Research Results (CCAA) / Résultats de recherches (ACCA)

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New pathways to resilience : outcomes of the climate change adaptation in Africa research and capacity building program 2006-2012
(Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA), Ottawa, ON, 2012) O’Neill, Mary
This report draws on conclusions found in the final report and evaluation of Climate Change Adaptation in Africa. It also integrates available online resources in an interactive summary, along with results from the program. The report is structured into five sections: Starting points; Foundations; Outcomes; People; Legacy. Throughout this report, links are embedded to program and project resources, with directions for delving further into its scientific findings. Internal links allow navigation from many directions. Evaluation findings indicate that the project succeeded in building a range of capacities among African researchers, communities, and organizations, but less so those of decision-makers.
Perceived environmental risks and insecurity reduce future migration intentions in hazardous migration source areas
(CellPress, 2021-01-22) Adger, William Neil; de Campos, Ricardo Safra; Codjoe, Samuel Nii Ardey; Gavonel, Maria Franco; Mortreux, Colette; Abu, Mumuni
An analysis of perceptions of motivations for prior migration and migration intentions of households in four low-lying coastal areas in Asia and Africa finds that few households identified environmental risks as the primary driver for past migration decisions. The study examined the extent to which specific elements of perceptions of environment might influence migration intention. Social determinants such as larger households, households with ecosystem-based livelihoods, and those with migrant networks report potential future intentions to migrate that are 6%, 14%, and 90%, respectively higher than those that do not show these characteristics.
Temperatures and rainfall extremes change under current and future global warming levels across Indian climate zones
(Elsevier B.V., 2020-11-10) Yaduvanshi, Aradhana; Nkemelang, Tiro; Bendapudi, Ramkumar; New, Mark
This detailed study analyzes the changes in extreme temperature and precipitation events at annual timescales over different climatic zones of India under stringent stabilization targets (RCP4.5) as well as the unmitigated scenario (RCP8.5), estimated from the coupled model inter-comparison project (CMIP5). Annual total precipitation and heavy rainfall-related extreme indices show statistically significant increases in tropical, temperate and semi-arid regions, moving from 1 °C to 3 °C warming level (RCP8.5 scenario). Climate extremes will have far-reaching impacts on social and economic statuses of the respective climate zones. It demands response from national and state action plans on climate change and adaptation in order to create integrated policy decisions.
Growing what we eat, eating what we grow : investigating the enduring role of Jamaica's domestic food system
(2020) Timmers, Beth
This dissertation advances the case that Jamaica’s domestic food system endures because it serves integral roles in society through its diversity, flexibility and embeddedness, qualities that tend to be obfuscated by dominant bodies of critical food studies scholarship. The central objectives of the research are (1) to explain three specific roles that Jamaica’s food system serves today; (2) to bring insights to critical food scholarship; and (3) to provide reflections on policies that can support Jamaica’s current efforts to support its domestic food system.
Enhancing Resilience to Water-related Impacts of Climate Change in Uganda's Cattle Corridor (CHAI ll)
(2018-11) Gebru, Berhane; Mworozi, Edison; Kibaya, Patrick; Kaddu, John
Key recommendations include expanding observational networks and human resources of the Uganda National Meteorological Authority to support: generation of subcounty-specific seasonal forecasts and agricultural advisories; strengthening district-level governance for streamlining climate change adaptation activities; enhancing the Climate Change Department’s e-Library with localized climate change content; engaging mobile network operators to co-finance expansion of a climate information system; increasing the role of agricultural research organizations; and conducting further research to assess ways for scaling up ICT-based climate and agricultural information services. Research indicated that the use of timely and locally relevant information reduced smallholders’ crop losses by 6% to 37%.
Vulnerability and adaptability of Africa’s inland fisheries to climate change : an interdisciplinary approach to a multi-dimensional conservation challenge
(2018-09) Nyboer, Elizabeth A.
