Climate change adaptation in Africa: fostering resilience and capacity to adapt

Journal article

It is widely known that Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change. As the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has shown, climate change is expected to have widespread impacts on African societies and Africans’ interaction with the natural environment. There are also signs that the impacts of climate change are already being felt, not only in terms of increases in temperature, but also in respect of agriculture (with lower crop yields) and the availability of water resources, among others. The links between climate change and the incidence of diseases such as malaria are also becoming clearer. The above state of affairs illustrates the need for a better understanding of how climate change affects African countries, and for the identification of processes, methods and tools which may help African nations to adapt. There is also a per- ceived need to showcase successful examples of how to cope with the social, economic and political problems posed by climate change in Africa. It is against this background that the “Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation in Africa” was organised by Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), Addis Ababa University, the Research and Transfer Centre “Applications of Life Sciences” of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany) and the International Climate Change Information Programme (ICCIP). The Symposium, held in Addis Ababa in February 2016, was a truly interdisciplinary event, mobilising African and non-African scholars undertaking research and/or executing climate change projects in the African continent. This book, which contains a set of papers presented at the Symposium, focuses on “Fostering African Resilience and Capacity to Adapt”, meaning that it will serve the purpose of showcasing experiences from research, field projects and best practice in climate change adaptation in African countries, which may be useful or implemented in other countries in the continent. Consistent with the need for more cross-sectoral interactions among the various stakeholders working in the field of climate change adaptation in the African continent, this book aims to: i. provide research institutions, universities, NGOs and enterprises from Africa and those working in Africa with an opportunity to display and present their works in the field of climate change adaptation; ii. foster the exchange of information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of climate change adaptation projects, especially successful initia- tives and good practice across the African continent; iii. introduce methodological approaches and experiences deriving from case studies and projects, which aim to show how climate change adaptation may be implemented in practice; and iv. to network African and non-African experts, and provide a platform so they can explore possibilities for cooperation. Last but not least, a further aim of this book is to document and disseminate the wealth of experiences available today. This book is divided into two parts: • Part 1 contains papers that describe the adaptation methods and approaches. • Part 2 entails institutional experiences on adaptation, as well as case studies, examples of projects and of good practice We thank the authors for their willingness to share their knowledge, know-how and experiences, as well as the many peer reviewers, which have helped us to ensure the quality of the manuscripts. Thanks are also due to Magdalena Salewski for her valuable support for the manuscripts. Enjoy your reading!

French National Research Agency (ANR)