Self-protective Measures against Climate Hazards in Ghana: The Case of Dansoman in the Greater Accra Region

Self-mitigation and adaptation often require conceptual and feasible innovative mechanisms, locally
designed with inputs from key stakeholders. Developing prudent adaptation measures for local
communities are often time-consuming, and require in-depth analysis due to the complex nature of
climate change, encompassing several sectors and external facilitators. In our quest to achieve
Millennium Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 13), placing communities in acute and highly
vulnerable locations at the center are essential in determining critical and actual areas stemming
these communities, hence, employing bottom-up approach in realizing global goals of regulating
deteriorating climatic conditions. The ultimate aim of the study was to find-out self-protective
measures, initiated by key proponents in the area. The study employed an action-based, descriptive
and inferential statistics in the collection and analysis of data. Response from informants constituting
officials from various institutions and vulnerable groups in the area were subjected to content analysis
to avoid misjudgments. Results show majority of self-protective measures, initiated by proponents in
the area are short-term (reactive) measures which does not have the efficacy and capacity to deal
with large scale climate events of greater magnitude and intensity. The study would inform the
decision of policy-makers and interested stakeholders towards achieving SDG 13 as well as critical
areas to prioritize, both in the short and long term. Further research could be conducted on the extent
to which enhancing socio-economic parameters in the area can amplify residents’ susceptibility to
climate hazards in the long run.