Vivian Yeboah
PhD Researcher
Environment
Informal settlements are largely excluded from official climate adaptation interventions, which exacerbates their vulnerabilities to the impacts of climate change. In recent times, however, there have been calls to prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable in climate interventions. Despite this, residents are still challenged with the impacts of climate hazards.
Considering that climate hazards interact with the intersecting identity categories (gender, age, socio-economic status, etc.) of residents in informal settlements, the assumption of homogeneity has perhaps contributed to perpetuating their vulnerabilities to climate hazards. Guided by the pragmatic research paradigm, this research adopts an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach, taking Accra as a case, to explore how an intersectional approach to climate adaptation could improve urban climate governance in the city.
Research question
How is climate change adaptation conceptualized, operationalized, and contested by national and local authorities and residents of informal settlements in Accra and what are the implications for just urban climate governance?
RESEARCH FOCUS
Intersectionality
