in Ghana as such were sought during interviews to
identify what kind of obstacles that Ghana should deal with before climate policy would be
implemented and mainstreamed. Also, particular reasons why they choose the stakeholder as themost important was asked. Other stakeholders and their ranks are sought accordingly especiallyfor scientists. I also asked them actual face-to-face experiences with researchers and opinions on
the role of scientists. Separately from the questionnaire, I sought the educational andoccupational background to consider the influence of it on their perceptions. Thoughts gained
through the interviews were analyzed in terms of institutional capacity to hold scientists andmake use of scientific knowledge. Responses were recorded as permitted.
In addition, during my stay at Tamale, I had chance to join the program called Climate andEcosystem Changes in Semi-Arid Africa (CECAR-Africa) Project which was the collaborating
efforts between Japanese universities and Ghanaian institutions to tackle climate change in local
areas to establish resilience. I spent two days with them doing focus group discussions for local
communities in Tolon district as an observational participation. This experience made it possible
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Ohashifor me to analyze how scientists outside the government of Ghana could contribute to thechallenges as well as how Japan could support their efforts by sending scientists to Ghana.

3.4. Research Limitations
Due to the time constraints of the staying, I could interview with limited number of people
reflecting less representations of various stakeholders. Also, the list of issues and stakeholders
are not systematically structured based on previous research, so the list might confuse people.
The responses to the questionnaire 1 and 2 might be biased. In questionnaire 1, I ask them torank climate change among other issues after telling them I am doing the research on climatechange. In questionnaire 2, I asked some to rank scientists in front of scientists. Those facts
might make them biased on the results of questionnaires. That could be avoided by distributing
the questionnaire through emails before interviews. This research should have been conducted
and analyzed well after understand the role of each institution in Ghana government to enhance
the appropriate questions for the interviews.

4. Results
4.1 Issues in Ghana Recognized important
I found the gap between two stakeholders; policy makers and scientists in perception about
the important issues in Ghana. Whereas policy makers tend to put more importance on economy
and climate change, researchers weighted more on education and water problems (Table 1). The
evaluation was calculated based on average of ranks in each group of stakeholder. That is,higher value means higher priority for Ghana. Policy maker valued 3.4 for climate change as thesecond important issue on average, while scientists valued it 5.8 as ranked 7th out of 8 issues.
Other 10 people valued climate change 4.0 on average.
Table4. Important issues in Ghana for different stakeholders.

Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Scientists
Policy makers
OthersIssue
Ave Std
Issue
Ave Std
Issue
Ave Std
Education
2.9 1.20 Economy
3.1 2.01 Poverty
2.8 2.44
Water
3.4 1.71 Climate Change
3.4 1.99 Education
3.2 1.87
Sanitation/ Public health 3.7 2.06 Sanitation/ Public health 3.8 2.12 Climate Change
4 2.49Poverty
3.8 2.78 Education
4.3 1.89 Water
4.4 2.11
Economy4.5 2.72 Poverty
4.3 2.63 Sanitation/ Public health 4.4 1.43
Ecosystem Change
5 1.83 Water
4.5 1.76 Ecosystem Change
4.9 1.67
Climate Change
5.8 1.03 Ecosystem Change
4.6 1.84 Economy
5 1.70Other
6.9 2.13 Other
8 0.00 Other
7.4 1.90

