Migration as an Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change: Influencing Factors in North-western Ghana

Climate change has attracted the attention of all stakeholders, ranging from individuals in the household through to global organisations in the international community. As an inevitable phenomenon at the moment, adaptation is the key response to minimising the unfavourable effects of climate change. While there are several adaptation strategies, rural areas mostly use migration as an ultimate and most reliable option. Rural migration in Ghana is mostly from the north to the south. This paper examines the factors that influence individuals and households’ decision to use migration as an adaptation strategy to climate change effects in North-western Ghana. Data was collected using household questionnaire in four communities and analysed using statistical package for social science, version 20.0. The study established that although there are other reasons for migration, it is used essentially as an adaptation strategy to the effects of climate change on livelihood. The study concludes that the debate on climate change and migration should no longer be whether climate change causes human migration but how the effects of climate change influence migrants’ resolve to migrate as an adaptation strategy. Such an analysis allows policy makers to find practical adaptive capacity measures that can offset the challenges at the original homes of migrants.