Locally-led Adaptation as a Silver Bullet? Complexities, Needs, and Responses in Climate Adaptation at the Volta Coastline, Ghana

Sea-level rise increases the exposure of low-lying communities to climate risks along the eastern coast of Ghana, while adaptation responses are reactive and insufficient to secure fishing livelihoods in highly vulnerable areas. To better address needs, Locally-led Adaptation (LLA) promotes just climate governance by shifting power to local actors to enable context-specific and place-based responses. Following a literature review, site observations and twenty-two semi-structured interviews, findings indicate that nature-based solutions could be implemented according to the LLA concept, however, those are not yet widely recognized in Ghana for coastal adaptation, with grey infrastructure being prioritized. De-centralized governance structures, enabling policy framework,and strong collaboration with NGOs are in place to implement LLA, however, horizontal and vertical governance mechanisms are weak, and long-term planning and financial resources are absent to actat a delta-scale. LLA was identified as a potential approach to improving just coastal governancewhile recognizing its limitations.