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4.2 Main stakeholders perceived important in the climate issues
I found similar tendency on the expected stakeholders for climate change. On contrast with
the important issues in Ghana, policymakers, scientists, and others chose same stakeholders as
expected actor in climate issues; national government, local government, and local community(Table 2). However, ranks of those three were not coincident to each other. Local government
was ranked lower than local community by researchers. The variance between top 3 ranked
stakeholders is relatively small for policymaker and big for others. Scientists were ranked
following those three actors.
Table 5. Expecting stakeholders in Ghana for climate challenges.
Scientists
Policymakers
OthersRank
Stakeholder
Ave Std
Stakeholder
Ave Std
Stakeholder
Ave Std
1 National Government
2.3 1.44 Local Government
3.5 1.61 National Government
1.8 1.87
2 Local Community
3.1 1.85 National Government
3.7 3.21 Local Government
3.2 1.69
3 Local Government
3.6 1.71 Local Community
4.1 1.97 Local Community
4.6 2.22
4 Researchers/ Scientists
4.2 2.66 Citizen (Individual Efforts)
4.9 2.69 Researchers/ Scientists
4.7 2.21
5 Citizen (Individual Efforts)
5.3 2.00 Researchers/ Scientists
5.2 1.22 International Organization e.g.UN
4.9 2.28
6 International Organization e.g.UN
5.4 2.17 Youth Group
6.1 1.59 Citizen (Individual Efforts)
5 1.707 NGO/ NPOs
6.4 2.12 NGO/ NPOs
6.4 1.75 NGO/ NPOs
5.5 1.96
8 Youth Group
6.7 1.29 International Organization e.g.UN 6.4 2.95 Youth Group
6.9 1.52
9 Diplomatic Efforts with other country 8.2 2.21 Diplomatic Efforts with other country 6.9 2.81 Diplomatic Efforts with other country 8.4 1.58
10 Other
10.0 0.16 Other
7.9 3.45 Other
10 0
4.3 Interview results
I made 23 individual interviews for people with the questionnaires. Each interview took 30
minutes and 14 interviews were recorded. I summarized the main point on the Table 6 below.
Details and additional points would be further discussed in later section.

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OhashiTable 6. Main points mentioned by each group of people during semi-structured
interviews.
Scientists
・Roles of scientists are

Policy makers

Others[National Level][Local people]

・Policy makers are making

・Local people have nolimited to only advising
・Only a few could success ininfluencing policies

good use of scientists

contact experience withthrough national researchscientists but saw

institutes

scientists doing researches

・Scientists need more places
and opportunities to talkwith policy makers

・New platform for climatechange must enhance thescientists’ roles but cannot

roles of scientists

explain the specific・Water issue and climate
issues are connected

・Local people emphasize

activities of scientists[Local Level]
・Local people do not believe

・Education is the most・Local officers had no contact

effective investment towith scientists in theirclimate challenges

jobs

they are getting the
feedback from thoseresearches

・Direction, advices and[UN agencies]

information came from
central government but
not from scientists.

・UN respect nationalsovereignty, so they would
help national efforts but

・Environmental policy was

not volunturely

not coordinated witheducation policy

・ Better to grow Scientists
network inside the local
communities

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Ohashi5. Discussion
5.1 Great Deal for scientists at national level
National climate policy has been successful in integrating scientists into the policy
processes under the strong political leadership in Ghana. Ministry of Environment, Science,
Technology, and Innovation (MESTI), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and National
Development Planning Commission (NDPC) are the three main organizations in charge ofclimate policy at national level whereas many other ministries and agencies would haveinterests in climate change. Scientists are allocated in each organization, but most of thegovernmental scientists are working in the research institutes under the national authority. Theirmain roles are to conduct researches contributing to the national policies. Some of the outcomesare used as input to make policies, and some help interpret scientific data for policy makers. In
the interviews, a few (not working in the institute though) mentioned that some of the scientists
in national institutes see themselves as policymakers rather than scientists because they havechances to get involved in national policy processes. Their roles tend to be separated from thoseof the administrative officers inside the government
NDPC on the other hand, wants to hire people who have strong scientific background forthe position of planning. The institution also provides opportunities for officers to raise theirability of science interpretation. NDPC is responsible to make national development policies,and climate impact is one of the important factors to be integrated into them to reflect social
needs of sustainable lives of local people affected. MESTI coordinates the efforts between main
actors, ministries and related agencies. Also, they have established the platform ofcommunication between scientists and policymakers to make diverse and appropriate use ofacademic outcomes for the policy. This platform is expected to enhance communication
between policy makers and scientists outside the government. Details of platform are notavailable in public, but this is good sign that government side have will to reflect opinions fromoutside. Although whether this works efficiently should be evaluated, as a national systemfighting with climate challenges, it seems that scientists already have diverse roles inside atdifferent levels of national climate governance inside and outside. In addition, the Ghana
government has been tackling the climate issues with the third party, United Nations University,
Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) to enhance evidence-based climate
policy and leadership in African region (myjoyonline, 2014).

