Resources for Theme 'Water'

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• Documents

  Changement Climatique, Agriculture et Responsabilité Sociétale des Organisations: Note conceptuelle et Agenda

  

  admin | 2013-05-11 | 882.5 KB | details

  Note conceptuelle et Agenda

• Climate Change, Agriculture and Corporate Responsibility: Event concept note and agenda

  

  admin | 2013-05-11 | 820.0 KB | details

  Event concept note and agenda

• Résumé du projet

  

  admin | 2012-07-25 | 871.1 KB | details

  Compte tenu des liens étroits entre le développement et l’adaptation au changement climatique, des réponses politiques et institutionnelles ont été prises par les pays de la sous-région avec l’adoption des Programmes d’action nationaux sur l’adaptation (PANA), qui identifient des domains d’action prioritaires pour réduire la vulnérabilité des pays et accroître leurs capacités d’adaptation. Les organisations d’intégration régionale – la CEDEAO et l’Union économique et monétaire Ouest-Africaine – souhaitent s’impliquer davantage dans ce domaine.

• Impacts of Dams on Local People - An IIED Study

  

  admin | 2012-03-21 | 1.8 MB | details

  A study on six large dams in West Africa launched by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) shows that securing access to local development benefits can be achieved by involving communities in the planning and construction of dams.

  The study, titled "Sharing the water, sharing the benefits: Lessons from six large dams in West Africa," was launched at the sixth World Water Forum in Marseille, France. It received financial support of the Global Water Initiative (GWI) and was edited by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), IIED and the Institut de Recherches et d’Applications des Méthodes de Développement (IRAM).

  The study examines six dams built in Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso, and how they impacted local people’s lives and development opportunities. It features sections on: understanding local consequences of dams in order to minimize negative impacts and avoid conflicts; encouraging local benefits from dams; improving local stakeholder involvement; and sharing the benefits and reducing conflicts.

  The study identifies the reasons why local people were often dissatisfied with the construction of the dam, including: insufficient and poorly planned compensation for losses suffered due to the construction, filling and operating of the dam; inadequacy of the feasibility studies conducted to determine the dams’ effects on people, infrastructure and economic activities; and absence of resource management structures or rules.

  In order to address these challenges, the authors recommend involving local people in the discussions related to construction of the dam, including on the investment, compensation and relocation issues.

• CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND FOOD INSECURITY IN MARADI DISTRICT – NIGER

  

  admin | 2012-02-14 | 685.6 KB | details

  In Maradi district (Niger), more than 80% of the population is composed of farmers practicing a rain fed agriculture. However, because of climate variability and changes, rainfall has become uncertain, either coming too early, too late, too much or too little. On the other hand, seasons are becoming shorter and annual temperatures more extreme. During previous field visit and survey in January 2007 among Maradi district communities (Tibiri, Maradawa and Gabi), an alarming report stated the following: over 50% of interviewed farmers said that they entirely consume their harvest just after three months! During the remaining nine months in the year and before the next harvest, these communities used to develop small irrigation and income generating activities from fruit and vegetables they produced. But, because of climate variability and change, these farmers are facing a tremendous challenge in fetching surface and ground water for irrigation. As a result, any adaptation strategy via irrigation became so costly (mainly because of high oil prices and difficult access to energy services) that it is out of many small farmers’ reach. In order to ensure their food security, these communities generally settle for some coping mechanisms including social networking, solidarity and alternative livelihoods, small-scale irrigation or migration. However, irrigation has become less productive because of water scarcity and higher minimum annual temperatures. The only one river (Goulbi) flowing across Maradi city and which use to flow for at least six months after the raining season, is now flowing for only one to two months because reduction in annual regional rainfall and also because of a dam1 set upstream in Nigeria a neighbouring country of Niger. Combination of all these stressors makes Maradi district frequently exposed to food insecurity. In this case, communities tend to implement several coping mechanisms to ensure their food security. This paper attempts to understand these coping mechanisms so as to inform policy and decision makers at all levels in the exploration of ways and means of adding value on some of these coping mechanisms to transform them into adaptation. Because of the trans-boundary linkages that it implies, this paper shows that adaptation to climate change should no longer be considered only as a local but multi scale, multi level process.

