Integrated and sustainable port development in Ghana

Africa is on the rise and new ports are essential to unlock production and trade opportunities and enable future growth. A growing consensus recognizes the need for sustainable port development, aimed at finding the right balance between human, environmental and economic aspects. However, an integrated inter-disciplinary approach to sustainable port development, which embraces the four perspectives of engineering, ecology, economy and governance is lacking. The ongoing NWO-UDW project "Integrated and Sustainable Port Development in Ghana" addresses this gap. It aims to develop a generic framework and a set of tools for stakeholder inclusive design of integrated and sustainable ports in Africa. It proposes a bottom up approach whereby research in all four disciplines is directed at relevant and practical cases in Africa. The Ghanaian port of Tema has been selected as a pilot project. This paper describes the project including the underlying vision and the objectives, the work-plan and the expected project results. It also describes the results of a workshop in Ghana in July 2015 to identify needs and values of relevant stakeholders with respect to Tema port development.