Gender policies and implementation in agriculture, natural resources and poverty reduction: case study of Ghana’s Upper East Region

Gender-equitable pathways to achieving sustainable agricultural intensification

“…While women's access to land is not as restricted as often assumed, they often lack access to other inputs needed for successful farming, restricting their ability to engage in agriculture (van Koppen et al 2013;Namara et al 2014;Britwum and Akorsu 2016). In Ghana, for example, limiting factors for women were found to include lack of access to financial resources; limited access to water and labor; and limited access to improved processing technologies and practices, especially for shea production, an important cash crop for women (Dittoh et al 2015).…”

“…WLE has explored the links between social relations, social and cultural perceptions, norms and attitudes, and the gendered power dynamics of decision-making processes. For example, a study in Ghana shows that gender narratives incorporated into policy and programs have raised awareness, but have not led to resource allocation for, or focused implementation of, initiatives to increase gender equity (Dittoh et al 2015).…”

Enabling sustainable, productive smallholder farming systems through improved land and water management

“…Efforts are also needed to improve legal literacy about the accompanying rights, including the use of land as collateral for credit. Further, a singular focus on improving land rights may risk marginalizing other locally identified needs for productive farming systems, such as access to water resources, financial services and off-farm marketing opportunities (Quisumbing and Kumar 2014;Yami and Snyder 2015;Dittoh et al 2015;Kumwenda et al 2015;Bjornlund et al 2017).…”

Local level impacts of climatic and non‐climatic factors on agriculture and agricultural land‐use dynamic in rural northern Ghana

“…The Upper East Region (UER) of Ghana has experienced a series of changing climate impacts, such as shifts in seasons and irregular climatic conditions. Lack of reliability of rainfall is seriously impacting the farmers (van de Geest & Dietz, ; Dittoh et al ., ; Antwi‐Agyei et al ., In Press) and this is associated with inter‐annual variability of both the distribution and total amounts of rainfall (van de Geest & Dietz, ). This makes agricultural planning very difficult, as being able to predict the beginning of the rainy season, the intensity, duration, and periods of drought, is important to the farmers.…”

“…The three northern regions (northern, upper east and upper west) have a much higher incidence of poverty than other regions of Ghana (Dietz et al, 2002;GSS, 2007;Osei-Assibey, 2014;Cooke et al, 2016). About 30-40 per cent of the total land area of Ghana, most of which is concentrated in the northern drier part of the country, has been reported to be experiencing some form of land degradation (EPA, 2003;Agyemang et al, 2007;Dittoh et al, 2015). The Upper East Region (UER) of Ghana has experienced a series of changing climate impacts, such as shifts in seasons and irregular climatic conditions.…”