Background
In Ghana—like it neighbors—mechanisms such as ethnic tensions, religious, political, and social problems persist. Despite these challenges, Ghana’s post-independence era evolved peacefully without a civil war or large scale conflict. In the past three decades, Ghana develops the enhanced capability to manage conflicting and competing social interests, allowing the country to pursue a peaceful economic development trajectory and a deliberative political discourse. In spite of Ghana’s ability to avoid civil wars or large-scale violence, in the past decade, the rate at which the local media report skirmishes between farmers and Fulani herdsmen, spikes. For instance, in March 2016, a 25-year-old David, was shot dead at close range by …show more content…
Under the outgoing president, John Mahama’s watch, the ‘Operation One Cow Leg’ was meant to drive out Fulanis presumed to be triggering mayhem in the region. Under the ‘Operation One Cow Leg’, there was a heavy deployment of military and police task force to the hotspot areas. The activities of the joint task force in the hotspots received criticism from the Fulani herdsmen. They accused the government of taking sides with the local farmers and natives for political expediency reasons. The spokesperson for the herdsmen believes the security forces assigned to keep the peace, brutalized them, killed their animals and arrested them even though they did not commit any crime …show more content…
The next pages examine, and appraise the extant literature linking climate change to conflict. The theoretical connections between climate change and conflict succeed. This section specifies how shorter rainfall patterns, temperature deviations from the norm, population pressures and institutional capacity/incapacity aided conflict between farmers and the herdsmen over the years. Following this, the next section provides details on methodologies employed. This section explains how a mix-method approach is best suited for the kind of questions the research seeks to answer. It also specifies the research location(s), sample, data sources and methodologies used to analyze the data. The data analysis goes into three separate chapters. The first chapter contains an analysis of the interview and questionnaire data, together with data from ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Events Data) and local sources to explain how climatic deviations may be an impacting conflict between the farmers and herdsmen. The second chapter identifies how non-human mechanisms (perceived climatic factors) drive these conflicts. The discussion here includes non-climate mechanisms such as ethnic, tribal, religious, and social mechanisms of the conflict between the two groups. The third chapter looks at the role of Ghana’s resource-use laws and local institutions (laws, courts, traditional authorities) in mitigating or escalating the conflict. Does Ghana have clearly
In Ghana—like it neighbors—mechanisms such as ethnic tensions, religious, political, and social problems persist. Despite these challenges, Ghana’s post-independence era evolved peacefully without a civil war or large scale conflict. In the past three decades, Ghana develops the enhanced capability to manage conflicting and competing social interests, allowing the country to pursue a peaceful economic development trajectory and a deliberative political discourse. In spite of Ghana’s ability to avoid civil wars or large-scale violence, in the past decade, the rate at which the local media report skirmishes between farmers and Fulani herdsmen, spikes. For instance, in March 2016, a 25-year-old David, was shot dead at close range by …show more content…
Under the outgoing president, John Mahama’s watch, the ‘Operation One Cow Leg’ was meant to drive out Fulanis presumed to be triggering mayhem in the region. Under the ‘Operation One Cow Leg’, there was a heavy deployment of military and police task force to the hotspot areas. The activities of the joint task force in the hotspots received criticism from the Fulani herdsmen. They accused the government of taking sides with the local farmers and natives for political expediency reasons. The spokesperson for the herdsmen believes the security forces assigned to keep the peace, brutalized them, killed their animals and arrested them even though they did not commit any crime …show more content…
The next pages examine, and appraise the extant literature linking climate change to conflict. The theoretical connections between climate change and conflict succeed. This section specifies how shorter rainfall patterns, temperature deviations from the norm, population pressures and institutional capacity/incapacity aided conflict between farmers and the herdsmen over the years. Following this, the next section provides details on methodologies employed. This section explains how a mix-method approach is best suited for the kind of questions the research seeks to answer. It also specifies the research location(s), sample, data sources and methodologies used to analyze the data. The data analysis goes into three separate chapters. The first chapter contains an analysis of the interview and questionnaire data, together with data from ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Events Data) and local sources to explain how climatic deviations may be an impacting conflict between the farmers and herdsmen. The second chapter identifies how non-human mechanisms (perceived climatic factors) drive these conflicts. The discussion here includes non-climate mechanisms such as ethnic, tribal, religious, and social mechanisms of the conflict between the two groups. The third chapter looks at the role of Ghana’s resource-use laws and local institutions (laws, courts, traditional authorities) in mitigating or escalating the conflict. Does Ghana have clearly