Developing community-led climate and health solutions in Ghana

West Africa experiences extreme weather changes that have been brought on and worsened by the climate crisis. This inconsistent and intense weather directly affects food and nutrition, which can go on to impact the health of the communities in the region.

Led by Dr Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow within Global Health, the Ìì·¢ÓéÀÖÆåÅÆ_Ìì·¢ÓéÀÖAPP-¹ÙÍø|ÏÂÔØ team is carrying out household surveys and in-person feedback events to better understand local Ghanaians¡¯ knowledge of the climate crisis, its impacts, and the healthcare options available to them when they are affected.

The results of this work will enable them to design solutions to increase and improve communication around health, climate change, and attitudes towards healthcare.

¡°We¡¯re looking at climate impact on health and how these communities can improve their own access to and behaviour around healthcare,¡± explains Michael. ¡°We¡¯re working with ¡®Last Mile¡¯ populations, which can be found in very rural Ghana where health services are poor, development is low, and poverty is high.¡±

The team hopes its work will encourage unwell people to seek help and diagnosis faster, improving the health and wellbeing of their communities. The findings will be taken back to the community, and shared with local, national and international decision-makers.  

¡°Women's participation in research has also historically been either excluded, faced too many barriers, or not been the focus. It¡¯s unsurprising that in very rural populations like this, there is little to no evidence of what the women feel is happening here and what could be done to solve it,¡± says Jess. 

¡°We¡¯re using mixed methods to ask them their opinions on the situation. Hopefully, this will feed into a larger interventional study designed by the women of the community.¡±

One of the main priorities for Michael, Jess, and their team is conducting their research in a way that truly serves the people they are seeking to help.

¡°If the work is community-led, it's essentially owned by these people. The solution must be something that can be rolled out and sustained in rural Ghana,¡± explains Michael.

Embedding their work fully into these rural communities means understanding how to respectfully communicate with locals, considering cultural expectations and language differences. The team has spent a lot of time learning about the communities in which it is working and gaining trust, involving traditional community leaders and speakers in their processes.

The researchers visit these communities in person throughout the year, where they experience traditions and customs and meet with these communities and villagers face to face to explain their work and gain feedback and local knowledge.

¡°Trust is a huge thing, particularly when you're working across communities and cultures,¡± says Michael. ¡°Being there with the people and meeting Ghanaian colleagues and decision-makers in person, repeatedly sustaining those relationships, is vital.¡±

¡°It¡¯s just so important to be there, immersing yourself in that local context and making sure you're doing everything appropriately,¡± adds Jess. ¡°Nothing is going to be sustainable if we're coming at it with a very westernised approach and ignoring all the relevant cultural norms that are important to the community.¡±

Alongside collaborating with the communities in which they are working, Michael and his team are gaining insights from, and sharing their work and their findings with, local organisations, charities and departments, informing decisions being made at a top level and changing the systems in place.

These partners include the University for Development Studies in Tamale, Ghana, local health directtorates, and Songtaba ¨C a charity working around gender inequality, which supports the team in communicating with rural communities respectfully and appropriately.

Michael explains: ¡°As a result of this study, we can go on to look at healthcare data and see if there are any changes in knowledge, attitudes and practice, and if this has resulted in any change in healthcare reporting. This is how we¡¯ll find out whether our intervention has been effective or not.¡±

The current stage of the project sees the team running household surveys, which has required them to train residents as data collectors themselves ¨C another way in which they are collaborating with these communities.

¡°The skills that you leave in the community to help with their research, the impact you're having on the skills in the community and what then can now contribute to, that's more of a short-term outcome,¡± says Jess.