  Key words: food security, adaptation, coping mechanism, social capital, and policy process

• Using small-scale adaptation actions to address the food crisis in the Horn of Africa: going beyond food aid and cash transfers

  

  admin | 2012-01-25 | 206.1 KB | details

  The countries Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti are facing the worst food crisis of the 21st century as a result of devastating droughts. The crisis is causing starvation and leading to a lack of access to clean water and sanitation for over 12 million people. Not only are the direct drought effects endured now by the population, but they have weakened response capacity and created diminished prospects of ever achieving future water and food security. Over the coming decades, temperatures in this region will continue to rise and rainfall patterns will change. This will create major problems for food production and availability. Thus, building resilience in communities is indispensable as we adapt our farming systems to the challenges of climate change. This will require practical solutions that can build on processes involving adaptation to climate change. The lessons learned from the UN-led project in Uganda, demonstrate the value of small scale innovative interventions, carried out using democratic approaches to help support adaptation to climate change whilst progressing to achieve food security and chart a new Path to eliminate hunger. These lessons should be our guiding vision as we address the current droughts plaguing the Horn of East Africa and elsewhere.

• Symposium flyer

  

  admin | 2010-12-05 | 216.6 KB | details

  A one page flyer to download. You can print off or email to let others know about the symposium.

• Symposium - Call for papers

  

  admin | 2010-12-05 | 154.5 KB | details

  The deadline for submitting proposals for Symposium consideration is January 3rd 2011. Proposals should be submitted as an abstract – maximum 300 words. Please e-mail abstracts and/or questions by e-mail to: symposium@africa-adapt.net.

• The Ocean and Climate Change

  

  admin | 2010-11-01 | 1.4 MB | details

  Climate change is severely and rapidly impacting species, ecosystems and people around the globe. As both international and national mitigation and adaptation strategies are being discussed, the impacts of climate change and ocean acidi cation, as well as the ocean’s role in mitigation and adaptation strategies, have largely been overlooked. Rapid and signi cant action is needed now. This brochure highlights the most pressing climate change issues with respect to the ocean and presents a set of tools and guidelines for the implementation of marine climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

• Food Insecurity and Climate Change Adaptation in NIGER

  

  moussa-na-abou | 2010-10-12 | 281.4 KB | details

  This document is a power point presentation made during the 4th International Conference on Community Based Adaptation in Dar Es Salam - Tanzania. The document highlights some of the coping strategies undertaken by communities in Maradi (Niger) in the event of food insecurity caused by climate changes. Policy makers can then build any adaptation strategy on these existing coping mechanisms to insure involvement and appropriation by communities.

• Africa Adapt newsletter: July 2010 (English version)

  

  admin | 2010-07-30 | 3.6 MB | details

  This is the AfricaAdapt newsletter for July 2010.

• Report from Research Review Workshop, Lilongwe, April 2010

  

  admin | 2010-06-15 | 2.3 MB | details

  Report from a workshop held in Lilongwe 26-28 April 2010, the main aim of which was to share and review draft findings from the RPA project case studies, undertaken in the three project countries Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania. The workshop brought together RPA project researchers with client CCAA programme researchers from the three project countries, IDS researchers, as well as DFID and IDRC staff.

