Paper short abstract:

Extreme heat events are disrupting urban livelihood activities through reduced productivity, loss of goods, restricted mobility and poorer health, resulting in reduced incomes. Low-income urban residents are particularly vulnerable, resulting in rising inequalities in African cities.

Paper long abstract:

Cities across sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly experiencing extreme weather events, which disproportionately affect the urban poor. Focussing on severe heat, this paper discusses the impact working in high temperatures is having on livelihoods in low-income urban communities in Ghana. Temperature data recorded in people’s homes and workplaces are linked to qualitative interview data collected in eight neighbourhoods within the cities of Accra and Tamale between 2018 and 2022. The data reveal the high indoor temperatures experienced and how extreme heat events are impacting vulnerable populations through disrupting their livelihood activities. Reduced productivity, loss of goods, restricted mobility and poorer health are resulting in reduced incomes. Although numerous coping strategies are adopted, including working extended hours, seeking cooler spaces and moving around at cooler times of the day, the impact on livelihoods can still be severe. Urban residents’ ability to adopt coping strategies and/or afford to reduce the temperatures they experience in their working spaces varies, hence marginalisation and inequality are likely to increase in the future.