The 2023 economic crisis in Ghana has challenged its status as a beacon for economic development in Africa, and refocused attention back onto rising inequality in the country.
But even as the viability of the country’s ‘Beyond Aid’ agenda comes under question, environmental concerns continue to escalate. Gold and cocoa, historically the leading exports, are subjects of contemporary focus, as pests, diseases and soil exhaustion increasingly beset cocoa, and the small-scale mining sector is expanding rapidly, risking further soil and water pollution, subsidence and erosion.
The Ghana Development Hub is working to understand these and other complex issues and to help influence policy and practitioner responses through knowledge sharing, mutual learning and collaboration.
Recent work
Featured Opinion
Water is essential for life yet is often unavailable to many in acceptable quantities and quality. In Tamale, Ghana, evidence from the Living Off-Grid Food and Infrastructure Collaboration reveals the realities of severe deprivation, precarity and struggles that households and…
Issahaka Fuseini & 2 others
24 November 2023
publications
Tackling critical contemporary challenges such as climate change, poverty and injustice requires knowledge co-creation and collaboration to inform decision-making that is based on local, national and global participation. With this in mind, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has instigated…
22 October 2025
events
Notions of resource conservation historically gained little attention in Ghanaian agriculture, with the prominent paradigm promoting growth at all costs. This webinar considers how far approaches prioritising productivity and sustainability may overlap in the sector, and the potential role of…
14 August 2025
Opinion
Farmers in Ghana are beginning to feel the consequences of decades of environmentally unsustainable practices such as soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, and dwindling household resources, yet their national agricultural policy remains focused on short-term economic gains. A recent panel…
05 June 2025
events
The IDS Ghana hub is pleased to invite you to a panel event entitled ‘Pathways to Sustainable Agriculture in Ghana’, held in collaboration with University of Ghana and University of Sussex. This event will involve two panels, one on Innovations…
04 February 2025
news
IDS has been working with partners in Ghana in recent years as part of two initiatives: firstly, a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Sussex and the University of Ghana (UG), and secondly the IDS Ghana Development Hub,…
11 July 2024
Opinion
For Ghanaian cocoa farmers’ livelihoods and for Ghana’s national income, maintaining access to higher value European cocoa markets is paramount. However, the European Deforestation Regulation (EDR), due to be implemented in December 2024, will reject cocoa linked to deforestation. Will…
Doreen Asumang-Yeboah, Rights & Advocacy Initiatives Network
02 July 2024
Partners
Projects
projects
Wa, the most urbanised town in the Upper West Region, faces significant sanitation challenges, along with many other towns in Ghana. These challenges are worsened by a lack of government action and planning, and embedded socio-cultural and gendered practices. Private…
projects
IDS is collaborating with partners from across East and West Africa in a novel activity to promote the role of arts and creative activities in contributing to positive environmental change. It builds on the concepts and partnerships developed in two…
projects
This research is designed to help improve the lives of the poorest residents of cities in Africa and Asia by focusing on how they are meeting their basic needs and accessing infrastructure, particularly when they are living 'off-grid'. The research…
projects
Action on Children’s Harmful Work in African Agriculture (ACHA) is a seven-year research programme supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) that started in January 2020. The aim of the programme is to build evidence on: the forms,…
People
