Decentralized Governance of Adaptation to Climate Change in Africa

174 Pages·2017·11.594 MB·English

Decentralized Governance of Adaptation
to Climate Change in Africa

Decentralized Governance of
Adaptation to Climate Change in Africa
Esbern Friis-Hansen
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London, UK.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Friis-Hansen, Esbern, author, editor.
Title: Decentralized governance of adaptation to climate change in Africa /
Esbern Friis-Hansen.
Description: Boston, MA : CABI, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017004388 (print) | LCCN 2017008646 (ebook) | ISBN
9781786390769 (hbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781786390776 (ePDF) | ISBN
9781786390783 (ePub)
Subjects: LCSH: Climatic changes--Government policy--Africa. |
Decentralization in government--Africa.
Classification: LCC QC903.2.A35 F75 2017 (print) | LCC QC903.2.A35 (ebook) |
DDC 363.738/7456096--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017004388
ISBN-13: 9781786390769
Commissioning editor: Alex Hollingswoth/David Hemming
Editorial assistant: Emma McCann
Production editor: James Bishop
Typeset by SPi, Pondicherry, India
Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Contents
List of Contributors vii
Foreword ix
1 Introduction 1
Esbern Friis-Hansen
2 Implementing African National Climate Change Policies 11
Esbern Friis-Hansen
3 Contemplating Climate Change at Local Government: On-the-ground
Politics of Adaptation Delivery in Tanzania 25
Sarah Ann Lise D’haen and Jonas Østergaard Nielsen
4 Climate Change Adaptation and Decentralisation Politics:
the Case of Local Governments in Rural Zambia 39
Mikkel Funder, Carol Mweemba and Imasiku Nyambe
5 A White Elephant in a Changing Climate: a Territorial Approach
to Climate Change Adaptation in Uganda 51
J.J. Okiror, Esbern Friis-Hansen, Bernard Bashaasha and Isaac Nakendo
6 Creating Political Space for Climate Change Adaptation in Northern Ghana 61
Julie Fogt Rasmussen and Esbern Friis-Hansen
7 Local Politics of Climate Change Adaptation in Uganda 75
Esbern Friis-Hansen and Charles Aben
8 Political Ecology of Climate Change Management in Rural Uganda 89
Charles Aben
9 Local Political Processes and the Management of the Awoja
Watershed in Eastern Africa 97
Charles Aben, Esbern Friis-Hansen, Jacob Agea and J.J. Okiror
v
vi Contents
10 Competing Interests over Natural Resources and Adaptation to
Climate Change: the Case of Rice Cultivation in the Gweri Wetlands, Uganda 111
Charles Aben, Esbern Friis-Hansen, Bernard Bashaasha and J.J. Okiror
11 Social and Institutional Dynamics of Mobility as an Adaptation
to Climate Change 121
Charles Aben, Esbern Friis-Hansen and Isaac Nakendo
12 Hoarders as Saviours: The Performance of Regional Grain Traders
During and After Extreme Drought 137
Godfrey Suubi and Esbern Friis-Hansen
13 Conclusion: Towards Subnational Climate Change Action
Amidst Ambiguity and Contestation Over Power and Resources 147
Esbern Friis-Hansen
Index 155
List of Contributors
Charles Aben, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda.
E-mail: [email protected]
Jacob Agea, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda.
E-mail: [email protected]
Bernard Bashaasha, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University.
E-mail: [email protected]
Sarah Ann Lise D’haen, Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University
of Copenhagen; Consultant, Climate Analytics, Berlin; and IRI-THESys, Humboldt University,
Berlin. E-mail: [email protected]
Esbern Friis-Hansen, Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark. E-mail:
[email protected]
Mikkel Funder, Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark. E-mail: [email protected]
Carol Mweemba, PhD student, University of Zambia, Zambia. E-mail: [email protected]
Isaac Nakendo, Research assistant, National Agricultural Advisory Services, Uganda. E-mail:
[email protected]
Jonas Østergaard Nielsen, Professor, IRI THESys, Humboldt University, Berlin. E-mail: jonas.
[email protected]
Imasiku Nyambe, Professor, University of Zambia, Zambia. E-mail: [email protected] and
[email protected]
J.J. Okiror, Lecturer, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University,
Kampala, Uganda. E-mail: [email protected]
Julie Fogt Rasmussen, Student, Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark.
E-mail: [email protected]
Godfrey Suubi, Socio-economist, National Agricultural Research Institute, Uganda. E-mail:
[email protected]
vii

Foreword
Climate change hazards are a real part of the rural people’s life in Africa. Gradual climate change
increases variability of weather patterns and reduces the predictability of agricultural seasons,
whereas extreme climate change events take the form of severe floods or prolonged droughts. While
everyone is affected, the poor are more vulnerable and suffer most from climate change. Autonomous
adaptation by individual households is largely inadequate and there is an urgent need for collective
adaptive solutions planned and implemented through inclusive governance at the level of climate
change action.
Understanding the institutional conditions and dynamics of how subnational governments
engage with climate change is crucial because local governments are best situated to implement
international and national policies and programmes in practice. Yet, very few fieldwork-based
studies have examined how subnational institutions respond to climate change. This book addresses
this knowledge gap. Most chapters in this book are an outcome of the Climate Change and Rural
Institution (CCRI) studies that were undertaken 2012–2016 with the aim to examine how a range
of subnational institutions respond to climate change in Africa and Asia. Although programme find-
ings have been presented and published elsewhere (www.diis.dk; Christoplos et al., 2016), this book
presents and reflects on CCRI research findings from Africa.
I am grateful to the Danish Research Council for Development Research for funding the research
programme. The Danish Institute for International Studies has provided an excellent institutional and
academic environment for undertaking the research. The two CCRI partner institutions in Africa,
Makerere University in Kampala and Zambia University in Lusaka, have been very actively engaged in
undertaking the research, making it a truly collaborative study. The authors of this book are in debt to
the many people who in various ways assisted and contributed to the 11 district-based case studies.
The book comes at a highly appropriate time, as the international community after long negoti-
ations reached an agreement at COP 21 in Paris 2015 for a roadmap for financing support for cli-
mate change adaptation. Focus has now shifted on how to take action and implement the agreement
in practice. However, only a few national and international programmes have yet to engage with the
subnational government level in Africa in a serious way. It is the hope that this book can contribute
to enhance our understanding of the institutional dynamics of how local governments respond to
climate change and that can be useful for future support for creating an enabling environment for
rural climate change adaptation in Africa.
Esbern Friis-Hansen
Senior researcher
Danish Institute for International Studies
ix