Our first major activities and stakeholder engagement for the year took us to Ghana in May 2022. In May 2022, participatory stakeholder workshops and field activities were conducted with a particular focus on “Flood disaster risk management in Ghana‘s flood hot spots: co-development of adaptation scenarios and policies”. Through joint efforts between the German consortium partners and the Ghanaian project partners, two separate workshops were organized: one in Accra and the other in Bolgataga to engage experts and stakeholders. The first two-day workshop in Accra was organized on the 4th and 5th of May, which successfully pulled experts and stakeholders from both Accra and Kumasi to develop scenarios for flood disaster management in Accra and Kumasi. The second two-day workshop took place in Bolgatanga on the 10th and 11th of May with a spatial focus on the White Volta catchment in Ghana. The main aim of the workshops was to engage stakeholders at the local, regional, and national levels in a participatory manner to co-develop flood adaptation scenarios, flood label concepts, institutional vulnerability to flooding, and social network analysis and policy options for integrated flood risk management and critical infrastructure protection. The participants of the workshops represented various perspectives from policymakers, technocrats, civil engagement, academia, and a broad array of expertise and research fields.
To consolidate and gain a wider perspective and understanding of flood management and adaptation measurements from the experts, government, and local communities, community engagements via Focus Group Discussions and field visits were conducted in Accra, Kumasi, and key flood-prone communities within the White Volta catchment in Ghana. The community engagement revealed interesting perspectives on the causes, impacts, and community and households’ flood adaptation measures. The field visits also gave visual impressions of the level of physical exposure of the households, farms, houses, markets, and other livelihood and economic activities, which require immediate flood management interventions.
The outcomes from the workshops and the field activities in Ghana contribute to the identification of the most relevant scenarios and adaptation measures to model taking into account the local knowledge collected. Moreover, the outcome will also further improve the hydrologic and hydrodynamic models, support capacity building, and policy formulations and decision-making at the local, regional and national levels to enhance flood management and reduce institutional vulnerability to flooding disasters in Ghana.