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The main purpose of the paper is to espouse the policy promptings of climate change and food security-based researches that would lend appropriate solutions to avert the risks of food insecurity, due to climate variability and change in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Design and methodological approach used a systematic review of preponderantly existing research findings. The paper discussed within the context of systematic discourse analysis, policy research uptake dynamics for food production and climate variability and change in SSA. The results indicated that the threats of adverse impacts of climate change are expected to be higher on Sub-Saharan Africa's food systems, notwithstanding, little effort is given to the implementation of policy recommendation by sub-Saharan African countries' agriculture sectors. This paper further argues broadly that there is still growing levels of policy implementation ambivalence towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 13, which enjoins nations to take immediate action to combat climate change through the institutionalization of sustainable adaptation and mitigation strategies, among many Sub-Saharan African countries. Government departments of food and agriculture, as well as meteorological agencies, require proactive inter-sectorial responses and collaboration to address the scourge of climate variability and change in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa. The paper recommends prompt and dispassionate implementation of climate change policies, as an imperative need for sustainable food production systems, in response to changing climatic patterns in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency threaten progress in reaching many of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets by 2030. The under-5 mortality and maternal mortality rates are well below the targets, and if we progress at the current pace, there is a high risk of not meeting the 2030 goals. Furthermore, the initial progress in the decline in child and maternal mortality since 1990 is likely to be eroded. Much of this progress has resulted from increased sanitation, drinking water, education, and health service coverage. The adequate provision of public services is possible if there is sufficient government funding. When governments have more income, they spend more on public services, which increases access to fundamental economic and social rights and, thus, contributes to the SDGs. One of the key drivers of government financing, taxation, constitutes 70% of government revenue in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Corporate income tax constitutes 18.8% of tax revenue in African countries compared to 10% of tax revenue in OECD countries. Therefore, it plays a critical role in SDG progress. This paper aims to quantify the contribution of one large taxpayer, that publishes their tax payments, (Vodafone Group Plc) on progress towards SDGs in six African countries. We use econometric modelling to estimate the impact of an increase in government revenue equivalent to Vodafone's average tax paid between 2007–2017. Results: We find that government revenue equivalent to Vodafone's taxes made a significant contribution to progress in attaining selected SDGs. We found that the revenue equivalent to Vodafone's taxes allowed 966,188 people to access clean water and 1,371,972 people to access basic sanitation each year. Over the time period studied, 858,054 children spent an extra year in school and 54,275 children under five years and 3,655 mothers survived. In just one of these countries, Tanzania, the revenue equivalent to Vodafone's tax contribution allowed 174,121 people to access clean water and 223,586 to access sanitation each year. Over the time studied 187,023 children spent an additional year at school, 6,569 additional children under five and 625 additional mothers survived. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that the reported contributions from a single multinational corporation drive SDG progress. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of transparent taxes and explores the responsibilities of global institutions, governments, investors, and multinational corporations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food security is related to human wellbeing and sustainable development and an important guarantee for world peace. In the context of global climate change, increased food demand, resource depletion, conflicts, and frequent public health emergencies, food security is widely seen as one of the top challenges. Food security research has obvious interdisciplinary characteristics, involving a wide range of fields. We analyzed the literature on food security in the Web of Science core collection from 1991 to 2021, using bibliometric methods with the aid of the Biblioshiny software package. By collecting, screening, analyzing, and visually expressing the literature data, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) In the past 30 years, the annual number of publications on food security increased. The period can be divided into three stages: 1991–2003 as the budding period, 2004–2012 as the development period, and 2013–2020 as the high-yield and active period. The top three journals discussing food security issues are Food Security, Sustainability, and Food Policy, and these journals focus on the publication of comprehensive views from interdisciplinary perspectives. (2) Studies on food security cover 138 countries or regions. The top three countries in terms of the number of published articles are the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. Among the top 20 countries in terms of the number of published articles, European countries are highlighted. (3) Climate change, food security, agriculture, policy, and management are the other high-frequency keywords in the field of food security; climate change occurred 321 times. The word sub-Saharan Africa also occurred more frequently, indicating that food security in sub-Saharan Africa has attracted wide attention. (4) The food security theme mapping clearly showed the research status and future development trends of various topics in the field. Currently, food production, climate change, and sustainable development are the most popular themes. Research on food sovereignty, ecological agriculture, child obesity, and other aspects is an emerging field. (5) We predict that in the future, the field of food security may focus on the expansion and improvement of the food security evaluation system, the balance between sustainable development and food security goals, the improvement of agricultural