ACCRA

Why climate change adaptation is important.

Who we are, what we do and where we work.

Why should you be interested?

How can you contribute?

CCA and AfricaAnother layer of complexity to existing development challenges. Implications for humanitarian and development interventions.

Agricultural production and food security likely to be severely compromised by climate change and climate variability (high confidence). 50% reduction in yield by 2020, and crop net revenues could fall by as much as 90% by 2100.

About 25% of Africa’s population (about 200 million people) currently experience high water stress. The population at risk of increased water stress in Africa is projected to be between 350-600 million people by 2050.

Interest in developing country governments. Interest from key donors. ACCRA seeks to feed into debate and practice.

‘The property of a system to adjust its characteristics or behaviour, in order to expand its coping range under existing climate variability, or future climate conditions.’ (UNDP, 2005)

‘The potential of individuals, communities, and societies to be actively involved in the processes of change, in order to minimize negative impacts and maximize any benefits from changes in the climate.’ Oxfam GB

Adaptive capacity

Summary of Climate Change Adaptation“Actions that people and institutions make in anticipation of, or in response to, a changing climate. This includes changes to the things they do, and/or the way that they do them.” (Oxfam:PGN 2009)

Examples of generic measures to reduce vulnerability:

Promotion of minimum wage to reduce vulnerability.

Cash transfers and social insurance to contribute to poverty reduction and reduce vulnerability.

Livelihoods diversification to spread risk.

Increased power in markets to increase income.

Reforestation to protect embankments, reduce local temperatures, and provide food and fodder in times of scarcity.

Examples of measures for specific impacts:

Increased heat: Drought resistant crops.

Increased risk of floods: district level contingency plans; PCVA, Early Warning Systems; stockpiling.

Decreased and unpredictable rain: appropriate forecasts, crop diversification, farming techniques that reduce crop water needs.

Working at community level and with national institutions

Measures to generically reduce vulnerability and specific measures for total risks:

Livelihoods and agriculture

Social Protection

DRR

Natural resource management

Adaptive capacity is nothing revolutionary but:

• is forward looking;• focuses on process that enables us to move to a

climate smart system;• supports development practitioners to move away

from a ‘business-as-usual’ approach to thinking about impact of CC on development;

• Has a long-term perspective.

ACCRA

Ethiopia

Uganda

Mozambique

ACCRA’s objectives1. To understand how existing social protection, livelihoods and disaster risk

reduction projects by ACCRA members build adaptive capacity to climate change in

beneficiaries, and how these approaches can be strengthened.

2. To use the findings to influence donors, development partners and civil society to

improve future planning/action.

3. To work together with local and national governments to build capacity to

implement interventions which can build communities’ adaptive capacity.

4. To encourage learning across countries, disciplines

and organisations.

What ACCRA is doingCapacity building/advocacyResearch and learning

Support poor communities’ ability to adapt to adapt to climate hazards, variability and change.

Evidence-based action by humanitarian and development actors: Donors, NGOs,

Governments

Timeline and achievements Year 1 (Nov 2009 – Oct 2010):

Consortium operational in each country. Development of framework and consultation at

country level. Engagement of government and other partners. Influencing strategies. Research protocol finalised. Linking with other initiatives. Data collection started.

Year 2 (Nov 2010 – Oct 2011): Development of capacity building plans. Consultation on framework.

Data collection (to April 2011).• Publication of research findings and

accompanying resources. • / Delivery of capacity building activities.

Country level exchanges. Additional government engagement activities:

field visits; Community Based Adaptation conference.

• Regional Conference

Why ACCRA?• Conceptual similarities and complementarities of disaster risk

reduction (DRR), social protection (SP) and livelihoods (LH) approaches. Nature and implications of these links remain to be clarified if we are to better understand their effectiveness in enhancing adaptive capacity.

• Aims to find out what aspects of DRR, SP and LH can contribute to adaptive capacity, as well as to understand how such approaches can better respond to climate change and facilitate adaptation.

• Not inventing something new: looking at what we are already doing.

Key questions that framed our research

1. How are different livelihood groups currently affected by climate variability / change?

2. What is currently happening in existing projects that is helping to increase the adaptive capacity of systems to climate change?

3. What is missing – within reasonable limits – in current projects that would enhance adaptive capacity?

Working with governmentsACCRA works closely with local governments in each country, and has involved them in the development of the research framework, the research process and validation of the findings.

In January 2011 ACCRA carried out capacity gap analyses with 1 local government in each country, and is currently designing or undertaking capacity building activities. This will inform future work on building governments’ capacity on CCA.

ACCRA has carried out reviews on the policy context and key actors in each country to inform our work.

Working with ACCRA members and others

Consortium is operational in each country.

Involved in the development of research approach and research itself.

Disseminating learning and best practice from ACCRA members’ work.

Encouraging others to change practice or policiesbased on findings.

Why should you be interested?• Lack of evidence about what are the most effective interventions to promote adaptive

capacity – ACCRA is practical.

• Growing consensus that joint work across different fields is required to respond to these challenges, not yet reflected in the policy, practice or research priorities of governments and other development actors.

• Despite policy commitments in many African countriesand experience from development actors, governments lack the capacity to implement adaptation and DRR activities in ways that involve and benefit the most vulnerable.

• Seeking to build trust and dialogue between government and NGOs – in case of Ethiopia.

How can you be involved?• Share information on your own work – we’re keen to link up with others.

• Feed in your information to us.

• Feed our messages/findings into your work as they emerge.

• Share your views on the Local Adaptive Capacity Framework.

• Learn from research and think about your own practice.

• Sign up for our monthly newsletter or join our eldis group http://community.eldis.org/accra/