• Collecting Narratives

  

  narradapt | 2010-04-02 | 2.3 MB | details

  Quick notes and tips on how to collect narratives, what to ask and for what purposes

• System wise practical solutions for the Adaptation to Climate Change and orientations for partnerships

  

  admin | 2010-03-28 | 121.5 KB | details

  Adaptation is a matter of internally organized and/or externally driven transition of agriculture in the face of climate change: from Vulnerability to Resilience; from Adaptation to Mitigation; from piece meal adaptation to Transformational Process. Diagnosis of conditions hampering progress should identify the components for remediation and should support sets of proposals for addressing the issues, mobilizing the resource, organizations, attitudes. This diagnosis brings to the identification of necessary partnerships. Adaptation to Climate Change is a matter of internally organized and/or externally driven transition. Three components are actually agreed upon for a transition of agriculture in the face of climate change: from Vulnerability to Resilience; from Adaptation to Adaptation and Mitigation; from piece meal adaptation to Transformational Process. A diagnosis of conditions hampering progress should identify the components for remediation and should support concrete and organized sets of proposals for addressing the issues at the scale they would affect the people, mobilizing the adequate resource, organizations and attitudes. This diagnosis brings to the identification of necessary partnerships. The actual components hampering the development of Sub- Saharan African agriculture are very much intricate. The vulnerability of farmers should be perceived within the considerable shift that happened for 20 years in production systems and markets and within the growing scarcity of access to resource.. Intensification of farming systems is a key word for facing the growing demand for agricultural products while access to natural resources is dwindling. Poverty is the most limiting factor for reducing vulnerability and for addressing Adaptation to Climate Change. Any transition in agriculture requires investment. The productivity of labor is an essential lever for getting out of poverty and for mitigating risks. Improving the productivity of the land through inputs use is another lever if inputs are affordable to people. The weak development of irrigation results from poor governance, lack of institutional development, lack of coherent budget allocation, lack of investment in farming and poor market development. It contributes to the actual vulnerability of people. Public support to agriculture declined in most countries during the last 30 years. Changing trends for national budget allocation so that at least 10% would be allocated to agriculture as decided in Dar Es SALAM in 2004 is a pain-stacking exercise. Markets development is the most powerful instrument for developing income in rural areas and reducing poverty. Production to consumption chains should become more competitive r to better serve domestic markets and to conquer markets for exports. Giving to farmers a better share of the added values for their products is a critical component in the policy agenda. The actual lack of support from the financing system to agriculture is part of the actual crisis situation in agriculture in Africa. Social nets and security food stocks are insurances at state level for the poorest. The role of poor governance at country level on the vulnerability of people, on the lack of competitiveness and on the wastage of natural resource is documented. Inadequacy of local governance for adequately developing the land, harnessing risks and investing in value chains is part of the actual situation in most countries. There is an urgent need for institutional development that would promote low carbon based development in rural areas. The transformational process required to face climate change should be system -wise conceived, inclusive and participative and should heal the main defaults and plagues of the current social and economic systems. Climate change is adding a dimension for risks management that has not been perceived so far at the right dimension. The transformational process needs an integrated action plan backed by adequate policies to support tools for development. It should combine investments, market support. It should improve access to resource for farmers and provide incentives for more appropriate agricultural practices that would empower organized rural societies. Generating and sharing accurate information is a crucial component. The development of information systems assisting the adaptation to climate change should be system-wise and provide for the promotion of local visions for a transformation process. It should encompass meteorological information; Information about inputs and outputs markets; information about the public organization of food security stocks and transparency about conditions for contributing to and accessing those stocks for farmers. It should consider information about access to land and to natural resource and about the development of systems and infrastructures harnessing natural resource. Information and organization should secure people, crops and livestock from emerging diseases, outbreaks of pests and epidemics. The transformational process should address changes that would seriously affect agriculture. It should provide resilience to accrued temperature through the sheltering of crops by trees and through a coherent set of windscreens. It should provide resilience to the vagaries of rains through the combination of drought resistant cultivars, crops with shorter cycles and more resilient multi-cropping and multi-storey systems. Water harvesting at field level should be developed through no tillage systems and conservation agriculture, reservoirs and ponds and rain-fed systems assisted through complementary irrigation should be developed. There is a need to revisit the rationale of the location of agricultural activities in relation to the circulation of water in watersheds related to abnormal rains. Water flows should be harnessed in the watersheds. It requires combined actions for greening the land, for improving water infiltration in cropped soils and for storing run-off water at different levels in the watersheds as well as well monitoring normal and abnormal water flows in the drainage system. There is an urgent need for the development of integrated financial systems combining credit, insurance, reinsurance and design of natural disasters involving public support to farmers to ease adaptation to climate change. There is a need for arranging buffer systems in the hands of farmers that would protect them against vagaries of market prices and also contribute to secure the food system. There is a need to design the relationships between district level security systems for food and provincial and national ones and to tie the system to imports in case of national shortages. There is also a need, possibly through regional trade, to organize the consumption of surpluses to normal consumption plus replenishment of security stocks in case of bumper yields. Considerable efforts are needed to invent accurate policies associating farmers’ organizations to solutions. Capacity should be provided for decentralized innovation while reinforcing capacity for centralized innovation. The promotion of farmers’ organizations for facing new challenges related to climate change should be the corner stone for any climate change adaptation strategy. The need for partnerships is thus complex and requires organization from the national level to the provincial level and district level. It requires the combination of public initiatives with the contribution from the professional sector and from the private sector.

