Community-based adaptation to climate change in Africa: a typology of information and institutional requirements for promoting uptake of existing adaptation technologies
The global phenomenon of climate change con- stitutes major threats to Africa (IPCC, 2007). Although the impact of climate change is global, for various reasons including the state of prepared- ness of the continent, it has been estimated that Africa will be most vulnerable to climate change (Arnell, 2004 and IPCC, 2007). The impacts of climate change in the continent are manifested in various forms including extreme weather patterns, prolonged droughts, flash floods, decline in crop productivity and loss of livestock due to droughts, resurgence of malaria in highland areas, water and pasture scarcities leading to conflicts. The chal- lenges in capacity and the availability of resources and the existence of a high dependence on natural re- sources increase the risks and uncertainties to live- lihoods of the rural poor, as the natural resource base becomes more vulnerable to the vagaries of climatic changes (Dentonet al ., 2000). As a result of these, climate change has the risk of compro- mising efforts to attain development targets set for the Millennium Development Goals or wiping out some of the modest developments that were already achieved in the continent. Given these challenges, efforts are being initiated to mitigate the effects of the phenomenon and/or to fashion out various coping strategies to assist the population to adapt to climate change with a view to reducing present and future vulnerability. However, adaptation to climate change has to be localized, given that adaptation to climate change is inevitably and un- avoidably local (Blaikieet al ., 1994; Ribot, 1995), Several adaptation approaches have been ad- vocated. Given the urgency and the potential impacts of climate change, ‘community-based adaptation’ strategies are currently advocated as the best approach. Community-based adaptation (CBA) is enabling communities to enhance their own adaptive capacity, and empowering vulnera-ble communities to increase their own resilience to the impacts of climate change (http://community. eldis.org/Communities/).
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Publication year
2022
