Effective use of climate science to improve adaptation in Africa

SEI interviewed 40 practitioners and donors in Africa to evaluate how the climate change adaptation sector could be better supported.

Adaptation to climate variability is not new, but climate change is expected to intensify existing problems and create new combinations of risk with potentially grave consequences. This is particularly true in Africa where direct dependence on the nat­ural environment for livelihood support combines with a lack of infrastructure and high levels of poverty to create vulnerability in the face of all types of environmental change.

In regions of Eastern and Southern Africa, vulnerability is particularly high due to the large number of households that depend on the already marginalised natural resource base for their livelihoods.