Abstract
Urban-rural linkages are an integral part of fostering development in both urban and rural communities. However, the focus on development tends to have an urban bias toward Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with an increase in urbanization. Ghana is one of the fastest urbanizing countries in SSA. This paper sought to identify the challenges of urban-rural linkages, their corresponding solutions, and contributions to Agenda 2030 that are context-specific to Ghana through a stepwise solution scanning technique. In step 1, the study applied a scoping process to identify the urban-rural challenges. In step 2, a solution for the identified urban-rural challenges in step 1 was co-designed. In step 3, each identified solution was assessed based on its potential to contribute to all three pillars of sustainability by ranking and prioritization. In step 4, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) interlinkages of the top five prioritized potential solutions were analyzed. The identified challenges were (1) inequality and gender gaps, (2) poor and lack of basic and economic infrastructures, (3) the limited effectiveness of decentralization, and (4) food and nutrition security dynamics. The prioritized potential solutions were gender inclusiveness, investment in infrastructures, sustainable agricultural systems, effective decentralization, and financial inclusion. This study recommends maximizing the synergies and minimizing the trade-offs between the SDGs of the potential solutions identified.
Highlights
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has 40% urban and 60% rural population and it has the fastest growing rate of urbanization globally according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [1]
The objective of this study was to identify and co-design potential solutions that could contribute to sustainable urban-rural linkages, which are vital in poverty reduction, equality, and sustainable urban and rural development [2,7,28,41,42,43,44]
It is estimated that 16% of households have no electricity, 50% are without piped water, and 78% have no solid waste disposal mechanism in both urban and rural areas in Ghana [25]
Summary
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has 40% urban and 60% rural population and it has the fastest growing rate of urbanization globally according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [1]. It is projected that 56% of SSA will be urbanized by 2050 [1]. Urbanization should be well managed and planned to reduce any negative impacts on development [2]. For SSA, increasing urbanization, coupled with the challenges of population increase, climate change, food insecurity, unemployment, and weak economic growth, affects urban-rural linkages and sustainable development [3,4,5,6,7]. Slum conditions remain as high as 56%, owing to the high rate of urbanization in SSA [8].
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