Impacts of climate change on children's rights to food and health in coastal communities in Ghana

IF 4.7 2区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Environmental Development Pub Date : 2025-01-30 DOI:10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101151

Harrison Kwame Golo , Sulley Ibrahim , Bolanle T. Erinosho

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change impacts all internationally recognised human rights; nevertheless, the international community prioritises children's human rights due to their vulnerability to environmental changes. However, there is a paucity of empirical studies regarding the effects of climate change-related events on children's rights in Ghana's coastal communities. This article examines the effects of climate change on children's rights to food and health, as established in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, through comprehensive interviews and focus group discussions conducted in small-scale fishing communities in the Keta Municipalities and Ketu South district of the Volta Region of Ghana. Consequently, 62 participants from four communities identified as vulnerable to climate change and variability were selected by purposive and convenience sampling techniques. We illustrate how climate change-related phenomena, including tidal waves and resultant floods, as well as unforeseen severe droughts, disrupted economic activities, adversely impacting incomes, leading to malnutrition and health issues, thereby compromising fundamental human rights and the quality of life for children. We end with a framework for intervention and additional research.

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气候变化对加纳沿海社区儿童食物权和健康权的影响

人为气候变化影响所有国际公认的人权；然而，由于儿童易受环境变化的影响，国际社会优先重视儿童的人权。然而，缺乏关于气候变化相关事件对加纳沿海社区儿童权利影响的实证研究。本文通过在加纳沃尔特省凯塔市和凯图南区的小规模渔业社区进行的全面访谈和焦点小组讨论，考察了气候变化对《联合国儿童权利公约》所规定的儿童食物权和健康权的影响。因此，通过有目的和方便的抽样技术，从四个被确定为易受气候变化和变异影响的社区中选择了62名参与者。我们说明了与气候变化有关的现象，包括潮汐和由此产生的洪水，以及无法预见的严重干旱，如何扰乱经济活动，对收入产生不利影响，导致营养不良和健康问题，从而损害儿童的基本人权和生活质量。我们以一个干预和额外研究的框架结束。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Environmental Development Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development

CiteScore

8.40

自引率

1.90%

发文量

审稿时长

74 days

期刊介绍： Environmental Development provides a future oriented, pro-active, authoritative source of information and learning for researchers, postgraduate students, policymakers, and managers, and bridges the gap between fundamental research and the application in management and policy practices. It stimulates the exchange and coupling of traditional scientific knowledge on the environment, with the experiential knowledge among decision makers and other stakeholders and also connects natural sciences and social and behavioral sciences. Environmental Development includes and promotes scientific work from the non-western world, and also strengthens the collaboration between the developed and developing world. Further it links environmental research to broader issues of economic and social-cultural developments, and is intended to shorten the delays between research and publication, while ensuring thorough peer review. Environmental Development also creates a forum for transnational communication, discussion and global action. Environmental Development is open to a broad range of disciplines and authors. The journal welcomes, in particular, contributions from a younger generation of researchers, and papers expanding the frontiers of environmental sciences, pointing at new directions and innovative answers. All submissions to Environmental Development are reviewed using the general criteria of quality, originality, precision, importance of topic and insights, clarity of exposition, which are in keeping with the journal''s aims and scope.