James Boafo

The global energy transition depends heavily on technologies that require substantial mineral inputs. Renewable energy systems—including electricity grids, solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles (EVs), and geothermal infrastructure— rely on a range of metals such as lithium, nickel, copper, cobalt, and rare earth elements (Boafo et al., 2024; International Energy Agency, 2023). These technologies are significantly more resource-intensive than their fossil fuel-based counterparts. For example, producing one EV car requires six times more mineral inputs than a conventional gasoline-powered car. At the same time, an onshore wind plant demands nine times the mineral resources of a gas-fired power plant (International Energy Agency, 2021a)...

International aid in the form of development assistance helps developing countries meet their development needs. Aid is also used as a conduit to drive the interests of donor countries in recipient countries. In Ghana, there is a renewed interest from donors to drive agriculture transformation through investment in market-based policies. However, little is known about how development assistance is used by donor countries to promote their interests in the Ghanaian agriculture sector. This article draws on policy documents and interviews with policy actors and donor stakeholders to understand the processes and outcomes of agriculture sector policymaking in Ghana. Our findings demonstrate the ways financial, technical, and other resources are deployed by donors to shape agricultural policy outcomes. We further demonstrate how donors promote market-based solutions in the agriculture sector. We conclude by reflecting on the limits of these donor-led agricultural policies in meeting the needs of Ghana's smallholder farmers.

The global push to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 accelerates the transition to clean and renewable energy. This shift requires renewable energy sources and a steady supply of critical minerals essential for low-emission technologies. Africa is well-positioned to contribute to this transition, with abundant reserves of renewable energy potential and critical raw materials such as cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements. In contrast, the European Union (EU) Member States face mineral resources and renewable energy capacity limitations. As a result, the EU is advancing an “Energy Transition Diplomacy” strategy—building strategic partnerships with African countries to secure access to electricity and critical raw materials needed for its green growth agenda. Drawing on existing partnership agreements between the EU and two African nations—Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—we critically examine the implications of the EU's strategies for sourcing energy-related and strategic raw materials from Africa. Our review suggests that while these partnerships may support Europe's green growth goals, they risk reinforcing historical patterns of unequal exchange. Specifically, the EU's approach may perpetuate Africa's role as a supplier of raw materials without sufficient investment in local value addition. This dynamic exacerbates existing structural inequalities in the global economy. Our research underscores the need for policy frameworks that promote more equitable and just energy transitions that ensure mutual benefit, support local capacity building, and avoid replicating extractive models of the past.

The global push for energy transition has intensified competition for Africa’s mineral resources, which are essential for producing low-emission technologies. This renewed demand is reshaping the continent’s resource sector and, in some cases, exacerbating governance challenges and reinforcing illegal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities. In this review, we examine how the search and demand for critical minerals contributes to illegal ASM operations in Africa. Drawing on emerging evidence from the copper industry in Zambia, the lithium sector in Zimbabwe, and the cobalt industry in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we identify a growing incidence of illegal ASM activities involving critical minerals. Our findings suggest that the high global demand for critical minerals contribute to illegal ASM activities in the sector in our case study countries. However, significant contributing factors include rural poverty, unemployment, limited livelihood options, access to mineral-rich lands, declining agricultural productivity due to climate change, and the need for funds to support rebel activities. We argue that the race for Africa’s resources in support of global energy transition may create a sustainability transition paradox—advancing long-term social and technological transformation while simultaneously intensifying existing sustainability challenges such as environmental degradation and water pollution. These insights have important implications for policies aimed at promoting responsible mining practices and ensuring that energy transitions are both equitable and sustainable.

