programme

Tamale, May 20, GNA. About 14, 000 people from selected communities in the Northern and Upper East Regions are to benefit from a climate change programme called Adaptation Programme for Africa (ALP). The communities are; Jawani, Saamni, Dimea, Zambulgu communities in the East Mamprusi of the Northern Region as well as Kugri, Farfar, Akara, Targanga in the Garu Tampane in the Upper East Region. Mr Ramanus Gyang, Project Manager at Care International Ghana, who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tamale said the goal of the programme was to increase the capacity of vulnerable households in Sub-Saharan Africa to adapt to climate variability. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) defines climate change as a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and which is in addition to natural climate variability, observed over comparable time periods.

Mr Gyang said the project being implemented by Care International Ghana, with support from Department for International development, UKaid and Danida would evaluate and refine models for Community-based adaptation (CBA), support local civil society organizations to have a voice in decision-making on adaptation and disseminating lessons to influence policies and programmes nationally, regionally and internationally. He said it also hopes to build resilient livelihoods, tackling underlying causes of vulnerability and reduce disaster risk in efforts towards adaptation. Mr Gyang said one of the most efficient and sustainable responses to climate change was a community-based adaptation adding that adaptation to climatic changes was critical to achieving sustainable development and required action across sectors. According to UNFCC, the world's poorest people are the hardest hit by climate change although they have contributed least to this phenomenon of which Africa was considered to be extremely vulnerable due to her low adaptive capacity. In Ghana, some of the climate change effects had resulted in torrential rains leading to intense flood, long dry seasons, sea erosion and rising temperature.