Participatory Action Adaptation: Tools for increasing climate change capacity and preparedness at the local government level [Annex 50]
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2011-10
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Abstract
This project addresses knowledge, resource, capacity and networking gaps on the theme: 'Strengthening urban governments in planning adaptation.' The main objective of this project is to develop an adaptation framework for managing the increased risk to African local government and their communities due to climate change impact. The ultimate beneficiaries of this project will be African local governments and their communities. The guiding and well-tested ICLEI principle of locally designed and owned projects for the global common good, specifically in a developing world context, will be applied throughout project design, inception and delivery. Additionally, the research will test the theory that the most vulnerable living and working in different geographical, climatic and ecosystem zones will be impacted differently and as such, will require a different set of actions to be taken. Potential commonalities will be sought towards regional participatory learning and wider applicability. The five urban centres chosen for this study, based on selection criteria, include: Cape Town, South Africa, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Maputo, Mozambique; Windhoek, Namibia; and Port St. Louis, Mauritius. Through a participatory process, this project will carry out a desk-top study, long-term, multi-discipline, multi-sectoral stakeholder platforms in five Southern African cities comprising of academics, communities and the local government in order to facilitate knowledge-sharing, promote proactive climate adaptation and resource opportunities available for African cities, develop five tailor-made Adaptation Frameworks and explore regional applicability. A network of stakeholders within each urban centre will be established, feeding into a larger regional network of local authorities and partners in Sub-Saharan Africa, and globally through existing ICLEI global (e.g. the ICLEI Cities for Climate Protection programme), ICLEI Africa and UCLG-A members and networks, ensuring global best practice, roll-out, and long-term sustainability.
Climate change is expected to have severe physical, social, environmental and economic impacts on cities worldwide, both directly and indirectly. These impacts are expected to have a disproportionate effect on those living in poverty in developing countries, particularly Africa. In July 2009, ICLEI Africa Secretariat initiated the Five City Adaptation Network project. Already the project is providing some useful and insightful information on the current understanding and experiences of the threats associated with climate change, adaptation, and climatic data resources available in Southern Africa. Due to the variety of respective governance and decision making processes of the cities, the project utilizes a number of entry points (i.e. different sectors or departments) in order to ensure that the project is aligned to areas that are prioritized by the cities and were projects of similar nature are already underway. The use of these tools has assisted and improved the interaction with the various key stakeholders around the topic of climate change and adaptation, whilst moving towards enhancing engagement and holistic decision making processes covering: climatic risks, sectoral linkages and the development of locally appropriate adaptation mechanisms. Through this project, a number of mechanisms and tools have been developed to understand the risks, impacts and vulnerabilities at the local level, and to prioritize the climatic variable/s that is/are currently impacting the city services, infrastructure and reliability as service providers (i.e. infrastructure, day to day service delivery and livelihoods of the local population). This paper describes some of the tools that have been recently developed by the ICLEI Africa team and are being used in Southern Africa to develop and increase capacity around the terms and complexities pertaining to climate change. These tools will also enable the identification of local climatic risks and locally appropriate adaptation options that are likely to increase the resilience of African local governments and communities.
Climate change is expected to have severe physical, social, environmental and economic impacts on cities worldwide, both directly and indirectly. These impacts are expected to have a disproportionate effect on those living in poverty in developing countries, particularly Africa. In July 2009, ICLEI Africa Secretariat initiated the Five City Adaptation Network project. Already the project is providing some useful and insightful information on the current understanding and experiences of the threats associated with climate change, adaptation, and climatic data resources available in Southern Africa. Due to the variety of respective governance and decision making processes of the cities, the project utilizes a number of entry points (i.e. different sectors or departments) in order to ensure that the project is aligned to areas that are prioritized by the cities and were projects of similar nature are already underway. The use of these tools has assisted and improved the interaction with the various key stakeholders around the topic of climate change and adaptation, whilst moving towards enhancing engagement and holistic decision making processes covering: climatic risks, sectoral linkages and the development of locally appropriate adaptation mechanisms. Through this project, a number of mechanisms and tools have been developed to understand the risks, impacts and vulnerabilities at the local level, and to prioritize the climatic variable/s that is/are currently impacting the city services, infrastructure and reliability as service providers (i.e. infrastructure, day to day service delivery and livelihoods of the local population). This paper describes some of the tools that have been recently developed by the ICLEI Africa team and are being used in Southern Africa to develop and increase capacity around the terms and complexities pertaining to climate change. These tools will also enable the identification of local climatic risks and locally appropriate adaptation options that are likely to increase the resilience of African local governments and communities.
Description
Annex 50 from "Adaptation to Climate Change: Stakeholder engagement and understanding impacts - International Council for Local Environment Initiatives (ICLEI) (Section 21)" list of annexure
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Conference Paper
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Keywords
ADAPTATION, AFRICA, CLIMATE CHANGE, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH, POLICY, SOUTHERN AFRICA, KEY-STAKEHOLDER, TOOLS, SOUTH AFRICA--CAPE TOWN, TANZANIA--DAR ES SALAAM, NAMIBIA--WINDHOEK, MOZAMBIQUE--MAPUTO, MAURITIUS--PORT SAINT LOUIS
Citation
Fairhurst, L., Rowswell, P. & Chihumbiri, F. (2011). Participatory Action Adaptation: Tools for increasing climate change capacity and preparedness at the local government level. Proceeding of the 2nd World Congress on Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change, Bonn, DE.