Traditional and Local Knowledge Practices for Disaster Risk Reduction in Northern Ghana

Ngwese, Nsioh Macnight; Saito, Osamu; Satô, Akiko; Boafo, Yaw Agyeman; Jasaw, Godfred Seidu

doi:10.3390/su10030825

Cited by 25 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…These changes are connected with larger processes such as environmental degradation, climate change and private interests. For instance, the participants saw the manifestation of climate change as a change in rainfall patterns, which negatively influenced the reliability of local EW indicators; these findings are in line with previous research in different geographical regions [90][91][92][93]. Similarly, the participants also emphasised that the increasing magnitudes and frequencies of flood events means that LK might not prove to be as useful in reducing flood impacts in the future.…”

Section: The Critical Outlook On Lksupporting

confidence: 81%

Characterising Local Knowledge across the Flood Risk Management Cycle: A Case Study of Southern Malawi

et al. 2019

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People possess a creative set of strategies based on their local knowledge (LK) that allow them to stay in flood-prone areas. Stakeholders involved with local level flood risk management (FRM) often overlook and underutilise this LK. There is thus an increasing need for its identification, documentation and assessment. Based on qualitative research, this paper critically explores the notion of LK in Malawi. Data was collected through 15 focus group discussions, 36 interviews and field observation, and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings indicate that local communities have a complex knowledge system that cuts across different stages of the FRM cycle and forms a component of community resilience. LK is not homogenous within a community, and is highly dependent on the social and political contexts. Access to LK is not equally available to everyone, conditioned by the access to resources and underlying causes of vulnerability that are outside communities’ influence. There are also limits to LK; it is impacted by exogenous processes (e.g., environmental degradation, climate change) that are changing the nature of flooding at local levels, rendering LK, which is based on historical observations, less relevant. It is dynamic and informally triangulated with scientific knowledge brought about by development partners. This paper offers valuable insights for FRM stakeholders as to how to consider LK in their approaches.

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Section: The Critical Outlook On Lksupporting

confidence: 81%

Characterising Local Knowledge across the Flood Risk Management Cycle: A Case Study of Southern Malawi

et al. 2019

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“…The interest in adaptation studies may be explained by the use of traditional and knowledgebased systems and practices by local communities. According to Ngwese, Saito, Sato, Boafo, and Jasaw (2018) and Frick-Trzebitzky, Baghel, and Bruns (2017), the lack of science-based tools and systems for FRM in Ghana instigates the development of creative strategies for dealing with floods. Nevertheless, some studies pointed out that the majority of the flood victims still opt for reactive and reactionary coping and adaptation strategies rather than preventive ones, which are usually costly and sometimes ineffective (Amoateng et al, 2018;.…”

Section: Trends By Year Of Publication and Research Focusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current flood risk management practices in Ghana: Gaps and opportunities for improving resilience

Almoradie

Brito

Evers

et al. 2020

J Flood Risk Management

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This article evaluates the current gaps and describes opportunities for improving flood risk management (FRM) in Ghana, West Africa. A mixed-method participatory approach comprising questionnaires, workshops, interviews with key stakeholders, and a systematic literature review were employed. Existing problems, discourses, FRM practices, and opportunities to enhance flood resilience were identified. They provided the basis for outlining potential research directions into ways of tracking these challenges. The results show how different actors perceive FRM in Ghana. The stakeholders interviewed have different, and even contradictory perceptions of the effectiveness of FRM, which are embedded in their diverse storylines. The findings show that Ghana's FRM is still reactive rather than preventive and that research in the field of quantitative hazard and risk assessment is still rudimentary. FRM policies and flood early warning systems (FEWS) are in place, but efforts should be directed towards their implementation and monitoring, investigation of social and technical capacity aspects, and enhancement of institutions' mandates, and coordination. Moreover, the findings illustrate that FRM is moving toward a more constructive engagement of citizens and stakeholders. However, policies and action plans need to consider more inclusive community participation in planning and management to effectively improve their resilience and develop sustainable solutions.

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“…This is verified by existing studies by confirming the vital roles of local knowledge contribution to development and its' sustainability. Local knowledge provides information for community-based assessment development program (UNESCO, 2017), contributes to planning process, especially for technical information and technical investigation (Taylor & de Loë, 2012, p. 1213, increases community resilience and development sustainability (Ŝūmane et al, 2018, p. 239), provides basis for development (Fritz-Vietta et al, 2017;Smith, 2011;World Bank, 1998), informs development programs (Aswani et al, 2018;Kolawole, 2001), generates problem solving thinking (World Bank, 1998), increases community resilience and adaptation to changing environment and uncertainty (Beckford & Barker, 2007;García et al, n.d.;Setten & Lein, 2019;UNESCO, 2017), enhances ecological understanding (Bala, 2015), development resources (Warren & Rajasekaran, 1993), informs decision making (BRACED, 2018; García et al, n.d.; Kolawole, 2001), disaster mitigation and life-risk protection (Ngwes et al, 2018;Sultana et al, 2018).…”

Section: Published By Hasanuddin University and Asian Rural Sociologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Why We Should Talk? The Potentials of Community Dialog in Grounding an Integrated Rural Development

Suryani

Soedarso

Endarko

et al. 2020

J. Asian Rural Stud.

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Rural development is a social process. It involves local community in all stages of development. Community dialog is a means for facilitating community involvement in determining a development direction, potential development plan and development sus-tainability in the future. Frequently, local community is considered as the development target. This position puts them just being development watchers, spectators, silent and passive recipients. Moreover, these silent roles make them remain unempowered since they do not know how to determine their future, how to take part in collective decision and feel being neglected. This study examines potentials of community involvement in dialog. A qualitative research paradigm is adopted. The data are collected byrecording, transcribing and analyzing community dialog at Klagen, Nganjuk, Jawa Timur. The study finds that community dialog offers considerable potentials. The first potential of community dialog is generating local community commitment, awareness, sense of belongingness and supportive character to build their own homeland. These positive development psychological states,characters and ethos are soft human dimensions which can be critical drivers in rural development. The second is creation of local knowledge and scientific knowledge joint enabling innovation and collective learning process. This joint-knowledge allows the combination of local wisdom and scientific insight. The third is building shared or collective development vision and plan. This plan and vision allow the development prioritizing process and development of rural strength, potential competitive advantage and resource building. The fourth is expanding rural networking and exercising rural people capacity to build wider internal and external social relationship.

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Traditional and Local Knowledge Practices for Disaster Risk Reduction in Northern Ghana

Cited by 25 publications

References 22 publications

Characterising Local Knowledge across the Flood Risk Management Cycle: A Case Study of Southern Malawi

Characterising Local Knowledge across the Flood Risk Management Cycle: A Case Study of Southern Malawi

Current flood risk management practices in Ghana: Gaps and opportunities for improving resilience

Why We Should Talk? The Potentials of Community Dialog in Grounding an Integrated Rural Development

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