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assessment, and the programme proposed adaptation strategies to build resilience against the threats
associated with climate change.
In 2003, the objective of the Netherlands Climate Assistance Programme (NCAP) was to formulate climate
change policies consistent with the Ghana poverty reduction strategy, which would help the mainstreaming
of these policies into regional and national development plans. The research suggested that several of
Ghana’s key economic areas such as coastal zones, agriculture (including fisheries, cocoa, cereals, and root
crops production), and water resource sectors, as well as human health, poverty and women’s livelihoods,
are all affected by climate change and climate variability.
In 2009 the EPA, in conjunction with the UNEP Programme for Sub-Saharan Africa, commenced the
development of Ghana’s National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (NCCAS). Published in November
2010, the stated goal of the NCCAS is “To enhance Ghana’s current and future development to climate
change impacts by strengthening its adaptive capacity and building resilience of the society and
ecosystems.”
The completed strategy includes a set of more detailed operational measures for adaptation. The NCCAS
considers how Ghana can strategize and adapt to the impacts of climate change without compromising on
immediate socio-environmental needs. The strategy is based on adopting a proactive and targeted
approach, which is held to be more effective and less costly than responding reactively to climate change
impacts as they occur.
The main priorities of the NCCAS are set out in 10 Adaptation Programmes, as shown in Table 5.
Table 5. NCCAS priority adaptation programme for Ghana
Item
Title of adaptation programme
1 Increasing resilience to climate change impacts: identifying and enhancing early warning
systems
2 Alternative livelihoods: minimizing impacts of climate change for the poor and vulnerable
3 Enhance national capacity to adapt to climate change through improved land use
management
4 Adapting to climate change through enhanced research and awareness creation
5 Development and implementation of environmental sanitation strategies to adapt to climate
change
6 Managing water resources as climate change adaptation to enhance productivity and
livelihoods
7 Minimizing climate change impacts on socio-economic development through agricultural
diversification
8 Minimizing climate change impacts human health through improved access to healthcare
9 Demand- and supply-side measures for adapting the national energy system to impacts of
climate change
10 Adaptation to climate change: sustaining livelihoods through enhanced fisheries resource
management
Source: UNEP (2010) 44
In regard to the importance of adopting a long-term policy perspective in order to implement these
programmes and address adaptation goals, Ghana’s NCCAS states that:
“Given the development challenges and threats posed by climate change and variability, Ghana
needs a long-term national plan that takes these factors into account. Currently, Ghana only
has a medium-term development plan covering 2010-13. The long-term plan also needs to be
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