1. Review of research and policies for climate change adaptation in sub-
Saharan Africa
Synthesis of findings and
preliminary assessment of gaps in
research and policy
Lars Otto Naess
Research Fellow, Climate Change Team
Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK
FARA Side Event on Climate Smart Agriculture
Africa Agriculture Science Week, 16 July 2013

2. Outline of presentation
• Background and assumptions for research-policy
linkages
• Synthesis of key messages and research & policy
gaps on urban areas, agriculture and health
• Reflections on findings

3. Future
CC
impacts
Temp
Precipitation
Seasonality
Variability
Flood
Drought
Landslide
Biological
National &
International
Political
Economy
Power
relations
Environmental
Trends
Debt Crises
Etc
Social
Structures
& Power
Systems
Class
Gender
Ethnicity
Caste
Other power
relationships
Effects on
livelihoods
Infrastructure
Health
Ecosystems
Local
dimensions
1. Livelihood
2 Well-being
3 Individual
protection
4 Collective
Protection
5 Governance
S
O
C
I
A
L
F
R
A
M
E
R
O
O
T
C
A
U
S
E
S
Climate change makes hazards worse
Cannon 2012

4. Adaptation and development ‘pyramid’
(Sources: DFID; McGray et al. 2007)
Drought resistant crops,
livestock breeds, flood
defences, sea walls

5. What does ‘enabling research-to-policy linkage
for adaptation’ mean?
• Partly depends on approach to policymaking processes
• ‘Traditional’ view: Policymaking as linear process with
a clearly defined start and finish
– Limited arena for research inputs
Or
• A complex, incremental and “messy” process, not
limited to formal process of formal policy formulation
and implementation
– Multiple entry points or ‘policy spaces’

6. Policymaking: the ‘traditional’ view

7. What does ‘enabling research-to-policy linkage
for adaptation’ mean?
• Partly depends on approach to policymaking processes
• ‘Traditional’ view: Policymaking as linear process with
a clearly defined start and finish
– Limited arena for research inputs
Or
• A complex, incremental and “messy” process, not
limited to formal process of formal policy formulation
and implementation
– Multiple entry points or ‘policy spaces’

8. Regional reviews on
urban areas, agriculture, health
- Key messages from regional reviews
- Research & policy gaps

9. Urban areas: findings - research
• Climate change is a major challenge to the
sustainability of urban areas in Africa
• Rapid urbanisation rates leading to increasing
numbers of people living in slums on marginal land
with high exposure to climate risks
• Infrastructure development and service delivery
have not kept pace with urbanisation rates
• Most research on urban adaptation so far on
coastal cities
• Evidence of success of urban and peri-urban
agriculture (e.g. in Nairobi, Maputo, Dakar) –
leading the way?

10. Urban areas: findings - policy
• So far limited focus on climate change in urban
sector policy and planning
• Climate change policies (NAPAs, national
climate change strategies) tend to focus on
rural areas
• But also emerging lessons, e.g. examples of
successful integration of climate change in city
strategies in South Africa

11. Urban areas: key recommendations
• Need for more awareness and focus on rural-urban
interconnectedness and migration dynamics
• Need for more proactive urban authorities with
improved capacity and ‘downscaled NAPAs’
• Address current limited knowledge exchange and
missing areas and spaces for research to policy
engagement
• Particular need for research on poorest and most
marginalised groups, particularly women and
children

12. Agriculture: findings - research
• Rapidly growing body of evidence on impacts of
climate change on agriculture, particularly crop
systems
• Increasing evidence of autonomous adaptation by
crop farmers, pastoralists and fisherfolk, using local
knowledge
• Much adaptation happens despite lack of
institutional support, but growing focus around
‘climate-smart’ farming systems
• Impacts of climate change and variability on
agriculture is moderated by political, economic and
social factors

13. Agriculture: findings - policy
• Agriculture key focus in NAPAs and national
climate change strategies, but so far limited
climate change consideration in sector policies
• Growing interest in climate smart agriculture
• A number of factors (political, economic, social)
hinder uptake of research evidence
• Some promising examples of integration of local
and scientific knowledge (e.g. forecasts for
improved agricultural productivity)

14. Agriculture: key recommendations
• Adaptation measures should be tested for contribution to
resilience through the whole food chain from producers
to consumers
• Need for further research to field test promising ‘climate
smart’ agricultural technologies and practices
• Need to tackle root causes for vulnerability in the
agricultural sector such as resource access and property
rights, closely linked with gender concerns
• Technology and service delivery gaps highlighted
(cultivars, credits, markets, extension, forecasts)
• Need more focus on fisheries and pastoralist systems as
compared to crop farming systems
• Need for better coordination and coherence between
agriculture and environment ministries

15. Health: findings - research
• Climate change will increase the disease burden
on overstretched health services
• To date, evidence on links between climate
change and health limited to a few major
diseases (malaria, rift valley fever, meningitis)
• Increasing research on the direct and indirect
linkages between climate change and HIV/AIDS
• Increasing focus on climate change and
malnutrition

16. Health: findings - policy
• Adaptation hampered by the health sector in
disaster management rather than prevention
mode
• Few health and climate change projects
implemented despite health being a top priority
in NAPAs
• Climate change often not integrated in health
sector policies
• So far little policy support for development of
epidemic prediction models

17. Health: key recommendations
• Detection of changes in disease spatial and
temporal distribution and the role of climate
change in affecting these
• Need to expand the range of diseases that are
considered
• Suggested early warning systems for disease
prevention
• Need for more inclusion of stakeholders in
formulating adaptation policies in the health
sector, including the use of local knowledge

18. Crosscutting issues and reflections

19. Crosscutting concerns
• Significant overlap in the issues covered
• The need to tackle gender issues across all
areas and regions
• The key role of water for health, agriculture
and in urban areas
• Gaps in research capacity, awareness raising
• The need for more resources for research
• Need for integration of urban, agriculture and
health concerns both in climate change and
sector policies

20. Crosscutting concerns, cont.
• Needs to strengthen research-policy
interaction in several areas
–The need for researchers to involve
stakeholders – including policymakers – at
the outset and throughout research projects
–Need to expand opportunities for research-
policy engagement
–Lack of awareness of climate change
challenges, perception of climate change as
‘of the future’ and less pressing than other
issues: how prevalent?

21. Types of gaps: adaptation responses
• Findings highlight the need to
cover all areas of the
‘adaptation pyramid’
– None of the areas sufficient on
their own to build resilience
– Technology without structure:
issues of access
– Structure without climate change
responses: risk of lock-in to
vulnerable pathways
– Thus, supporting adaptation
means technical solutions as well
as structural changes to enable
uptake
1. Responses to
climate projections
2. Climate
information and
risk mapping
3. Instruments to
reduce vulnerability
4. Addressing the
‘development gap’

22. The reviews demonstrate -
• An increasing knowledge base on how people and societies are
responding to changes
• Increasing regional research capacity, signs of emerging best
practice
• Need for improved policies in key areas, gaps in research-policy
interface
• Need for more resources for research, awareness raising and
capacity strengthening
And also that -
• More work is needed on how to ensure that the poorest and most
vulnerable will benefit from climate funding?
• Politics of adaptation: actors, interests and outcomes
• Who wins, who loses?
Final reflections

23. Thank you
Further information: l.naess@ids.ac.uk