City attractions: Enhancing assets adaptation strategies of the urban poor in Accra and Tamale in Ghana

ABSTRACT

Populations in African cities are growing rapidly which poses challenges for the urban poor whose assets are poor and require enhancement. Improving the assets adaptation strategies of the urban poor will boost the attractions in the city. However, ways to enhance the assets adaptation strategies of the urban poor have received less attention in the literature. This study employed mixed methods to investigate the phenomenon and found that enhancing assets adaptation strategies for the poor should be linked to the type of vulnerability experienced. The study further found that ways to enhance financial assets include (creating sustainable jobs), physical assets (provision of water storage facilities), human assets (education and skills), social assets (improving the extended family system, providing social support), and natural assets (increasing access to water). These findings enable policymakers to strategize and enhance assets adaptation strategies for the urban poor.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• resilience
• urban poor
• vulnerabilities

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Robert Bosch Stiftung, grant number 00114395, United Nations University Institute of Natural Resource in Africa (UNU-INRA)