The Third Sector’s Role in Driving Urban Climate Governance: Evidence from Two Major Small and Medium Sized Cities in Ghana
Keywords:
The third sector, climate change, urban climate governance, small and medium-sized cities, Ghana
Abstract
Small, and medium-sized cities house most of the world’s population and are essential to delivering climate action. Drawing evidence from Ghana, this paper closes the research gap by exploring how the third sector drives urban climate governance in small and medium-sized cities. The paper found that the two purposively selected NGOs: CIKOD and GAYO in the Wa Municipality and the Cape Coast Metropolis, respectively, are engaged in diverse initiatives focused on climate adaptation. Some identified adaptation actions included local empowerment through capacity building, climate advocacy, and waste management. Because of the adaptation focus, the paper concludes that collaborations and partnerships among state and nonstate actors will help generate resilience benefits for local communities.
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References
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2. Baker, I., Peterson, A., Brown, G., & McAlpine, C. (2012). Local government response to the impacts of climate change: An evaluation of local climate adaptation plans. Landscape and Urban Planning, 107(2), 127–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.05.009
3. Birkmann, J., Welle, T., Solecki, W., Lwasa, S., & Garschagen, M. (2016). Boost resilience of small and mid-sized cities. Nature, 537(7622), 605–608. https://doi.org/10.1038/537605a
4. Boehnke, R. F., Hoppe, T., Brezet, H., & Blok, K. (2019). Good practices in local climate mitigation action by small and medium-sized cities; exploring meaning, implementation and linkage to actual lowering of carbon emissions in thirteen municipalities in The Netherlands. Journal of Cleaner Production, 207, 630–644. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.09.264
5. Carter, J. G., Cavan, G., Connelly, A., Guy, S., Handley, J., & Kazmierczak, A. (2015). Climate change and the city: Building capacity for urban adaptation. Progress in Planning, 95, 1–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progress.2013.08.001
6. Castán Broto, V., & Bulkeley, H. (2013). A survey of urban climate change experiments in 100 cities. Global Environmental Change, 23(1), 92–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.07.005
7. Homsy, G. C. (2018). Unlikely pioneers: Creative climate change policymaking in smaller U.S. cities. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 8(2), 121–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-018-0483-8
8. Hoppe, T., van der Vegt, A., & Stegmaier, P. (2016). Presenting a Framework to Analyze Local Climate Policy and Action in Small and Medium-Sized Cities. Sustainability, 8(9), 847. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090847
9. Klein, J., Araos, M., Karimo, A., Heikkinen, M., Ylä-Anttila, T., & Juhola, S. (2018). The role of the private sector and citizens in urban climate change adaptation: Evidence from a global assessment of large cities. Global Environmental Change, 53, 127–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.09.012
10. Musah-Surugu, I. J., Bawole, J. N., & Ahenkan, A. (2019). The “Third Sector” and Climate Change Adaptation Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Experience from Ghana. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 30(2), 312–326. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-9962-5
11. Simon, D., Vora, Y., Sharma, T., & Smit, W. (2021). Responding to Climate Change in Small and Intermediate Cities: Comparative Policy Perspectives from India and South Africa. Sustainability, 13(4), 2382. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042382
12. van der Heijden, J. (2019). Studying urban climate governance: Where to begin, what to look for, and how to make a meaningful contribution to scholarship and practice. Earth System Governance, 1, 100005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2019.100005
13. Wisner, B., Pelling, M., Mascarenhas, A., Holloway, A., Ndong, B., Faye, P., Ribot, J., & Simon, D. (2015). Small Cities and Towns in Africa: Insights into Adaptation Challenges and Potentials. In S. Pauleit, A. Coly, S. Fohlmeister, P. Gasparini, G. Jørgensen, S. Kabisch, W. J. Kombe, S. Lindley, I. Simonis, & K. Yeshitela (Eds.), Urban Vulnerability and Climate Change in Africa (Vol. 4, pp. 153–196). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03982-4_5
Published
2022-07-15
How to Cite
Boateng, A. K. (2022). The Third Sector’s Role in Driving Urban Climate Governance: Evidence from Two Major Small and Medium Sized Cities in Ghana. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 7(1), 243. Retrieved from https://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/15561
Section
ESI Preprints
Copyright (c) 2022 Ama Kissiwah Boateng
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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