Prof. Joseph Yaro

Professor Joseph Awetori Yaro joined the Department of Geography and Resource Development, at the University of Ghana in 2005, after completing his Ph.D. in Human Geography at the University of Oslo in 2004. He is the African Visiting Scholar at Carleton University’s Institute of African Studies for the 2011-2012 academic year. He is the corresponding editor of the Ghana Journal of Geography and the immediate past Director of the Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana (2018 – 2021). Currently, he’s the Principal, of the University of Ghana Accra City Campus.

Prof. Yaro has carried out consultancies and research projects sponsored by the Ministry of Lands, Forestry, and Mines; The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research; The University of Ghana Research and Conferences Grants; The World Bank; and The Centre for Environment and Development, the University of Oslo (funded by the Norwegian Research Council). His teaching and research interests reflect a combination of development studies and rural geography. He has done extensive research in rural northern Ghana since 1999. He has undertaken development-related research on environmental issues, poverty, food insecurity, sustainable rural livelihoods, land tenure, and climate change adaptation. Joseph is actively researching transnational land deals in Ghana in Collaboration with the Futures Agricultural Consortium (Institute of Development Studies, Sussex) and also starting new research on Building local adaptive capacity to climate change and climate variability in rural northern Ghana. He mentors students in carrying out annual evaluations of NGOs and conducting baseline studies of beneficiary communities in Ghana.