What do we know about adaptation to climate change in Africa? A review of grey literature
Abstract
Background: Africa is one of the regions that the impacts of climate change will be felt so much due to poor adaptive capacity and the reliance on agricultural production for human sustainability. While climate change is real in Africa, the continent has been building resilience through adaptation strategies.
Objective: To understand what adaptation strategies African countries have developed in response to and in anticipation of climate change.
Methods: The study reviews documents, reports and projects in the form of grey literature and content analysis was used to analyse these documents manually.
Results: Climate change has mostly affected the agricultural sector thereby reducing agricultural production. This has led to the introduction and implantation of adaptation policies and strategies on the African continent. However, there are barriers militating against adaptation measures.
Conclusion: In building resilience, some adaptation policies and strategies have been initiated mostly at the local levels with the financial support from donor agencies.
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Introduction
When it comes to climate change, no one is immune to its impact, according to the Fuji Presidency of the Parties of the Conference (COP23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). However, the degree of impacts varies across regions. Africa has been considered to be among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (Association of German Development NGOs, 2009; UNDP, 2010; UNISDR, 2011; Ziervogel, Cartwright, et al., 2008). This was also noted in the Bali Action Plan acknowledged in Bali 2007, which acted as a major basis for the United Nations (UN) climate change negotiations at the Copenhagen climate summit (Association of German Development NGOs, 2009). Drought, increasing temperatures, flooding and irregular rainfalls are some of the climate events that are common in Africa (see Awojobi & Tetteh, 2017). It is argued that these climate events have been responsible for forced migration, displacement and conflicts among Africans (Besada & Sewankambo, 2009).
Climate change is an element increasingly subverting development efforts (Association of German Development NGOs, 2009). Without adaptation, particularly in the agricultural sector, climate change will exacerbate the existing high level of poverty in the continent. This is because the agricultural sector is one of the main sources of employment generation. Knowing fully well that Africa is considered as the most vulnerable to climate change. The continent since 2007, has gained know-how in conceptualizing, planning, and starting to execute and support adaptation activities (Niang et al., 2014). However, across Africa, most of the adaptation to climate change and variability is reactive in reaction to short-term motivations, is happening separately at the individual or household level, and lacks government support and policies (Berrang-Ford et al., 2011; Vermuelen et al., 2008; Ziervogel et al., 2008). As the climate change sphere unfolds(Ford et al., 2011). There is the need for new literature approaches if we are to establish and describe “what we know, don’tknow, and need to know” (Hulme, 2009; Hulme et al., 2010) as cited in (Ford et al., 2011).
In this paper, I develop a grey literature review methodology to understand what adaptation strategies African countries have developed in response to and in anticipation of climate change.
The content of the paper is structured as follows:
- Section 2 explains the methodology employs to understand African adaptation strategies. The paper relies solely on grey literature for the analysis.
- Section 3 describes the findings from the analysis of the grey literature that was used for data gathering.
- Section 4 draws on the conclusion and it uses the solutions to climate change adaptation in Africa from the grey literature as recommendations for the paper.
Conclusion
This grey literature review seeks to contribute to a better understanding of adaptation in Africa. While it is clear and certain that Africa has been considered as vulnerable to climate change from the reviewed literature, studies have shown some practical climate change impacts have affected mostly the agricultural sector. In building resilience, some adaptation policies and strategies have been initiated mostly at the local levels with the financial support from donor agencies. Despite African countries’ attempts in building climate resilience through adaptation, there are still many barriers along the way. To address these situations, some recommendations have been suggested by the reviewed grey literature. The partnership between disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation communities should be improved and institutionalized in order for African governments and donors to incorporate both disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation concern into important public, private and household investment decision, based on the principles of cost-effectiveness and agreeable levels of risk to human life (UNISDR, 2011). Mainstreaming adaptation intonational and regional economic and social development strategies, frameworks, and priorities will be important in reducing the impacts of climate change on sustainable development (USAID, 2012). Many African farmers know that climate change is real, however, many still see its impacts in the light of normal seasonal climate variability. A concerted effort is needed to raise enlightenment of climate change among farmers with the intensity of its implications for the choice of the farming methods, timing, and crop seed varieties (Chagutah, 2010). Capacity building and education have been used for agricultural innovation as ways of adapting to climate change impacts, laws and regulations should be drafted and enforced for sustainable use of land and water in communities (FAO, 2014).
