Co-producing disaster-resilient urban settlements in Ghana: Case of Ahensan, Kumasi

Abstract

The occurrence of disasters, specifically flooding, has intensified over the past two decades in African cities with devastating impacts on people and properties. In Ghana, cities are beset by weak community and urban planning capacities to contend with climate challenges; exacerbating the vulnerabilities of the urban poor. Given that the urban poor, mostly in informal settlements, are largely excluded from official climate change adaptation and resilience measures, involving them in co-producing disaster risk management interventions to build resilience remains crucial. Premised on six agency interviews and four focus group discussions of residents in Ahensan, Kumasi, the research examined efforts aimed at co-producing integrative disaster risk governance towards building resilience to disaster risks. The findings showed that the dominant disaster in the settlement was flooding. Consequently, there are flood disaster management plans designed to identify and reduce risks. However, these plans do not involve residents in their preparation; rather, they are largely involved in the implementation of the plans. This has resulted in the lack of ownership of these plans by residents and their unwillingness to participate in their implementation. This study concludes that to ensure the ownership of strategies for disaster management towards resilience, residents should be involved at every stage of the process - from plan preparation through to its implementation.