The impacts of climate change are already pushing beyond the threshold for sustainable agriculture and rural livelihoods. In Sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable due to limited resources and adaptive capacity. Early warnings are critical in mitigating and reducing climate-related dangers and building resiliency. That notwithstanding, there needs to be higher coverage of early warnings in developing countries, and there is even less knowledge of their contribution to rural development. Using a cross-sectional survey involving smallholder farmer households (n = 517), this study investigates the relationship between early warnings and perceived climate preparedness in Ghana’s semi-arid Upper West Region. From ordered logistic regression presented as an odds ratio (OR), factors that influenced climate preparedness in the past 12 months before the study include exposure to early warnings (OR = 2.238; p < 0.001) and experiences of prior climate events such as drought (OR = 9.252; p < 0.001), floods (OR = 6.608; p < 0.001), and erratic rain (OR = 4.411; p < 0.001). The results emphasize the importance of early warning systems and various socioeconomic factors in improving the climate resilience of smallholder farmers in Ghana. In conclusion, the study puts forth policy suggestions worth considering.

Household agricultural decision-making is crucial in navigating household food insecurity amid increasing climate change and variability. In smallholder farming contexts in Ghana and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), decision-making is often the culturally ascribed role of the male family head. Yet joint household decision-making has the potential to leverage the diverse knowledge and capacities of household members to meet the nutritional and dietary needs of households. Using a cross-sectional survey involving 1100 smallholder farmer households, we examined the association between intra-household decision-making arrangements and food security in northern Ghana. Results from the logistic regression analysis indicated that households that practiced joint decision-making (OR = 1.71; p ≤ 0.001) had significantly higher odds of being food secure compared to households that practiced sole decision-making. Other noteworthy socio-economic and agricultural practices that were significantly associated with household food security included household size, marriage type, wealth, and post-harvest loss. The findings have demonstrated that household decision-making arrangements influence how household members negotiate and reconcile preferences in the allocation of resources and consequentially household food security outcomes. Therefore, policies that seek to address food insecurity and other socio-economic challenges in such contexts must critically consider household decision-making arrangements. Gender transformative policy approaches that are inclusive of both women and men in a comprehensive dialog on collective cooperation in household decision-making and control of productive resources should be employed.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying social changes severely impacted mental health globally. Children and adolescents may have been vulnerable to adverse mental health outcomes, especially obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), due to their underdeveloped resilience and coping skills stemming from their progressing physical and psychological development. Few studies have explored the parallels between the pandemic and OCD trends in this population. This systematic review aims to identify the impacts of COVID-19 on OCD among children and adolescents. Using the PRISMA guidelines, a systematic search of eight databases for studies that assessed OCD outcomes independently or as part of other psychiatric diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted. The search was limited to studies on humans and those written in English and published between January 2020 and May 2023. We identified 788 articles, out of which 71 were selected for a full-text review. Twenty-two papers were synthesized from 10 countries for the final analysis. We found that 77% of our studies suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on OCD among children and adolescents. We also found a complex interplay of individual, household, and socio-structural factors associated with the aggravation of OCD. Conversely, a few studies revealed that the pandemic strengthened relationships and resilience. The findings of this study emphasize the need for mental health screening and support for this population, especially during pandemic periods.

Nature-based solutions (NbS) build upon the proven contribution of well-managed and diverse ecosystems to enhance resilience of human societies. They include alternatives to techno-industrial solutions that aim to enhance social-ecological integration by providing simultaneous benefits to nature (such as biodiversity protection and green/blue space) and society (such as ecosystem services and climate resiliency). Yet, many NbS exhibit aspects of a technological or engineered ecosystem integrated into nature; this techno-ecological coupling has not been widely considered. In this work, our aim is to investigate this coupling through a high-level and cross-disciplinary analysis of NbS for water security (quantity, quality, and/or water-related risk) across the spectrums of naturalness, biota scale, and benefits to nature and society. Within the limitations of our conceptual analysis, we highlight the clear gap between “nature” and “nature-based” for most NbS. We present a preliminary framework for advancing innovation efforts in NbS towards maximizing benefits to both nature and society, and offer examples in biophysical innovation and innovation to maximize techno-ecological synergies (TES).