Although West Africa’s contribution to global climate change is very minimal, the continent is the worst affected by the effects of climate change because of its geographical location and weak adaptive capacity. Farming communities in the dry and poor regions of West Africa, in particular, are affected by increased temperature and fluctuating rainfall patterns because they depend on rain-fed agriculture. However, only a few researchers have examined the nature of climate induced migration in the region. This presentation will focus on how migration is used as a strategy to deal with climate change in the region. While it is difficult to separate climatic drivers from the socio-economic causes of migration, seasonal and permanent migration are being used by households to deal with climate change and variability in West Africa. Yet, migration is not adequately incorporated into climate change adaptation strategies. It is recommended that migration should be considered positively in the formulation of climate change adaptation policy.
Speaker: Prof Joseph Teye (University of Ghana)
The webinar will be chaired by Dr Gunvor Jonsson (SOAS)
Date and time: Thursday 30 January 2020, 17.00 GMT
The format of the webinar will be an hour-long-event, comprising of a 30 minutes lecture, 10 minutes for the chair’s question and 20 minutes open Q&A through the live chat.
You can register here.