The 2030 agenda for sustainable development has highlighted the significance of migration in agricultural development and transformation. However, pertinent studies hitherto overly focused on rural-urban migration and, as such, fail to provide substantive evidence in driving policies toward rural sustainable development. To address this gap, we used the rural web sustainability framework to analyse and elevate the discourse about how rural migrants contribute to agricultural diversification in their rural-regional destinations. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect data from 600 rural households comprising 306 migrants and 294 non-migrants in Ghana. Rural migrants were those who moved from their village and settled in another village as destination place, the surveyed areas for this study whilst non-migrants were natives. Formal interviews were held with 60 participants from social groups, religious organisations, traditional councils, government representative groups, and not-for-profit organisations to solicit the needed supplementary data. The findings hold that rural migrants are agents of change in the socioeconomic development in their rural-regional destinations. This change is seen in their significant role in advancing agricultural diversification production, such as introducing new varieties of food crops, establishing small-scale businesses to increase value-added production, and forming several social groups to empower their production capacity. Our findings highlight that interregional rural-rural migration can alleviate accessibility barriers to essential assets which can help address poverty among smallholder farmers and ensure food availability in rural regions. We provide evidence to support the design of policy interventions aimed at building the capacity of rural households to transform agriculture for sustainable development.
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Youth unemployment and under-employment in Ghana represent a major concern for policymakers and young people themselves. While the agriculture sector has been touted as having the potential to offer employment to the teaming youth, there is little research focusing on the steps and pathways with which young university graduates navigate to engage in commercial cashew production to build their livelihood. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with young university graduates in Nkoranza, a community in the Bono East Region of Ghana, we explore the steps and pathways with which they navigate engagement in commercial cashew production for the export market. A key finding of the study is that young university graduates engage in cashew production as a ‘side-hustle’ to supplement their income from their primary occupations, with some important gender and generational dimensions. We also found that young university graduates rely on social relations and existing land market to access the needed resources including land, credit and labour to engage in cashew production. The findings also indicate that young university graduates view cashew farms as long-term investments and have no plans to return to the city in future. Based on these findings, we argue that youth employment is not about a single job and that social relations continue to be a key resource in youth livelihood building. We further argue that despite the popular and existing policy narratives that young people are not interested in agriculture and/or rural areas, and that migration from rural to urban areas is the de facto option, investment and engagement in commercial agriculture as a side-hustle in addition to family concerns, rising cost of living in the cities and children's education motivate young university graduates to remain in the rural economy.

The perceived effects of climate change on the environment are becoming a lived experience for many rural dwellers in poor countries. Several new concepts have emerged to describe the long-term mental health consequences of climate-induced effects, with ecological grief as a prime example. Yet empirical research showing how climate-related ecological loss drives grief and emotional distress among communities is limited, particularly within the context of sub-Saharan Africa. This study draws on in-depth interviews and a focus group with smallholder farmers in the Upper West region, Ghana’s most climate-vulnerable region, to develop an understanding of climate change-induced ecological grief. A key finding of the study is that smallholder farmers in the region are experiencing grief because of climate change-induced ecological loss including loss of livelihoods, loss of indigenous seeds and genetic resources, and loss of indigenous ecological knowledge. We further demonstrate that grief experienced by farmers manifests in various forms including feelings of anxiety, powerlessness, helplessness, hopelessness, and sadness, among others. Our findings have implications for climate change adaptation strategies and policies across the global South.

There is currently an exponential growth in the global demand for critical minerals, particularly lithium, to meet clean energy and decarbonisation objectives. However, sustainable supply of these minerals is at risk due to declining ore grades, available extraction and processing technologies, socio-environmental concerns, and geopolitical challenges. Africa hosts substantial critical minerals resources, and the continent is currently being positioned as a major global player in the critical minerals supply chain. As a result, there is a rush for Africa’s critical minerals through investment in exploration activities and license acquisition by foreign mining companies. Drawing on the case of lithium mining in Africa, we analyse the urgency claims of critical minerals in the African context and assess the inherent socio-ecological impacts. We found that the urgency claims of Africa’s critical minerals largely serve the geostrategic and economic interests of western countries and China. The rush for Africa’s critical minerals is producing significant socio-ecological impacts, including driving loss of rich biodiversity, displacement of communities and breeding new forms of illegalities in resource sector. Based on our findings, we argue that the current race for Africa’s critical minerals does not serve the interest of Africa and is likely to create adverse long-term socio-ecological impacts rather than benefits for the continent unless appropriate sustainable measures, including strategic planning, are carefully considered, and fully implemented. Our findings have implications for policies seeking to promote sustainable mining in Africa, and elsewhere with similar challenges.
•There is a high global demand for critical minerals resources.•Africa hosts substantial critical minerals resources.•The rush for Africa’s critical minerals is producing significant socio-ecological impacts.

This paper presents a political ecology analysis of pesticide use in Ghana’s Brong Ahafo region; a region experiencing the growing uptake of pesticides by farmers. To do this, we pose two questions: (1) What ecological changes are farmers observing as a result of intensive pesticide use?; and (2) What are the bodily lived experiences arising from farmers’ exposure to pesticides? Data was collected through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observations across four farming communities in the region. Adopting the analytical frame of political ecology, we demonstrate that intensive use of pesticides is adversely affecting local ecologies, with farmers’ identifying it as driving extinction of some crop varieties as well as killing soil microorganisms, making soil infertile. Farmers also describe experiencing headaches, body itching, dizziness, coughing, blurred vision, skin rashes and body weakness as a result of bodily exposure to pesticides. Our findings draw attention to the ecological and health problems associated with adoption of modern practices of farming in Ghana. We conclude by arguing that the ecological and bodily health impacts of pesticides in Brong Ahafo are best understood by situating them as both socially produced and historically determined.