New Things Fund

Climate change will exacerbate existing inequalities, with greatest impact seen in the rural populations across Ghana. Ghana is unlikely to meet international targets such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and so must consider approaches that appropriately integrate new knowledge within health systems to support development. This initiative specifically relates to SDG3.d to strengthen the capacity of particularly developing countries to manage public health risks. Additionally, SDG13 addresses the need to take urgent action on climate change and its impact, with 13.2 aiming to integrate measures into national policies. This emphasizes the relevance of this project. Finally, SDG1.5 is to build the resilience of those in vulnerable situations to climate-related events and their impacts.

In 2017, Ghana’s SDG index value ranking for this target was 61.0 (http://ihmeuw.org/5xou). Whilst this is an improvement on recent decades, this index score ranks lower than Nigeria (85) or South Africa (74), indicating that improvements can – and must – be made. We can contribute to development by better understanding the perceptions of those most at risk. With Dr Michael Head, Dr Ken Brackstone and other UoS colleagues, we have a study taking place in Ghana in early 2023 on knowledge, attitudes and practice in rural communities around climate change and health. There is little delivery of ‘intelligence’ from rural communities to inform real-time decision-making. The pilot study will assess population knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to climate change. Low-cost participatory studies are of particular interest to policy stakeholders in lower-income settings, and particularly in rural ‘Last Mile’ populations. From a UN definition, the Last Mile refers to groups who are “not only the poorest of the poor, but also the people that are under-served and excluded, where development needs are greatest, and where resources are most scarce”.

Within the research, we will also explore individuals’ perceptions of the impact of climate change on food and nutrition security. This reflects my interests and curriculum within the MSc in Public Health and Nutrition course that I am currently undertaking, and will be the area that I focus on for my dissertation. This fund would allow me to channel my findings for my research project into activities that can be of interest to Ghanaian and international policymakers. The ‘New Things’ project would enable me to learn more about how research findings are translated into policy briefs, and talk to those in policy-making in Ghana that can use the results in strategy planning.