Gendered Perspectives of Climate Change Impacts and Resilience of Slum Dwellers in Accra, Ghana.

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The proposed research on gendered perspectives of climate change impacts and resilience of slum dwellers sets out to identify the causes of social vulnerability to climate change for men and women. This project fits within the Cities, Environment and Liveability pathway, because, the increasing growth of slums in major urban spaces in Ghana, particularly the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) presents the challenges of environment and climate crises-including floods, heatwaves, fire outbreaks, pollution, and biodiversity loss amidst social challenges such as insecurity. This form of collaboration will be in kind, however, the perceived impact during the period can be reached in many folds, beyond the exchange of invaluable knowledge through the partnerships. The project will partner with Global Communities Ghana (a look at the 'Slum Communities Achieving Liveable Environment with Urban Partners (SCALE-UP) project targeted at improving living conditions in slums in Ghana), Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) (review of reducing urban poverty through waste generated jobs) and community members (review of adaptive and coping mechanisms). The impact of the project is to advocate for a collaborative approach with emphasis on community engagement to develop interventions that will improve the livelihoods while reducing vulnerabilities of slum dwellers. This impact will go a long way to achieve the cities, environment and liveability pathway agenda. Finally, the exchange of knowledge will greatly help the researcher and the aforementioned partners. Knowledge from the three groups will serve as a useful point of departure into identifying gaps between policy and implementation. The impact of the project is to advocate for a collaborative approach with emphasis on community engagement to develop interventions that will improve the livelihoods while reducing vulnerabilities of slum dwellers. This impact will go a long way to achieve the cities, environment and liveability pathway agenda. Research Questions The following questions will guide the study; 1. What are the causes of gendered vulnerability to climate change? 2. What does climate vulnerability look like and how does it affect livelihood securities in slum communities in GAMA? 3. What are the known and putative impacts of climate change on the livelihoods and well-being of women and men in slums? 4. How do men and women in slums perceive their contribution to climate change? 5. How do both genders cope with climate change impacts? Research Gap Some scholars (Pearse, 2017; Wrigley-Asante & Dake, 2019) have argued about the relevance of gender in understanding climate change, however, there are still prominent gaps which have not been addressed. Paramount amongst them is the focus on women to the neglect of men in climate change studies. Although discussions about gender often revolve around women, who, in some contexts, are disproportionately vulnerable, men also have unique vulnerabilities particularly with climate change impacts, which needs to be highlighted to address policy concerns and not further already existing inequalities (Alston, 2014). Again, climate change and gender issues in urban informal spaces is very contextual and limited works produced fragmented conclusion. Finally, the contribution of slum dwellers' activities on enhancing greenhouse gases has further not been investigated. Research Methods This research will employ both qualitative and quantitative techniques in a mixed methods research strategy based on an ethnographic framework to understand the experiences of individuals living in slums. To enable the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data, interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires will be used as the key data instruments for gathering data.