As institution has structural

capacity, the next steps would be to ensure establishing the relationship with scientists so thatscientific knowledge would work best without bias due to any pressure.
Regarding to the perception and satisfaction, researchers outside the government still havedissatisfaction for their roles to join the national efforts. Some claimed that the ways to contact
the government policies are hard and far away for them even if they would like to contribute. As
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Ohashithe platform can take only some portion of them, and researchers’ positions are full at national
level, their roles should be found at different level of climate governance.
5.2. Future Opportunities at Local level
Local governments and communities have much more opportunities for scientists to jump
into the policy implementation than at national level. As a local authority, District Assemblies(DAs) have big responsibility for the local livelihoods through Regional Office of Environment(ROEs) and Special Environmental Programs (SEPs). EPA provides the necessary information
to implement the national policies at the local communities with scientific advises, if
appropriate. However, DAs rarely requests the scientific and technical assistance for the higher
authority. They have few scientists inside and so do the most of the local communities except
for the local universities. Thus, they do little understand what scientists do. As an evidence,
local people and DAs officers interviewed could not answer how scientists are important
although they refer to them “important.” They failed to describe the possible contributions ofscientists to agriculture and water supply like those mentioned in the national level. It becomesproblematic when new policy requires science literacy to interpret for implementation. This
trend is in common with the other main actor in climate implementations at local level, National
Disaster Management Organization (NADMO). They are in charge of providing coping strategy
against harms caused by climate change and other events for local communities. They may
suggest changing crop species more adaptive to the harsh climate condition to farmers for their
future sustainable income. Damage reduction due to floods and droughts is taught to the team ofpeople inside the community who are expected to spread the information for neighbors.
However, NADMO has similar problem that they have insufficient capacity to completely
understand the science based order from Ministry of agriculture. Also, community would justfollow the instruction under the authority without through understanding. That could undermine
the effectiveness of the policy.
Scientists can contribute to those challenges by providing the interpretation on agricultural
knowledge and disaster adaptation from scientific view. One former-executive of local NGO
suggested that each community should have scientists inside. One possible idea is to educate a
few motivated farmers to be a local interpreter of science. Scientists might be the patron forthem to teach regularly at communities in a certain area. It is not reasonable to spare the humanresources from national research institutions or national governments because they are in duty
and working in the capital city. Another way is to make platform at the local level too to
exchange information of local agriculture, regional climate change, and national adaptation
strategy. Stakeholders can discuss how to establish local resilience at the community level inthat meeting. Both cases require local support from and collaboration with District Assemblies
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Ohashiand NADMO because local governments are relied from both scientists and local people in
Ghana.
5.3 Broader Implication for Researchers outside the countries
Roles of domestic scientists at local and national levels are explored in the sections above.
However, many other scientists outside the country are involved and interested in the researches
in Ghana as experts to fight for local adaptations. The country should take those humanresources as its additional fuel to the national and local efforts against climate change. Not small
number of researchers focuses on agricultural and water challenges under the changing climate
at the local communities. Some are working for the ODA projects, and others might be in NGO
aiming to sustainable livelihood of local communities. However, those various efforts are noteffectively returned to the local community as a feedback. Interviews revealed that local people
see that scientists come to conduct researches, but scientists rarely contact to the majority of thelocal people. As a normal trend, researchers contact local leaders and a particular local
government to obtain permit for the researches at the sites, but do not meet other local people.
Outcomes are rarely shown for the local communities whereas they are shared within science
community through publication.
The governments especially, local governments do not have ability to find the articles inscientific journals despite they are mentioning their local communities. Assuming researchers innational institutions are collecting articles referring to climate changes in Ghana at national
level, this might be another opportunity for the scientists in the local universities to identify the
related articles and share the information with the local governments and communities. At thesame time, scientists working for the local community in Ghana should have chances to share
their outcomes with local people. If it is difficult for them to arrange, local researchers and local
officers should help them since they have close relationship with and sound reliability fromlocal people. Increasing interactions must benefit both sides as effective feedback from actual
demands for scientists and sustainable livelihood for local communities.