• Child Rights and Climate Change Adaptation: Voices from Kenya and Cambodia

  

  emilyp | 2010-02-07 | 1.4 MB | details

  This report focuses on the potential for national adaptation planning to be made in the best interests of the child, and how a rights-based perspective on climate change adaptation could transform national adaptation planning.

• EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FORM - 2011 INNOVATION FUND

  

  binetou | 2010-01-01 | 81.5 KB | details

  The submission deadline has been extended to August 22, 2011. Submit your idea and get funded !

• Following Narradapt

  

  narradapt | 2010-01-01 | 1.2 MB | details

  Learn how to become a follower of NarrAdapt and how to create your project page to disseminate the narratives you have collected

• AfricaAdapt Symposium Programme

  

  admin | 2010-01-01 | 3.7 MB | details

  FRANCAIS

• New Voices Different Perspectives

  

  admin | 2010-01-01 | 1.7 MB | details

  Proceedings of the 2011 AfricaAdapt Symposium

• Should Africa take the renewable energy path? (Joto Africa 08)

  

  admin | 2010-01-01 | 746.6 KB | details

  Modern energy services are essential for reducing poverty. Countries need energy to increase economic production, which improves livelihood options for women and men. Energy is also needed to increase agricultural productivity, provide clean water and improve human health, and energy enables girls and boys to go to school.

• Expression of Interest - EN

  

  binetou | 2010-01-01 | 88.0 KB | details

  Expression of Interest - EN

• Launch of the 2nd AfricaAdapt Knowledge Sharing Innovation Fund !

  

  binetou | 2010-01-01 | 30.5 KB | details

  Call for the 2nd edition of Knowledge Sharing Innovation Fund. Visit the News Page for more info.

• Expression of Interest - FR

  

  binetou | 2010-01-01 | 93.0 KB | details

  Expression of Interest - FR

• Call

  

  binetou | 2010-01-01 | 30.5 KB | details

  Call for proposals

• Day 3, Panel 14: Case studies from Ethiopia

  

  admin | 2010-01-01 | 1.1 MB | details

  Leulseged Yirgu - Adapting to climate change in the water sector: assessing the effectiveness; Holly Radice - Participatory natural resource management with Somali pastoral and agro-pastoral communities: a lasting community led response to climate change; Fana Abay - The contribution of urban agriculture to climate change; Hailu Tefera/Assefa Tofu - Poverty alleviation and environmental restoration using the Clean Development Mechanism – a case study from Humbo, Ethiopia; Tesema Alganesh - Role of gene bank in adaptation to climate change in three sites of Showa region in Ethiopia.