Africa urged to ‘mainstream’ homegrown climate adaptation

This article was supported by Global Health Strategies

[NAIROBI, SciDev.Net] Mainstreaming locally-led adaptation interventions is vital to building resilience against escalating climate risks, which are threatening livelihoods, ecosystems and development in Africa, according to new analysis.

However, adaptation efforts on the continent remain fragmented, unevenly financed, and dominated by external  priorities, finds the study, published by Global Health Strategies in partnership with the African Union (AU) Commission’s  Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy Directorate.

“Adaptation must move from being treated as a project-based kind of environmental issue to being mainstreamed into economic planning and public finance systems and sectoral policy.”

Emmanuel Siakilo, senior climate adaptation and resilience advisor, AU Commission

In a video interview with SciDev.Net, Emmanuel Siakilo, a senior climate adaptation and resilience advisor with the AU Commission, warns against “copy-paste kind of interventions” and “pumping money in interventions that don’t necessarily work for the continent”.

He says locally-led adaptation needs to be contextually relevant and well-coordinated to deliver measurable resilience.

“However, they must be embedded in national planning and budgeting processes,” says Siakilo.

“Adaptation must move from being treated as a project-based kind of environmental issue to being mainstreamed into economic planning and public finance systems and sectoral policy.”

With parts of Africa set to experience warming of between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius by 2025, climate adaptation is “not only a developmental priority but a survival imperative”, warns the climate adaptation study.

The report, published 25 February, identifies four critical locally-led interventions which governments across the continent could embrace.

These include climate-smart agriculture and agro-ecological practices, integrated with traditional knowledge, and early warning systems where meteorological data is paired with local response planning.

However, for these interventions to be successful, buy-in is needed from the private sector as well as government, says Siakilo.

“The resources that the public institutions have, at national level, are not sufficient to manage adaptation interventions in the continent,” he explains.

“In fact, countries in the continent have been utilising resources meant for critical social sectors like health and education to adapt to the impacts of climate change […] creating more challenges with the communities in these specific countries.”

Siakilo also highlights the importance of including gender, youth, indigenous peoples and civil society in climate adaptation, adding that this must go beyond “tokenism”.

“We do not just have to be talking about engaging these groups at the consultation level,” he says.

“What is critical here is that participation must influence budgets, it must influence authority. We need to have direct representation of indigenous communities, of youth, of gender, of civil society, in adaptation decision-making bodies and spaces.”

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk. It was supported by Global Health Strategies