6. Conclusion
Ghana is promoting the policy with scientists to cope with the ongoing global issue,
climate change. At national level, the roles and opportunities of scientists are widely spread anddiversified. If those human resources are utilized to integrate scientific knowledge appropriately
into policy, Ghana can overcome climate challenges that would block the further economic andsocial development of the country. On the other hand, there are much more rooms are available
for scientists to get in climate adaptation at local level. Scientists in the universities and farmers
can work together at local level to establish resilient communities to climate impacts if the14

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Ohashiopportunities are given under the support of local governments. NGOs and international
assistance are the reinforcements for those efforts at local levels when they are well coordinated.

7. Reflection
Global leadership cannot be fostered in one-time experience in Africa. I understand that the
key objective of this program would be to sophisticate the insight towards global issues at local
level in Africa. This was my first trip to developing country despite my long-standing interestsin sustainable development and environmental issues in Africa in the context of Japanesecontribution to their development. After my experience in Ghana on potential diversification ofscientists’ roles in climate adaptation, I have found it interesting that my premises changed.
First, how I saw the problem of Ghana was slightly but significantly different from thelocal perception. I did not realize the plastic flowers bloom in the Northern part of Ghana as I
assumed they would have been living without them. It seems this was more issue than climate
when came to Tamale at the first time from Japan. The climate issue was hardly recognized at
the local areas which must be more affected than Japan. This was because of education; lack ofopportunities to learn the issue that many interviewees recognized as the issue. When we claim
the purpose of the research, we have to mention it as in the word of their actual needs andproblems. Agenda is not set yet for climate change although they can see the problem in theirlife. This was opposite to Japan; it is hard to see the actual climate challenges while we discuss
the issues anywhere in our life. We need to start from understanding the perception gap when
we think about climate issues in Africa.
Secondly, I doubted the meaning of the “international” cooperation when I came back. It
was quite clear that it is important. But while national efforts are taken under the strong politicalwill, it should be reconsidered why the international assistance is needed and how it should be
like. It may disturb their national efforts unintentionally. Also, when people mention“international” it seems they are always bilateral relationship. The researches for sustainable
development supported by ODA are partnered with an organization in Ghana but never withother developed countries. NGOs might want to stick with one community to develop; not somuch with the government. UN agencies assist national governments for macro policies. These
individual efforts guarantee the diverse assistance and stable development. However, those
could be better off if they are well coordinated and collaborated to reduce unnecessary overlaps
whereas I saw some inefficiency during my visit.
Lastly, I came to believe I limited myself to the “research” in this program, although thisprogram did not seek research-like. Once I took away from the “research”, I could see various
opportunities to widen your views such as youth networking, diplomacy, and local businesses in
Ghana. For example, I visited my friends in Ghana whom I met in 19th Conference of Parties for
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UNFCCC in Warsaw last year. I was able to share my experiences of climate actions, Power
Shift Japan held a month before the visit, for their input for Ghana Power Shift event. Thus, therelationship has further developed between Asian youth and African youth for climate change.
Economy of shea butter might be interesting theme to connect local business and sustainable
livelihood of Ghana in the context of agriculture facing climate change as well as the gender
problem. I saw women take main role for the sideline when I visited the local production sitesof shea butter. Climate challenges in Africa have multiple aspects to tackle from international
scale to local scale. My vision could not expand that way if I stayed in Japan instead of taking
this opportunity of GLTP in Africa. This program has diversified my views in addition toaddressing the original question how scientists can contribute further for climate challenges in
Ghana.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Osamu Saito and Ms Yasuko Kusakari as my supervisors forproviding me with advices for research development and assisting my research activities in
Ghana throughout this experience. Also, many thanks should be given to United Nations
University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa that hosted me as a research intern. I would
acknowledge staffs who supported my logistics in Ghana and Japan. I appreciate all of the
respondents who spare time for my interviews. Lastly, I would like to thank all the people who
provided me such a great opportunity to experience Africa in this program, Global Leadership
Training Program in Africa 2013.

