The "Third Sector" and Climate Change Adaptation Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Experience from Ghana

In spite of growing evidence of non-governmental organizations' (NGOs) active participation in both bottom-up and top-down climate change policy negotiations and implementation, a research effort that focuses on the former barely exists. Grounded within the qualitative research approach, this p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Voluntas (Manchester, England) England), 2019-04, Vol.30 (2), p.312-326
Main Authors: Musah-Surugu, Issah Justice, Bawole, Justice Nyigmah, Ahenkan, Albert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Advocacy
Brokerage
Capacity building approach
Caretakers
Climate change
Climate policy
Cooperation
Empowerment
Environmental policy
Governance
Identity
Intervention
NGOs
Non-state actors
Nongovernmental organizations
OriginalPaper
Participation
Policy implementation
Policy making
Political Science
Qualitative research
Service provision
Social Policy
Social Sciences
Social services delivery
Studies
Tactics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In spite of growing evidence of non-governmental organizations' (NGOs) active participation in both bottom-up and top-down climate change policy negotiations and implementation, a research effort that focuses on the former barely exists. Grounded within the qualitative research approach, this paper contributes to the emerging climate policy literature by drawing on experiences from three purposefully selected non-state actors' adaptation program in Ghana. The paper observes that through tripartite mechanisms—climate advocacy, direct climate service provision and local empowerment, NGOs significantly play a complementary role in building local adaptive capacities, especially among people who are already living at or close to the margins of survival. The paper again found that NGOs tacitly explore four interrelated "social tactics" (rulemaking, alliance brokerage, resource brokerage, and framing) to gain the cooperation of local actors for the implementation of adaptation interventions. In order to improve the performance and sustainability of adaptation interventions, the paper puts forward that NGOs should, among other things, harmonize their interventions to resonate with local interest and identity and also nurture capable project caretakers before community exit.
ISSN:0957-8765
1573-7888
DOI:10.1007/s11266-018-9962-5