Glen Carswell Investigates "Adaptation to Water Stress in the Upper East Region of Ghana"

Glen Carswell, an M.S. Candidate in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy completed his “Adaptation to Water Stress in the Upper East Region of Ghana” project in Professor Shagun Mehrotra’s Advanced Seminar in Fall 2015. Interested in sustainable development, he chose to investigate adaptation strategies in the African Savannah zone. Global climate trends and local land management practices have created a situation of water stress in this region. The majority of residents are smallholder farmers dependent on rain fed crops for their livelihoods, but rainfall patterns are becoming increasingly unpredictable and temperatures are getting warmer. As the population is increasing, the land is becoming less productive, which increases vulnerability to potential food insecurity. For this project, he partnered with RISE Ghana, a local NGO based in Bolgatanga, Ghana that works to educate farmers about sustainable land and water management practices and to make new technologies available to them. The intention of the project was to investigate both policy and technical adaptation strategies through fieldwork and literature review to see RISE Ghana scale capacity and effectiveness to positively impact more farmers.