1.4. Community Participation Study in Ghana

So bringing the people into the driving seat is really important this is the celebrations of our after finishing this and Dharavi community led action plan for flood disaster risk management.

This chunk emphasizes the significance of including community members actively in decision-making processes, particularly regarding flood disaster risk management. By allowing the community to take charge ('be in the driving seat'), their voices, needs, and experiences are acknowledged, making them crucial stakeholders in the plans that affect their lives.

Imagine a school project where the students are given the chance to decide how they want to plan their presentation instead of just following instructions from their teacher. This involvement makes the students feel more engaged and responsible for the project's success.

But the question remains in question of participations that why people participate?. These are the criterias right and these the right hand side you can see that, left hand side the process-based criteria and right hand side you can see some of the references that from where we can found that this is our proposed argued for community participation.

This chunk raises critical questions about the reasons for community participation and outlines various criteria for measuring participation. It implicitly invites us to consider whether participation is meaningful and who defines the terms of that participation.

Think of a group project where each member contributes differently. Some might work harder because they believe in the project, while others may just do the bare minimum. Understanding why people engage or not can impact the project's outcome, just like the importance of defining criteria for participation in community projects.

What is missing is that we are seeking communities participations but community had never been involved in defining what is the meaning of participations. How they would like to participate okay how they would like to participate it is always the outsiders, those who are not the stakeholders real stakeholders, those who are not the victims.

This section highlights a critical flaw in traditional approaches to community participation: the decision-makers (often outsiders) define what participation means, excluding the actual community members. It underscores the importance of allowing communities to express how they envision their involvement.

Imagine a cooking class where only the instructor decides what recipes students will cook, without considering the students' preferences. If students could share their favorite recipes, they'd likely be more enthusiastic and engaged, just like communities need a voice in how they participate.

So what we did we are looking this thing from a different angle from a different perspective we are saying that instead of we define the criteria of participation is possible that community themselves will define what is the meaning of participations what are the criterias of participations so we call this is user based approach.

The user-based approach shifts the responsibility of defining participation criteria from outsiders to the community members themselves. This method believes that true participation must come from those directly affected by the decisions, allowing them to set their own terms and expectations.

Consider a team of athletes choosing their training regimen instead of just following a coach's plan. By allowing athletes to express their preferences and needs, they are more likely to be motivated and committed to their training.

We conducted this study in Ghana a West African country and one of the most climate change impacted a disaster-prone community particularly the upper region, Wa region, the northern part of Ghana is around four hundred kilometre from the Accra their capital city and is one of the poorest region of this country.

In this part, the focus is on a specific community in Ghana, describing it as both vulnerable to climate change and economically disadvantaged. This sets the context for why understanding community participation in disaster risk management is critical in such regions.

Picture a village in a flood zone where families are continually worried about losing their crops and homes. By understanding how to involve these families in planning, they can help create solutions that work for their unique circumstances.

So they have both issues of flood and drought. This calendar were developed by the farmers or the local residents by themselves they are depicting, describing the impact of climate change they can sense they can feel...

This chunk describes the dual challenges of floods and droughts faced by the community, highlighting that local farmers took initiative to create calendars illustrating the changes in climate patterns. This illustrates the community's direct experiences with climate variability and how it affects their lives and livelihoods.

Think of farmers creating a weather diary depicting when it used to rain and when it doesn't. This personal observation helps them understand climate changes and adapt their farming practices accordingly, much like the community is adapting to climate challenges by observing and documenting.

--