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Reference"Agriculture at the Crossroads: Guaranteeing Food Security in a Changing Global Climate".
UNCATAD. POlicy Briefs.unctad/press/pB/2010/8. 2008.
http://unctad.org/en/docs/presspb20108_en.pdf
Antwi-Agyei, Philip, et al. "Mapping the vulnerability of crop production to drought in Ghanausing rainfall, yield and socioeconomic data." Applied Geography 32.2 (2012):
324-334.
Breisinger, Clemens, et al. Accelerating growth and structural transformation: Ghana's options
for reaching middle-income country status. Intl Food Policy Res Inst, 2008.
De Pinto, Alessandro, et al. "Climate change, agriculture, and food-crop production in Ghana."(2012).
Ecosystems and human well-being. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005.
Hens, Luc, and Emmanuel Kwesi Boon. "Institutional, legal, and economic instruments in
Ghana's environmental policy." Environmental management 24.3 (1999): 337-351.
IPCC, 2014: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, andVulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to
the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field,
C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee,
K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken,
P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L. White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1-32.
Jones, Nicola, Harry Jones, and Cora Walsh. Political science? Strengthening science-policy
dialogue in developing countries. London: Overseas Development Institute, 2008.
Kumar, Pushpam, ed. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: ecological and economic
foundations. UNEP/Earthprint, 2010.
Smit, Barry, and Johanna Wandel. "Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability." Global
environmental change 16.3 (2006): 282-292.
Stern Review: The economics of climate change. London: HM treasury, 2006.

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Ohashi“Maps of Ghana.” Easy Track Ghana. Retrieved in April 21st, 2014.
http://easytrackghana.com/travel-information-ghana_maps.php"UN University hails Ghana for supporting natural resources management research in Africa."
myjoyonline. online.
http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2014/April-29th/un-university-hails-ghana-for-supp
orting-natural-resources-management-research-in-africa.php

18GLTP in Africa

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OhashiAppendix A1. Interview Sheets
Interview Questions
March __, 2014.
Interviewee__________
Interview

Overview

1. Climate Change Perception (Common )2. Expected solutions (Common)
3. Specific Questions
Interview Questions
1. Climate Change Perception
1-1.

Do you see any evidence of climate change in your life? For example?

1-2.

Do you see any movement on climate change within the government ?

1-3.

Could you rank the list of issues in your country? (1-5)
1: Most important issue for you-- 5: Least important issue for you

ISSUESA

Climate Change

B

EconomyC

Ecosystem Change

D

Education

E

PovertyF

Sanitation/ Public Health

G

Water

H

Others:19

RANK

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Ohashi

2. Expected Solutions
2-1. Who do you think has the responsibility of the climate change?
2-2. Who do you think should deal with/ solve the climate issues internationally?
2-3. Who (Which sector) do you think should deal with/ solve the climate issues within yourcountry?
2-4. Could you rank the list of stake holders with regard to your expectations. (1-10)
1: Most expecting this stake holders to solve the climate issues
10: Not expecting this actor to solve the climate issues

Stake Holders
A

National Government

B

Local Government

C

Local Community

D

Citizen (Individual Efforts)

E

International Organization e.g. UN

F

NGOs/ NPOs

G

Youth groups

H

Researchers / Scientists

I

Diplomatic Efforts with other country

J

Other:RANK

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Ohashi

3. Specific Questions
3-1. Background

Where do you grow upHow long are you working onWhat is your specialtyWhy did you become an officer

3-2. Role of scientists/ researcherWhat do you think is the role of scientists to solve the env issues

Have you ever seen any challenges when communicate science with people/
researcherDo you think you understand science? Do you think other people do?

How could you improve the role of researchers

3-3. About JapanWhat do you think Japan as the player of climate issues

Do you know the 2020 mitigation target

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GLTP in Africa

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OhashiAppendix A2. Questionnair

Interview Questions
March __, 2014.
Name: _______________
Age (if available) ______

Could you rank the issues in Ghana in order of priority?
1: Most important issue for you-- 5: Least important issue for you

ISSUESA

Climate Change

B

EconomyC

Ecosystem Change

D

Education

E

PovertyF

Sanitation/ Public Health

G

Water

H

Others:22

RANK

GLTP in Africa

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Ohashi

Could you rank stakeholders in order of importance and expectation in climate challenges?
1: Most expecting this stake holders to solve the climate issues
10: Not expecting this actor to solve the climate issues
Stake Holders
A

National Government

B

Local Government

C

Local Community

D

Citizen (Individual Efforts)

E

International Organization e.g. UN

F

NGOs/ NPOs

G

Youth groups

H

Researchers / Scientists

I

Diplomatic Efforts with other country

J

Other:

RANK

23