Harmattan School Urged To Provide Solutions To Devt Issues In The North

UDS Vice Chancellor

The Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS) Professor Haruna Yakubu, has implored participants at the 2013 edition of the Harmattan School to endeavour to understand how culture and climate change adaptation would be employed as a tool to advance the socio-economic development of Northern Ghana.

In a speech read for him at the event held in Tamale the Northern Regional capital, Prof. Yakubu said Northern Ghana was particularly vulnerable to the effect of climate change because of limited adaptive capacity. 

This phenomenon, he observed, “was accounted for by the absence of viable climatic prognosis to deal with the impact of climate change”, adding to this, according to the energy and climate change expert were “recurrent droughts, overdependence on rain-fed agriculture and the widespread echelons of poverty that have all contributed to exacerbate the impact of climate change”, he emphasised. 

The Harmattan School is one of the several platforms created by the UDS and opened to researchers, civil society organisations, policymakers, and non-governmental organisations to meet and brainstorm on developmental issues confronting Northern Ghana in particular and the country at large.

The Harmattan School is not just a platform for academic peer review but most importantly an avenue for the discovery of practical solutions to address the developmental challenges of Northern Ghana.

Under the theme: “Accelerating Socio-Economic Development in Northern Ghana through Culture and Climate Change Adaptation”, the 2013 edition is the seventh in a series organized by the Centre for Continuing Education and Interdisciplinary Research (CCEIR) which is the lead organizer of the annual event.

According to Prof. Yakubu, the predicaments of residents of the country’s North were made worse on accounts of the lack of flexibility in some cultural beliefs and practices, but was quick to note that  “There are various ways by which culture and climate change adaptation can influence socio-economic development.”

He also disclosed that the UDS had provided the academic leadership and commitment to the promotion of culture, stressing that was reflected in the establishment of the Endogenous Development Studies Programme at the postgraduate levels (masters and PhD). 

Meanwhile, the Northern Regional Minister Moses Bukari Mabengba, observed that culture and climate change adaptation had serious implications for the welfare of humans and local economies.                 

Modifications of cultural practices to protect the environment, he noted, were very essential to achieving Ghana’s development goals. Thus, he opined that the practice of conserving forest resources as sacred places or shrines was an effective adaptive measure that needs to be promoted. 

Accordingly, the minister also called on residents of the North to put a stop to bush burning and group hunting since the practice had negative effects on the environment.