In semi-arid Northern Ghana, smallholder farmers face food insecurity and financial risk due to climate change. In response, the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model, a community-led microfinance model, has emerged as a promising finance and climate resilience strategy. VSLAs offer savings, loans, and other financial services to help smallholder farmers cope with climate risks. In northern Ghana, where formal financial banking is limited, VSLAs serve as vital financial resources for smallholder farmers. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how VSLAs can bridge financial inclusion and climate resilience strategies to address food insecurity. From a sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF) perspective, we utilized data from a cross-sectional survey of 517 smallholder farmers in northern Ghana’s Upper West Region to investigate how VSLAs relate to food insecurity. Results from an ordered logistic regression show that households with membership in a VSLA were less likely to experience severe food insecurity (OR = 0.437, p < 0.01). In addition, households that reported good resilience, owned land, had higher wealth, were female-headed, and made financial decisions jointly were less likely to experience severe food insecurity. Also, spending time accessing the market increases the risk of severe food insecurity. Despite the challenges of the VSLA model, these findings highlight VSLAs’ potential to mitigate food insecurity and serve as a financially resilient and climate-resilient strategy in resource-poor contexts like the UWR and similar areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. VSLAs could contribute to achieving SDG2, zero hunger, and SDG13, climate action. However, policy interventions are necessary to support and scale VSLAs as a sustainable development and food security strategy in vulnerable regions.

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.

With increasing human-induced environmental degradation, women's nature-based livelihood activities are threatened. In semi-arid northern Ghana, shea processing (i.e., shea butter, a derivative of shea nut from the shea tree), a vital women-dominated economic activity, is at risk as naturally occurring shea trees continue to decline in numbers and productivity. The decline of the shea tree's number and productivity and the ensuing biodiversity loss have sparked conservation efforts by governments and local communities. This includes community-led conservation models, which have recently gained traction in the Global South. Ghana implemented the Community Resource Management Areas (CREMA)—a community-led conservation model to improve biodiversity and ecosystem services, including shea trees conservation in response to climate change. Research has not explored the impacts of community-led conservation efforts on women’s nature-based livelihoods in Ghana. Using a mixed-methods approach involving surveys (n = 517) and focus group discussions (n = 8), this study explored shea productivity outcomes under CREMAs. Findings show that women residing in CREMAs had significantly better shea harvesting outcomes than those outside CREMAs (α = −53.725; P < 0.01). These findings demonstrate the potential for targeted conservation initiatives that are community-led, such as the CREMAs, to improve the conservation of economically significant naturally occurring trees like Shea. With the increasing impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, such models would be instrumental in achieving sustainable development goals like SDG5-gender equality, SDG10-reduced inequalities, SDG13-Climate action, SDG14-life below water, and SDG14-life on land.

Every child has the right to proper nutrition. As such, child nutrition counselling is recommended to improve child dietary diversity and reduce malnutrition. However, there is limited empirical evidence on how child nutrition counselling, gender dynamics, and intra-household feeding decisions play a role and translate to child dietary diversity in rural contexts. Informed by theoretical conceptions from Health Belief Model (HBM) and Gender and Development (GAD) framework, we analyzed cross-sectional data from 517 smallholder households in Ghana's semi-arid Upper West Region to investigate the relationship between child nutrition counselling, gender dynamics, intra-household feeding decision-making, and their impact on child dietary diversity. Results from ordered logistic regression show that households that received child nutrition counselling reported higher child dietary diversity. Joint intra-household feeding decisions were associated with higher child dietary diversity. Households with good self-rated childcare, engaged in home gardening, and higher wealth, as well as those in the Waala ethnic group, were more likely to have high child dietary diversity. A decrease in household head age was linked to increased high child dietary diversity. On the other hand, female-headed households, Brifo ethnic groups, and those in the Wa East and Wa West districts were less likely to experience high child dietary diversity. Implementing interventions and policies prioritizing nutrition education in the Upper West Region and similar sub-Saharan African contexts is recommended. Strategies like scaling up child nutrition counselling, food demonstrations, mother-to-mother support nutrition outreach, and mobile nutrition clinics can empower women and improve children's well-being.