The development-adaptation spectrum in dryland East Africa:mapping risks, responses and critical questions for social research (original) (raw)
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2010
We analysed how policies in Tanzania and Kenya address the strategies of agro-pastoralists for coping with and adapting to climate variability and climate change, based on data from semi-structured household surveys, group discussions, policy documents and other material. Many policies indirectly address climate variability and change by focusing on drought, suggesting that some form of mainstreaming already exists. Although the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) National Communications and the Tanzania National Adaptation Programme of Action propose technological rather than social adaptation measures, they address a broader range of adaptation strategies than development policies do and can be used as vehicles for improving adaptation planning. Some policies focus on securing production and food availability but do not address access to resources, a major concern for the vulnerable. Despite overlaps, few policies focus on key agro-pastoral strategies su...
Exploring the strategies for households to adapt to climate-change in arid and semiarid East Africa
To all who seeks knowledge Table of contents Chapter 1 General introduction 1 Chapter 2 Livestock wealth and social capital as insurance against climate risk: A case stud Samburu County in Kenya 9 Chapter 3 Migration and self-protection against climate change: A case study of Samburu County in Kenya 55 Chapter 4 Adaptation of agriculture to climate change in semi-arid Borena, Ethiopia 89 Chapter 5 Adaptation and food security in agro-pastoralist systems of Northern Kenya Chapter 6 General discussion References Summary Curriculum vitae PhD education certificate CHAPTER 1 General introduction Chapter 1 2 1.1 Problem statement In the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) 1 of East Africa, most of the people are pastoralists and agro-pastoralists; their agricultural production depends primarily on livestock keeping and to a lesser extent on the cultivation of maize, millet and sorghum and legumes such as beans, green gram, pigeon pea and cowpea (FAO, 2013). These pastoralists and agro-pastoralists face major risks of livestock death and crop failures. The loss of assets impoverishes them, and disrupts their livelihoods (Ouma et al., 2011). Many households in ASALs are living in extreme poverty (i.e. they live on less than one US dollar per day) (Homewood et al., 2012; Jane et al., 2013). Food shortages are common. The vulnerability to climate variability and progressive climate change is high, because of low soil fertility, and a poor adoption of new farming technologies (IPCC, 2014; Cooper et al., 2008; Mwang'ombe et al., 2011). This means that food security is threatened increasingly (see Kahan, 2013). This situation is aggravated by environmental degradation, cultivation in marginal lands where water scarcity limits plant growth, low input use in production (i.e. the use of fertilizer, improved seeds, pesticides, manure) (Salami et al., 2010), and poor access to markets (McPeak et al., 2012) and credits (Mohajan, 2014; World Bank, 2015). The low input use results in low productivity of crops and livestock (ibid.). Erosion by water and wind further impoverishes the soils (Nguru and Rono, 2013). Studies in East Africa point to four main categories of risks: climate-related risks, diseases, market exclusion and policy shocks (Mude et al., 2007). The most severe and constraining of these risks are those related to climate change, including climate variability and extreme events such as droughts and floods. During the last five decades,
2011
The literature on drought, livelihoods, and poverty suggests that dryland residents are especially vulnerable to climate change. However, assessing this vulnerability and sharing lessons between dryland communities on how to reduce vulnerability has proven difficult because of multiple definitions of vulnerability, complexities in quantification, and the temporal and spatial variability inherent in dryland agroecological systems. In this closing editorial, we review how we have addressed these challenges through a series of structured, multiscale, and interdisciplinary vulnerability assessment case studies from drylands in West Africa, southern Africa, Mediterranean Europe, Asia, and Latin America. These case studies adopt a common vulnerability framework but employ different approaches to measuring and assessing vulnerability. By comparing methods and results across these cases, we draw out the following key lessons: (1) Our studies show the utility of using consistent conceptual frameworks for vulnerability assessments even when quite different methodological approaches are taken; (2) Utilizing narratives and scenarios to capture the dynamics of dryland agroecological systems shows that vulnerability to climate change may depend more on access to financial, political, and institutional assets than to exposure to environmental change; (3) Our analysis shows that although the results of quantitative models seem authoritative, they may be treated too literally as predictions of the future by policy makers looking for evidence to support different strategies. In conclusion, we acknowledge there is a healthy tension between bottom-up/ qualitative/place-based approaches and top-down/quantitative/generalizable approaches, and we encourage researchers from different disciplines with different disciplinary languages, to talk, collaborate, and engage effectively with each other and with stakeholders at all levels.
Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in the Semi - Arid Regions of Southern Africa
2015
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Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2015
To enhance understanding of the process of climate change adaptation and to facilitate the planning and implementation of socially-just adaptation strategies, deeper consideration of the factors that impede adaptation is required. In response, scholars have increasingly identified barriers to adaptation in the literature. But, despite this progress, knowledge of barriers that hamper adaptation in developing countries remains limited, especially in relation to underlying causes of vulnerability and low adaptive capacity. To further improve understanding of barriers to adaptation and identify gaps in the state-of-the-art knowledge, we undertook a synthesis of empirical literature from sub-Saharan Africa focusing on vulnerable, natural resource-dependent communities and livelihoods. Our review illustrates that: (1) local-level studies that reveal barriers to adaptation are diverse, although there is a propensity for studies on small-holder farmers;