Differentiated agrarian vulnerabilities and generalized national responses to COVID‐19 in the Upper West Region of Ghana

Baada, Jemima Nomunume; Antabe, Roger; Sano, Yuji

The experiences of COVID‐19 differ at both micro and macro levels. This emphasizes the need for differentiated responses that account for the varying vulnerabilities of diverse groups regarding the pandemic. In Ghana, much of the attention on COVID‐19 has been on urban centres, particularly the country's two largest metropolises in southern Ghana. This has created a gap between national level policy and the experiences of COVID‐19 among rural dwellers in Ghana. This is despite evidence that the world's poorest populations will bear the brunt of COVID‐19 effects, and that globally, four out of five people living below the poverty line reside in rural areas. Using the Upper West Region as a case study, we discuss the differentiated vulnerabilities that agrarian communities in Ghana face regarding the pandemic. We situate our discussions within the theories of vulnerability and feminist political economy to highlight how interlocking vulnerabilities regarding historical, environmental, geopolitical, socio‐economic, health, and gendered inequalities affect the disposition of agrarian communities to cope with and recover from the COVID‐19 pandemic. We call for more nuanced COVID‐19 responses that account for the needs and experiences of agrarian communities in Ghana.