The Chief Resilience Officer of Accra on his journey, from a humble background to leading new initiatives across city government.
In typically modest fashion, Evans Asamoah Adjei starts our conversation by reminding us he comes from “a very humble background.” For nearly a decade, he worked at Zoomlion, Ghana’s largest waste management company and perhaps West Africa’s biggest too, before Accra’s mayor reached out to him to serve as the city’s Resilience Officer.
“It was a Herculean one”, he says when asked what sort of task he had in store. “Until I joined the resilience role, I was only looking at the environment from one perspective – waste,” he reflects. “Then I began to also open up my mind.”
Accra grapples with interlinked urban pressures – rapid population growth straining infrastructure, flash flooding exacerbated by poor drainage and waste blocking waterways, chronic power outages disrupting daily life and business, mounting heat waves in densely built neighbourhoods, and difficulties with waste management affecting public health, environmental quality, and the city’s financial stability.
When Adjei stepped into the role, he quickly realised he had a lot to learn. “It was very challenging after some time realising that I only know less than 1% of exactly what I need to know within the industry.”
He also inherited a role that had been largely dormant. The Chief Resilience Officer position had existed in Accra since the 100 Resilient Cities programme, but after that initiative ended, budgetary constraints made it difficult to maintain momentum. More fundamentally, climate wasn’t a priority at the local level. “I took on a role at a point in time when nobody cared about climate within the city. It was always happening at the national level but not at the sub-national level,” Adjei recalls.
Adjei, though, didn’t become CRO by accident. Instead, he’s “the type who has always been resilient about surviving and excelling.” He set about studying independently, completing a master’s degree in climate change and sustainability development whilst building capacity. What he discovered was quietly transformative for him: environmental management spans far beyond his waste background – encompassing energy, land use, air quality, policy, governance, and the economics and politics of climate action.
He recalls a moment when this all came into sharp focus. About three years ago, Accra faced a tipping point. The city was “inundated with filth everywhere – rubbish was all over the streets, everywhere, in front of houses.”
The waste crisis carried political implications for government, financial implications for local authorities, and serious health consequences for residents – compounded by the flash flooding that had been overtaking the city.
Evans turned to what had become his bible: the city’s Climate Action Plan. “For about a year I was reading it virtually every day.” The plan contained specific actions for reducing waste sent to landfill, and a sustainable solution became clear – source separation, where waste would be divided at source into organic waste, plastics and other recyclables, diverting material away from landfill and into recycling and reuse.
“My experiences from the waste management company came to bear, and my knowledge from climate and building resilience also came to bear.” C40 Cities came on board to help develop a bankable proposal for the source separation programme. Feasibility studies were completed and piloting began – with the goal of eventually scaling across the entire city. The programme addresses multiple challenges simultaneously: reducing carbon emissions, easing pressure on the city’s budget, improving public health outcomes and tackling flash flooding.
It was a lesson in implementation. “The document was there – the resilience strategy, after its development. The strategy is there, but we need to pick that document from the shelf and run with it.”
Running with it, though, isn’t just putting one foot in front of the other. The resilience unit operates with severe financial limitations – a 70–30 gap between ambitions and actual resources. “It has always been the energy and the support of the Chief Resilience Officer to push people and get some personnel who want to have an understanding of the climate space to come and support.” One such creative solution was partnering with academic institutions to bring climate students in as interns, leveraging their theoretical knowledge whilst implementing an ambitious climate agenda.
Despite the challenges, Adjei’s assertion is unequivocal: “I don’t think that there is a better opportunity to provide for the environment and your community than the Chief Resilience Officer’s role. Our impact is seen much more at the local level than at the national level, because we touch the hearts and minds of the issues at the local level.”
The role itself has transformed for him. “The role itself means a lot to me now – more than it used to be when I took over. Because the more you know, the better you become.” He’s discovered that resilience building “is not just an abstract thing that you teach in classrooms, but rather a day-to-day living where people must prepare and position themselves for anything that can happen in life.”
“You’ll be surprised if I tell you: within the city now, it is the resilience unit that is pushing a lot of projects. About 80% of projects running now are coming from the resilience unit.”
From a specialised focus on waste management to having a hand in 80% of the city’s newest initiatives, Evans Asamoah Adjei’s journey demonstrates that to build resilience in a city, you must first live it yourself.