Story by Dennis Bebane
About 81 percent of farmers in Nandom of the Upper West Region and Yilo Krobo have been heavily affected by climate change in recent times, according to research conducted by the University of Ghana Centre for Migration Studies.
The study shows that Nandom faces severe drought and desertification while Yilo Krobo area also faces flooding and soil erosion due to intense rainfall.
The situation had caused severe population losses in the rural areas due to out-migration in search of jobs and fertile lands for farming.
Professor Joseph Yaro, Lecturer at the University and Lead Researcher revealed this during a presentation on the research conducted in Nandom Municipality of the Upper West Region and Yilo Krobo on “Migration, Trans-locality and Sustainable Development in Ghana, the Role of Translocal Migrant Networks in Climate Adaptation and Sustainable Local Development”.
Tamale topped the important urban destination for the people of Nandom with Accra placing second, according to the research.
Professor Yaro entreated stakeholders to reorient policies towards reducing rural-urban migration in order to improve local livelihoods and facilitate adaptation to environmental changes. He also stressed the need to promote livelihood empowerment policies in rural areas in order to harness the benefits of trans-locality.
Professor Yaro urged local assemblies to utilise available resources in their various districts to address the pressing issues of the people. He said District and Municipal Assemblies must act as technocratic consultants to source funds outside their jurisdictions to enable them to address the needs of the people.
“I have been saying that District Assemblies have to be converted into technocratic consultants to the people that means that your job is to think about how development can come without money from central government. In terms of ideas, capacity building: Is there an NGO or MP who can write proposals and get money? I bet you to get government policy that will ever bring money is not possible,” he explained.
He stressed the need for the Assemblies to involve citizens in all decision-making processes toward their communities development. He explained that the assemblies can guide community members to address their own problems with their own limited resources.
He noted that it is not all community developmental issues that central government must be involved in.
Nandom Municipal Commander for Ghana Immigration Service Superintendent Mohammed Razak revealed that more than 400 foreigners come into the country through the Nandom Municipality while over 100 underage travelling out of the Municipality to the southern part of the country for labour work.
“We the Immigration at Nandom here at our checkpoint in a day sometime we record more than 400 people coming into the country, more than 400 Burkinabes coming into the country. And where we are located, we share a very big boundary with Burkina Faso, and there is a lot happening within these boundaries. Within the Kokolegu area, the Gengeng-kpe and sonnie area. There are lot of people coming into our country, and many of them are coming because of jobs. Every day we record more than 100 underage who are coming into the country to places like Bono Region, and Koforidua areas just to farm. So what we can advise our people here is let’s try to create the oportunities within our area.”
Deputy Director of Nandom Municipal Assembly urged authorities to identify major resources within every district and rural settings and tap on to address unemployment problems.
Professor Yaro said local assemblies must collaborate with stakeholders to adopt
national, local policies, and strategies to create a sense of belonging among migrants to encourage them to return home to support the local economy.
He said families live in different localities but live one life due to modern technology.
He also urged families and traditional authorities to maintain the traditional land tenure norms that ensure migrants keep their titles to land in their places of origin to avoid land disputes when they return home.
The study basically was to understand the movement of people from one place to another and how these people still interact with their families from their homes of origin.
Again to ascertain their movement and activities and how they impact the environment. He said it was also to find out the climate impact of this movement on agriculture.
Professor Yaro observed that the world had transformed apace in the space of two decades due to technological advancement. He said people can live in any part of the world and still take part in family activities in their home towns through mobile phones or travel within the shortest possible time to address problems.
The research work was carried out by Professor, Joseph Yaro Awetori, in collaboration with Professor Joseph Teye and Edmond Agyeman from Center for Migration Studies.
