[{"bbox": [97, 154, 1133, 233], "category": "Text", "text": "impact the role of women as economic decision-makers. While it can differ from a region to another, in general, women's rights and ability to participate in and benefit from economic activities are limited and concentrated around vulnerable, low-wage jobs and unpaid labour."}, {"bbox": [97, 245, 1133, 457], "category": "Text", "text": "There are no laws in Ghana prohibiting women from opening bank accounts or taking out loans in their own name, but only a third of women report having a formal bank account in the country. In the past years, the opportunity of Digital Financial Services (DFS) has supported a lot of low-income female customers, as it reduces the time and costs to make financial transactions and improve the security of those transactions. DFS are an increasing factor of poverty reduction, and savings and entrepreneurship are the two pillars for women financial empowerment in Ghana. However, the negative impact of the e-levy introduced on 1st May by the Government (tax applied on transactions beyond 100 GHC per day made on electronic or digital platforms) has yet to be fully analysed."}, {"bbox": [97, 470, 1133, 629], "category": "Text", "text": "Women in Northern Ghana face not only limited access to financial services and business training to start and grow businesses, but also limited access and control over productive resources including land. Owning land in Northern Ghana is crucial for empowerment. Due to patrilineal inheritance systems, women primarily access land through their husbands or by renting land from other men in the community. Again, there are currently no laws impeding women's access to the land registry, but discrimination in customs and women lacking knowledge of the laws prevent them from participating fully."}, {"bbox": [97, 641, 1133, 747], "category": "Text", "text": "In addition to the challenges faced in achieving gender equality, persons with disabilities living in Ghana face barriers in accessing education and employment opportunities and are also more likely to be at risk of poverty due to the extra cost of disability. Women with disabilities in Ghana face additional barriers based on the intersection of gender and disability."}, {"bbox": [97, 773, 1133, 932], "category": "Text", "text": "**Urban development challenges and opportunities in the North of Ghana.** Less urbanised but strategically located, the Northern regions of Ghana are the food basket of the country and beyond, are a gateway to the Sahel, as well as a potential major regional logistic hub (in particular Tamale). However, climate change, urban sprawl, demographic pressure and land speculation are threatening both urban sustainability and the agricultural sector at the periphery of the city. Therefore, developing stable, smart and climate sensitive urban centres in regional capitals and secondary cities emerges as a key factor to avoid urban sprawl and impoverishment."}, {"bbox": [97, 944, 1133, 997], "category": "Text", "text": "Small but well-planned industrial centres in Northern Ghana have the potential to add significant economic value to rural development and to mitigate unhealthy spatial growth."}, {"bbox": [97, 1011, 1133, 1089], "category": "Text", "text": "The structural lack of institutional and technical capacities to implement planning tools and monitor land use and spatial growth needs to be addressed by building capacity and pragmatic tools to generate inclusive sustainable development, with a strong connection and synergy with rural areas."}, {"bbox": [86, 1117, 339, 1145], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [97, 1165, 326, 1189], "category": "Section-header", "text": "**Short problem analysis:**"}, {"bbox": [97, 1203, 1133, 1334], "category": "Text", "text": "Although considerable efforts have been made to elaborate and coordinate planning tools at various levels, the pace of Ghana's urbanisation coupled with the creation of new districts in urban metropolitan areas has added institutional complexity and obstacles to coordinate stakeholders and to develop local plans and spatial planning within greater urban areas. In this context, the specificities of Ghana's customary land practices are critical to understand how to improve land use management."}, {"bbox": [97, 1348, 1133, 1585], "category": "Text", "text": "Due to the rapid and informal spatial growth of cities, planning tools (when existing) are quickly outdated and often fail to respond to complex urban land management issues. Moreover, districts lack funds to provide the basic infrastructure to enforce their implementation. Planning departments in secondary and tertiary cities are facing a critical lack of capacity and fail to capture land value through effective local tax policies. Customary practices regarding land ownership differ from formal land administration and applicable laws, leading to conflicts and land insecurity, which in turn threaten the municipal capacity to implement policies and programmes regarding disaster risk reduction, adaptation to climate change, transition to sustainable and low carbon cities. The lack of effective urban planning also hampers the operationalisation of affordable and collective housing, of sustainable mobility, of urban green design, and development of basic services, such as water and sanitation, and waste management."}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1143, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 25"}]