National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy.

The National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy is a national policy with a sectoral approach. The timeframe of the policy is 10 years between 2010 and 2020. The basic goal of the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy is to increase Ghana’s resilience to climate change impacts and reduce vulnerability in key sectors, ecosystems, districts and regions of the country.
Agricultural biodiversity will be promoted in an environmentally sustainable manner. Agricultural productivity will be increased with the transition to climate-smart agriculture, application of farming technologies and capacity building of local farmers on climate change. Climate resilient crop production and animal breeding will be promoted. Farmers will be trained against post-harvest losses. Emphasis will be placed on existing indigenous knowledge and best practices in agricultural production. Programs on fisheries management and disease control will be developed and implemented to promote fish farming and develop alternative sources of livelihoods for fisherfolks. Land use regulations will be implemented for sustainable development. Access to water will be enabled and water availability will be increased for domestic, agricultural, industrial and commercial use and energy production.
Climate change prevention, mitigation and preparedness will be developed by (i) raising public awareness on climate change, adaptation strategies, and its impacts on health, livelihood and environmental sanitation, (ii) enhancing the mainstreaming of climate change into national development to reduce climate change risks, (iii) developing infrastructure and promoting long-term investments, (iv) enhancing climate change adaptation of vulnerable ecological and social systems, and (v) promoting technological innovation. The resilience of livelihoods will be increased through improvement of output and income of vulnerable groups and technical and financial capacity building on alternative livelihoods mechanisms. Furthermore the relationship between scientific knowledge and traditional or indigenous knowledge will be strengthened. Early warning system will be developed for data collection, processing and dissemination of information. Energy efficiency and energy conservation will be ensured and use of renewable energy resources will be promoted.
The Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology will establish the institutional mechanism to implement the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and as the supervisory agency, will monitor and evaluate the performance of the Strategy. Moreover a Monitoring and Evaluation Unit will be established within the National Climate Change Committee to undertake the monitoring and evaluation of the Strategy.