Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire have been urged to redirect part of their future development towards an emerging inland economic corridor to ease pressure on vulnerable coastal communities and improve resilience to climate change.
Dr Luc Boerboom, Associate Professor at the University of Twente, said spatial planning analysis had identified a secondary development corridor approximately 80 kilometres inland from the coast in both countries.
He said the emerging corridor offered the two countries an opportunity to strengthen inland towns and attract investment away from flood-prone and environmentally sensitive coastal settlements.
Dr Boerboom made the recommendation in Accra on Thursday on the sidelines of the third meeting of the Steering Committee of the Improved Resilience of Coastal Communities in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana (IRCC) Project.
He said the analysis conducted under the project had revealed growing connections between settlements along the coast, particularly within the rapidly expanding Abidjan-Lagos corridor, while also pointing to the development of a parallel inland corridor.
“The discovery that we have made is that there is actually a secondary corridor, which is about 80 kilometres north of the coast, in both countries,” he said.
Dr Boerboom, who specialises in Spatial Planning Support Systems and Institutionalisation at the University’s Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, said the corridor was already beginning to take shape and could be deliberately integrated into national development planning.
“The insight of the last six months is that we see that this corridor is in the making. If we would make use of that corridor, then we could reduce the pressure on the coast,” he said.
Inland investment could ease flooding pressure
According to the researcher, concentrating development in coastal areas, particularly around estuaries where rivers meet the sea, could increase exposure to flooding and other climate-related risks.
“Nature manages its water with these kind of estuaries. Once you start building there, of course you get problems,” he said.
He therefore called for greater investment in smaller inland towns, including infrastructure, schools, hospitals and economic activities, while improving north-south transport connections to the emerging corridor.
Dr Boerboom also suggested that development along the main Abidjan-Lagos corridor should be accompanied by deliberate investment in the inland corridor to ensure that economic growth was not concentrated exclusively along the coast.
He said a portion of investments supporting the primary corridor could be channelled towards developing inland communities and infrastructure.
Mangrove restoration gains momentum
Meanwhile, Regional Project Coordinator of the IRCC Project, Mouhamadou Diene, said implementation of the project had progressed since its launch in September 2024, although much of the work so far had focused on planning and preparatory activities.
He said community participation in spatial planning was advancing, while procurement for physical interventions, including drainage infrastructure, was “very far advanced”.
“We hope also to improve and increase the rate of implementation in the coming months,” Mr Diene, who works with UN-Habitat, said.
He identified mangrove restoration and protection as another important component of efforts to strengthen coastal resilience.
Project assessments, he said, had linked mangrove harvesting and degradation to increased vulnerability of coastal communities.
Mangroves, he explained, helped protect shorelines, stabilise soils, reduce salinisation and provide critical habitats for fish, making sustainable management and community education essential.
Mr Diene disclosed that Ghana had so far restored 111 hectares of mangroves, with a target of reaching 200 hectares by October through community-led restoration activities.
The IRCC Project, approved by the Adaptation Fund in 2023 with a budget of US$13.99 million, covers 21 coastal communities in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and is expected to directly benefit about 126,019 people.
In Ghana, the project covers 11 communities in the Ada East, Ada West and Anloga districts, while 10 communities in Grand-Bassam and Jacqueville in Côte d’Ivoire are also covered.
The project focuses on climate-responsive spatial planning, early warning systems, nature-based solutions, resilient livelihoods and regional cooperation aimed at reducing the vulnerability of coastal populations to climate change.
