To date, understandings of flood vulnerability in African cities have been conceptually and practically limited. A dominant focus on the geophysical and biophysical causes of flood events restricts the analyses to the source of flood events and does not pay critical attention to the internal actors, dynamics and processes of informal urbanisation where the burden of flood impacts usually fall. This paper challenges these analyses by approaching the problem of flood vulnerability through an understanding of informal urbanisation. The study is based on experiences from selected informal communities in Accra, Ghana. Drawing on mixed qualitative methods including community focus group discussions, hazard victims’ interviews and institutional consultations/surveys, the study reveals that flood vulnerability in informal settlements has co-evolved with the dynamics of informal urbanisation and dwelling processes. The paper therefore makes a case for a re-look at the epistemology and ontology of urban flooding in rapidly and informally urbanising areas in the Global South.

This study used an eclectic multiple-case design to explore what drives three large-scale mining companies' involvement in CSR-mediated development activities, and their philosophical underpinning. The research discovered that although there were nuances between cases in the order in which they rated the strength of 11 potential drivers of CSR, eight of them were important. Three (3) of these were strong drivers -reputation management, pre-emptive anti-regulationism, and pre-existence of local development plans. Five others were moderately strong drivers. The investigations further found that the philosophical underpinnings of the case companies' CSR were based on 'Common-Sense Morality,' a duty-based deontological moral philosophy that is a departure from widely held instrumental positions associated with Egoism. It also identified constrained profitmaximization as the CSR strategy from which their CSR policies emanated.

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The sustainability of the cocoa industry in the developing world depends heavily on the preservation of the natural environment. There is, therefore, an urgent need for more research, policies and strategies that will help address and minimize the environmental impacts of cocoa production. This study was conducted using both secondary and primary data sources. The secondary data were collected from documentary sources such as reports from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Cocoa Pests and Diseases Control Programme (CODAPEC). On the other hand, the primary data involved an interview of 15 field officers of the Ghana Cocoa Board. These field officers were purposively selected to help ascertain some of the effects of cocoa production on the environment. The study showed that the environmental impact of cocoa production manifest in the clearance of virgin forests for the expansion of cocoa farms (clearance of 117,240 hectares of forest resources between 2010 and 2015), the clearance of forest for the construction of feeder roads (3000 kilometres of new feeder roads constructed to link cocoa farms to the various marketing outlets) and pollution from the use of pesticides and insecticides. In order to address this problem, there is the need for effective and efficient environmental impact assessment system for large scale agricultural production and the construction of feeder roads to farms. Adequate measures should be put in place by the relevant regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that the mitigation measures proposed in the environmental assessment process are implemented to minimize the environmental footprint of cocoa production.

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