This thesis takes a cross-disciplinary approach employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to integrate social and ecological data for a holistic understanding of the vulnerability of Africa’s freshwater fisheries to climate change. This thesis is comprised of three major sections: the first (Chapter 1) uses a meta-analytical approach to predict vulnerability of Africa’s exploited freshwater fishes based on species traits and predicted climate change exposure. The second section (Chapters 2 and 3) employs an experimental approach to test the ability of the Nile perch, a commercially harvested fish species in the Lake Victoria basin of East Africa, to physiologically adjust thermal tolerance limits to increased water temperatures. The final section, (Chapter 4), investigates how fishing-dependent communities adjust to climate-mediated changes in the ecosystem with the aim to determine vulnerability and resilience of stakeholder communities to projected changes in the fishery.
Adaptation to climate change or non-climatic stressors in semi-arid regions? Evidence of gender differentiation in three agrarian districts of Ghana
(Elsevier, 2016-08) Ahmed, Abubakari; Lawson, Elaine T.; Mensah, Adelina; Gordon, Chris; Padgham, Jon
With the increasing impacts of climate change in Africa, a relationship between rainfall and yields in semi-arid Ghana has been observed. Drawing insights from three agrarian societies in the semi-arid region of Ghana using qualitative research methods, the study reports how people currently deal with climate variability as insight on how they will deal with climate change in the future. The findings indicate wide gender inequality in decision making processes and land access resulting from patriarchal local customs and institutions that shape adaptation responses of different vulnerable social groups to climatic or non-climatic stressors. Different adaptation practices of groups indicate that both climatic and non-climatic stressors shape the kind of responses that groups adopt. From the current adaptation practices, efforts to improve adaptation to future climate change at local levels must give attention to the nexus of both climatic and non-climatic stressors, gender, differential vulnerabilities and other subjectivities that produce a particular adaptation practice in a given place.
New interventions for a changing world celebrating African women scientists on the frontlines of climate change
(African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Women in STEM Initiative (AIMSWIS), 2018-10) Zomahoun, Thierry
Through this publication we seek to promote awareness of the valuable contributions that African women can and are making to science, particularly climate science, and promote the incredible stories of female African climate scientists to inspire younger generations of students to pursue STEM careers, including climate science. They serve as important role models.
Positioning women smallholder fisher folk to benefit from the Blue Economy
(2019-01) Njuki, Jemimah; Leone, Michele
In November this year, over 17,000 delegates from all over the globe gathered in Nairobi for the Blue Economy Conference. Among ministers, CEOs and scientists was Jackline Auma, a fisherwoman from Shakababo Lake, in the Tana River Delta, Kenya. Auma is one of the 47% women who are part of the 120 million people who earn money directly from fishing and processing. But unlike these other women who make up 85% of the workforce in jobs such as fish mongering, gutting, filling cans or other processing, Auma is a boat owner. She sometimes goes out to fish, and at other times she rents out her boat to others. Auma also processes fish and has employed several people who work for her. In a sector where fishing is a predominantly male activity, Auma was not always this successful.
Preparing for Transformative scenario planning (TSP) in Namibia - Short report on the TSP Training in Windhoek 30-31 May 2016
(Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR), 2016-11) Shalumbu, Bernadette; Spear, Dian
Transformative Scenario Planning (TSP) is an approach that brings concerned stakeholders from different, often conflicting, perspectives together around pressing sets of problems to build stories that illustrate a range of potential futures that could come from taking different paths for dealing with those issues. The topic selected was: The future of food security in Namibia. This topic was selected in light of the current drought being experienced in the country and how this could impact Namibia’s food security.
