Facing Climate Change in Jomoro

Submitted by Sukaina Bharwani | published 25th Mar 2011 | last updated 17th Mar 2020

Arielle Hesse and Siobhan O'Connor, undergraduate students at the Pennsylvania State University, created an activity proposal for their final project in GEOG 497U: Living on the Margins. The seminar was led by two faculty members from The Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering, and Development in Africa (AESEDA) and the PSU Department of Geography, Dr. Petra Tschakert and Dr. Robert Crane. Its purpose was to explore issues of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. Instead of final papers, the students' main output was a series of learning tools that could be used by marginalized populations in Africa to prepare for and adapt to uncertain future climate conditions.

Facing Climate Change in Jomoro

Everyone in someway be affected by climate change because climate change is a global phenomenon experienced locally. Warming temperatures will cause sometimes drought, sometimes flooding, and increased rainfall in some places while decreased rainfall in others. Livelihoods in disadvantaged settings will be challenged when the plants and animals normally depended on cannot be sustained, and when the problem is exacerbated when warmer temperatures facilitate the reproduction of more insect pests and parasites. In contrast, livelihoods pursued in other places may be enhanced by of increased water supply and an expanded range of cultivatable crops. Thus, since the possibilities are so radically different, adaptation to any climate change must be planned at the very local level.

As we recognize in our globalized world today, one centered around market systems and the authority of the state, adaptation to climate change cannot occur only in a local setting. Thus our learning tool is focused towards local NGOs and other boundary organizations for use when working in communities. Since we believe that plans must be local in nature, we have tried to create community capacity and individual capacity building programs that engage the uniqueness of place. That being said, this learning tool was created specifically for Jomorro, Ghana. Many of the specifics in the learning tool are applicable only to Jomorro. However, our hope is that with alterations to these details, the ideas described in this packet can be taken elsewhere.

Download full packet of Facing Climate Change in Jomoro here