Too weak to lead: motivation, agenda setting and constraints of local government to implement decentralized climate change adaptation policy in Ghana

Issah Justice Musah-Surugu (), Albert Ahenkan and Justcie Nyigmah Bawole
Additional contact information
Issah Justice Musah-Surugu: University of Ghana Business School
Albert Ahenkan: University of Ghana Business School
Justcie Nyigmah Bawole: University of Ghana Business School

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2019, vol. 21, issue 2, No 3, 587-607

Abstract: Abstract Local governments in developing countries are christened as proadaptation agents. However, global research effort has virtually ignored inherent adaptation policy implementation nuances in developing countries, ostensibly assuming that narratives from existing policy implementation literature could fill the void. Drawing on qualitative data from six LGs from Ghana, this paper examines the motivation, agenda setting processes and teething challenges constricting the implementation of decentralized climate change adaptation governance in Ghana. Though adherents of decentralization argue that local governments are more likely to conceive and implement proadaptation-related interventions, evidence from Ghana provides fascinating lessons. This paper shows that local governments’ ability to mainstream adaptation-related actions into local governance is constricted by taxonomy of local political economy issues and the “science-heaviness” of climate change. It concludes that local government are unlikely to be a fulcrum of adaptation governance as touted if reasonable efforts are not made at strengthening and broadening its resource basket.

Keywords: Climate change; Adaptation; Local government; Decentralization; Governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-017-0049-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:21:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s10668-017-0049-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-017-0049-z

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().