Social Protection and Climate Resilience: A Review Of Sub-Saharan African Case Studies
Abstract
Social protection is mainly used for assisting the most vulnerable in the area of poverty reduction. However, international development scholars are arguing that social protection aside impacting the poor can also help in climate resilience. This study examines selected case studies in the social protection and climate resilient debate in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches in data collection, the study finds that social protection through cash transfers have been able to build climate resilience among participants of the scheme. Though findings from the study were minimal, a wide range of research needs to be carried out to determine the impact of social protection on climate shocks on a broader scale.
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Introduction
Climate change will affect many people globally due to the increase in temperature and greater variability of rainfall. It is argued that the impacts of climate change will pose tremendous challenges to individual livelihoods. Climate change is real in Africa. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has envisaged that harsh climate events across Africa are expected to increase resulting in disasters.
Sub-Saharan Africa has been categorised as one of the regions that is most vulnerable to climate change due to its high exposure and poor adaptive capacity. Climate experts think that Sub-Saharan Africa is more susceptible to climate events due to its high poverty rate, droughts coupled with rain-fed agricultural production. While no one is immune to the impact of climate change, the poor are the most vulnerable because they lack the capacity to adapt in the case of extreme weather events. Similarly, it is argued that the poor will particularly be disadvantaged as they have a low capacity for response and adaptation, as a result, they are at an expanded risk of losing lives and property in climate shocks and of having to depend on unpleasant coping strategies with long-term negative consequences for human development, such as pulling children out of schools, selling assets and involving in perilous jobs.
Since the poor have been considered to suffer most in the event of climate change, there is need to consider how humanitarian and development approaches can help improve poor households' capacity to adapt to an extreme climate event. Social protection represents one approach when link with climate change adaptation measures. Social protection is a strong tool to protect people at a greater risk of climate-related adversity.
Conclusion
The study examines the impacts of social protection on climate resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using a mixed method approach, the study was able to find a positive correlation between social protection (cash transfers) and climate resilience in some selected case studies. Though, cash transfers are designed purposely for the poor for them to live above the national poverty line. There is concern from development experts who think that linking social protection with climate change will help in assisting the poor who are affected by climate change in building resilience. Evidence from this study was minimal because the scope of the study was concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa making the search for case studies to be limited. A comprehensive study will be needed in order to articulate the positive correlation between social protection and climate change on a larger scale.