Tajikistan country situation assessment
(Collaborative adaptation research initiative in Africa and Asia, 2015-08) Mustaeva, Nailya; Wyes, Heinrich; Mohr, Benjamin; Kayumov, Abdulkhamid
For Tajikistan, climate change is a part of daily reality, where the poor and marginalized are most vulnerable to its impacts such as melting of glaciers, and fluctuation of runoff with effects on hydropower production and agriculture. Climate risks seriously undermine agricultural development. The report summarises the current situation in development plans by section: (i) National development strategy; poverty reduction strategy; respective policies and plans; socioeconomic trends; (ii) Climate and development, including future risk challenges to key economic sectors and human health; (iii) Implications for adaptation. The key strategic document in relation to climate change policy in Tajikistan is the National Action Plan (NAP).
Gender analysis of the Paris Agreement and implications for Africa - briefing note
(2017)
Societies construct acceptable roles for men and women-which determines what they are expected to do, the knowledge they have, their control over power and resources, and their decision-making capacity. These gender differences also influence the ways in which men and women experience climate change. In order to not reinforce inequality, being gender-responsive highlights awareness of these differences, and the importance of being gender-equitable in implementation.
Gender-responsive framework for implementing the Paris Agreement in Africa
(2017-05)
The African Union Gender Policy and forthcoming Climate Change Strategy, together present an opportunity to ensure that implementation of the Paris Agreement in Africa contributes to gender equality. The latest legally-binding outcome under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the Paris Agreement, which entered into force on 4th November 2016 and will apply from 2020. Identifying gender-responsive mechanisms to implement the Paris Agreement in terms of adaptation and mitigation initiatives is important to stop reinforcing existing inequalities. This paper proposes some mechanisms to ensure gender-responsive implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Gender analysis of the Paris Agreement and implications for Africa
(2017-04)
The latest legally-binding outcome under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the Paris Agreement, signed at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC in December 2015, and due to enter into force on 4th November 2016. Climate change is neither gender-neutral in its causes nor potential impacts-partly as a result of gendered differences in vulnerability and capacity to adapt. The Paris Agreement provided the opportunity for the active and explicit incorporation of gender but, despite being mentioned in the language of the preamble and articles of adaptation and capacity building, it is absent from other articles.
Strengthening evaluation capacity in organisations to improve adaptation outcomes
(Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA), IDRC, Ottawa, ON, CA, 2016) Beaulieu, Nathalie; Diouf, Aliou; Jobbins, Guy
The paper draws lessons useful for building evaluation capacity and for cultivating an evaluative culture; it considers the challenges to effectively evaluating climate adaptation in Africa and to building related capacity within organizations. This capacity is critical for processes of instigating and engaging with institutional reform, and important for enabling access to adaptation finance. Evaluation capacity building (ECB), which includes the teaching or promotion of evaluative thinking, is shaped by an organization’s culture of enquiry: how learning is valued, communication channels, mechanisms for engaging people in evaluation, and the influence of leadership in facilitating all of these.
Climate change in semi-arid Malawi : perceptions, adaptation strategies and water governance
(AOSIS Publishing, 2016-04) Joshua, Miriam K.; Ngongondo, Cosmo; Chipungu, Fellistus; Monjerezi, Maurice; Liwenga, Emma
Recommendations drawn from project findings suggest development of an appropriate institutional framework to form a strong basis for equitable distribution of water for irrigation in areas most vulnerable to extreme climate events. Overdependence on subsistence rain-fed agriculture in Malawi calls for the identification of sustainable adaptation strategies. This study revealed there are persistent declining yields from rain-fed production, in part because of perennial rainfall failure. As an adaptation strategy, the community has shifted to irrigation, which in turn triggers water conflicts over resources control. Water legislation fails to adequately provide for rules governing sharing of water resources between various stakeholders.
Regional economic communities and climate change adaptation in Africa : background paper on lessons learned from CCAA
(Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA), IDRC, Ottawa, ON, CA, 2016) Denton, Fatima; Kituyi, Evans; Lo, Henri; Wouapi, Hervé
This paper demonstrates the ability of regional institutions to pool existing knowledge and resources, leverage local and national policies, and position African countries at international negotiations. Because climate change is a global problem with local effects, decision-making regarding adaptation strategies must be built into and coordinated over multiple levels of governance. Using data and case studies drawn from Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA), the paper suggests ways in which Regional Economic Communities (RECs) may be strengthened. Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) aims to build resilience of vulnerable populations in three climate change hot spots.
