Kanyizine Kansah, a 59-year-old visually impaired smallholder farmer from Karni in the Lambussie District of the Upper West Region, has been farming for survival for decades. Despite his disability, he walks 45 minutes to the farm each day to work.
During the dry season, Mr Kansah grows cereal crops such as maize, millet, and vegetables. According to him, he uses farm profits to feed his family and pay for his three children’s education instead of begging for survival.
But yields have dwindled in the past three years. He says the droughts have been the reason which has also caused nearby water sources to dry.
“I used to cultivate about four acres of maize and harvest about 20 bags, but due to insufficient rainfall, I’ve only gotten about four bags for the past three years,” he said. “During the dry season, I cultivate vegetables such as cabbage, onions, and pepper, but I have been recording low yields because the stream I use to irrigate my crops frequently dries up due to the drought,” Mr Kansah added.
Life has been difficult for him and his family and he fears surviving until the next crop season must be by miracle.
The story is not different for Salifu Mariam, a physically challenged woman from Moaduri in the North East Region. Mariam, who has been farming for a living, had her entire two-acre farm destroyed by floods last year.
She has since been surviving on the benevolence of philanthropists.
“Life has not been easy since the flood destroyed all my food crops on the farm,” she said, looking dejected and frustrated,” she said.
The climate crisis
Mr Kansah and Madam Mariam are among the many People Living with Disabilities (PWDs) in the country who battle weather events to survive addition to their disabilities.
According to the 2021 population and housing census (PHC), Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs) account for approximately 8% of the total population in Ghana or approximately 2,098,138 people.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) says that “the majority of persons living with disabilities live in abject poverty and face discrimination.”
Adam Abdul Wahab, Programmes Officer at the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations, stated that members of the community with have continuously been frequently ignored by governments in policies and intervention implementations.
“As a country, when we are planning policies and interventions, we don’t involve persons with disabilities from the beginning, but after everything, we now realise that we should have involved them,” he bemoaned
Mr Wahab thinks the re-enactment of the Disability Act 715 in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is necessary.
Perennial floods and drought are the most visible effects of the climate crisis in Ghana’s rural communities, particularly in the north, exacerbating the plight of PWDs.
This lack of representation exacerbates existing barriers to food access and food production, creating a vicious cycle in which people with disabilities risk falling deeper into poverty and hunger.
Leaving behind
In 2012, the Parliament of Ghana ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) to reaffirm its commitment to promoting the full realisation of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all Persons with disabilities, without any form of disability discrimination.
To address this issue, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun engaging PWD leadership to include their voices in policy decision-making and intervention implementation.
Special requirements
“To address the impact of the climate crisis on PWDs, the government must go beyond simply making policies and directly target persons living with disabilities,” Alimatu Sagito, the executive director of SWIDA Ghana stated.
“Even within PWDs, they have peculiar needs; the visually impaired, hearing impaired, and physically challenged all have their needs, so it becomes difficult to meet their needs when they are grouped together,” she said. “We need a climate change policy framework in which we can dedicate a chapter or two to people with disabilities,” she added.
Meeting SDG 10
The Sustainable Development Goal 10 (SDG 10) aims to reduce inequality within and between countries by empowering and promoting social, economic, and political inclusion for all people, including those with disabilities.
However, given the current bleak situation, there is no guarantee that the desired progress towards the goal will be made.
As a result, the government must prioritise the needs of PWDs by enacting deliberate policies and interventions aimed at empowering them and promoting inclusiveness.
By: Mohammed Fugu/www.zamireports.com/Northeast Region.
This report was completed as part of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development‘s 2023 Climate Change Fellowship with funding support from the Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Climate Change in News Media project.