production and management efficiency, and the research on government policies and strategies. Our results provide a reference for grasping the current situation, key research direction, and development trend in the field of food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the debate on the determinants of deforestation, a menace that is posing threat to sustainable development particularly in tropical developing regions. Specifically, the paper focuses on the effect of energy justice and democratization. The main contribution to the literature hinges on the emphasis on energy justice - operationalized as rural-urban equality in access to electricity and clean fuels and technologies for cooking - and its interaction with democracy. Using a panel data of 47 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2000–2020 and the dynamic two-step generalized method of moment estimator, the results generally indicate that improvement in rural-urban equality in access to electricity and clean fuels and technologies for cooking is associated with a reduction in deforestation. Democracy is similarly found to be associated with reduction in deforestation. The conditional effect analysis largely depicts an intensified reducing effect of energy justice on deforestation in the presence of improved democratic practices. The results though robust to an alternative estimator, the Driscoll-Kraay estimator, differ when sub-regional analysis is considered. The paper aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goals 7, 13, 15 and 16. • How energy justice and democratization contribute to deforestation is examined. • Energy justice is measured by rural-urban equality in modern energy access. • Participatory, deliberative, egalitarian, liberal and electoral democracy are used. • Improving rural-urban equality in access to modern energy reduces deforestation. • Improving democracy reduces deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The projected impacts of climate change are likely to reverse social and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa, exacerbating the challenges of advancing sustainable development and meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Given the rapid and widespread urbanization occurring throughout sub-Saharan Africa, in particular Malawi, these challenges will be increasingly concentrated in cities. However, climate change and sustainable development policies in Malawi focus largely on rural areas. As a consequence, the new environmental and demographic challenges facing cities and the clear and immediate need for spatial planning are not addressed. This paper draws on current literature to make the linkages between climate change adaptation and spatial planning and to investigate the potential of densification and disaster risk management as adaptation measures. However, policy gaps, the acute shortages of trained land professionals and arrested political decentralization remain significant challenges for policy implementation. The recommendations outlined in this paper are intended to inform more appropriate adaptations over the long term by identifying where further research is required and by identifying specific actions that can be taken by policymakers to improve Malawi''s planned adaptation in urban areas. Due to the lack of research that exists on climate change adaptation from an urban perspective in Malawi, this paper is intended to provoke wider discussions of this subject across the planning, development and environmental management community. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Sub-Saharan Africa's freshwater fisheries contribute significantly to the livelihoods and food security of millions of people within the region. However, freshwater fisheries are experiencing multiple anthropogenic stressors such as overfishing, illegal fishing, pollution, and climate change. There is a substantial body of literature on the effects of climate change on freshwater fisheries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study reviews the existing literature and highlights the effects of climate change on freshwater fisheries, the adaptation strategies of fishery-dependent households in response to the effects, and fisheries' management and mitigation efforts in the face of climate change. The general effects of climate change on freshwater environments include warming water temperatures, increased stratification, modified hydrological processes, and increased pollutants. These effects adversely affect the physiological processes of fish and the overall wellbeing of fishery-dependent people. To cope with the effects of fluctuating fishery resources due to climate change, fishery-dependent people have adopted several adaptation strategies including livelihood diversification, changing their fishing gear, increasing their fishing efforts, and targeting new species. Several management attempts have been made to enhance the sustainability of fishery resources, from local to regional levels. This study recommends the participation of the resource users in the formulation of policies aimed at promoting climate change adaptation and the resilience of freshwater fisheries for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In numerous countries of Sub-Saharan Africa the strategic agenda of the water-sector is undergoing substantial change because of demographic pressure, climate change and economic transformation. Two new policy questions are arising from the need to make better use of available groundwater storage to improve water-supply security: What is the scope for promoting much increased groundwater use for irrigated agriculture, and how might the investment risks be reduced and sustainable outcomes ensured? How can the demand to expand urban groundwater use, for both further supplementing municipal water-supply systems and for direct in situ water supply, be best channelled to maximise the benefits whilst minimising the risks? This 'new agenda' poses very different challenges from the long-standing requirement to provide rural water supplies of adequate coverage, reliability and quality (which, while still not yet fully addressed, is outside the scope of this paper). Balanced answers to these new questions are needed to provide a sound basis for appropriate investment policies on managed groundwater development and adequate institutional provisions for their implementation. They are discussed here from the standpoint of the GW-MATE experience in some World Bank-supported projects in eastern Africa during 2001-2010, together with a review of some developments in western Africa and insights from parts of Asia and Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]