Institutions and adaptation : lessons learned from the climate change adaptation in Africa program
(Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA), IDRC, Ottawa, ON, CA, 2015) Adjei-Nsiah, Samuel; Dieye, A.M.; El Mzouri, E.; Gueye, B.; Gueye, C.
An optimal institutional framework for climate change adaptation is sometimes impeded by the nature of research, which focuses on a small number of contexts. This report synthesizes findings from a number of participatory action research (PAR) projects conducted as part of the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) program, for example: local informal institutions play a key role in enabling and/or constraining adaptation; coordination among and between institutions is essential; a well-coordinated institutional framework should take into account the three main chains of connection (horizontal coordination at the national level; horizontal coordination at the local level; and vertical coordination between national and local institutions).
Pathways to transformational change in the face of climate impacts : an analytical framework
(Taylor & Francis, 2015) Mapfumo, Paul; Onyango, Mary; Honkponou, Saïd K.; El Mzouri, El Houssine; Githeko, Andrew
Unprecedented impacts of climate change and climate variability in the twenty-first century are likely to require transformational social, organizational and human responses. Yet, little existing empirical work examines how decision-makers can facilitate such responses. This paper suggests that in order to assess whether responses to climate risks and threats are transformational, it is necessary to move away from a focus only on outcomes and scale and towards the multiple dimensions of social responses and the processes through which transformational changes are realized. In so doing, the paper seeks to move the discussion on transformational change towards the processes and sustainability of adaptation interventions, and the changes they trigger. Drawing on the literature on transformational change in organizational theory and social–ecological systems, the paper first develops a framework with which to examine and assess development and adaptation interventions. The framework is then applied to eight interventions made between 2005 and 2011 in diverse socioecological settings across Africa. All interventions were underpinned by participatory action research methodologies. Our analysis shows how a focus on change agents, generalizability of field-scale adaptation mechanisms and pathways, and sustainability of outcomes, combined with attention to the scale and scope of change processes, provides information that can inform policy on the kinds of intervention that are likely to support long-term and sustainable responses to climate impacts. Although several of the cases mainly illustrate incremental adaptations, use of the analytical framework pointed towards the wider processes of systems change that might lead to transformative trajectories.
Managing rainfall variability in arid rainfed agriculture using adaptive varieties and in-situ water harvesting
(Sudan Academy Publishing and Distribution House, Khartoum, SD, 2015) Babiker, Kawkab Elsir; Mohamed, Abdelhadi A.W.; Ali Babiker, Imad-eldin; Mohammed, Hussni O.
This investigation was to establish a water harvesting technique for adaptation to rainfall variability in rainfed sorghum production and relate it to yield in Gedarif area. A field experiment was conducted for two successive seasons (2009-2010). A split-split plot design was used to test the hypothesis that crop yield was affected by three methods of sowing representing in-situ water harvesting techniques, namely; wide level disc in rows 80 cm apart using row planter and at bottom of ridges 80 cm. Three sorghum varieties were used, Arfa Gadamak8, Wad Ahmed and Bashaer. Nitrogen fertilizer of zero and 0.5N of urea was applied. In season 2009, there was a significant difference between mean of yield of Arfa_Gadamak8 and Wad-Ahmed varieties, with the latter requiring longer time to mature. Water harvesting technique increased yield as a result of increased soil moisture content. There were high simple correlation coefficients between rainfall and grain per head, head weight and length of head. It was concluded that climate change adaptation strategies for rainfed agriculture under low rainfall conditions should consider the combination of short maturing variety such as Arfa-Gadamak8 variety and in-situ water harvesting techniques.

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