Making Climate Action Count: Lessons learnt from engendering communities’ resilience across East Africa vulnerable populations and landscapes

Abstract:

East Africa is at a higher risk to the effects of climate change than any other region given its geographical location (IPCC 2001, 2007) and limited capacities to adapt. The situation has been compounded by rapid population growth, climate variability and change (including extreme weather events), conflict and insecurity, and accelerating ecological degradation. Cyclic extreme weather events (i.e. floods and droughts) have become the region’ new normal’ exacerbated by existing developmental challenges, cyclical shocks and stressors such as endemic poverty, complex governance and institutional dimensions; limited access to capital, including markets, infrastructure and technology; ecosystem degradation; and complex disasters and conflicts. Exceptionally above-average rainfall in 2019 led to widespread floods, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and causing crop and livestock losses in worst-affected areas, affecting approximately 3.4 million people across the region. This year, the region is facing an unprecedented triple threat to food security and loss of livelihoods caused by the combined effects of recent severe floods, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and an upsurge of desert locusts, whose magnitude has never been seen in the region in the last 75 years.

At national, sub national, local and community levels, the most impacted members of society are largely women and youth, who are to a greater extent, excluded from land and natural resources planning and decision-making processes. Women are the most dependent on natural resources, but their role in natural resource management (NRM) is limited. Investing in women as part of climate responses can lead to greater returns across the SDGs and broader development objectives. This paper will focus on how regional and community climate resilience preparedness and response tools, technologies and mechanisms have been designed and utilized in collaboration with various communities with a focus on women and youth. These interventions have led to enhanced resilience, strategies and policies across the region.