Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation Through Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Local Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review

Abstract

AbstractIn sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), climate change has had a deleterious impact on rural communities, which consistently puts households’ ability to maintain their livelihoods in a precarious position. Despite the low capacity of rural households to adapt to climate change, they have been able to consistently engage in their livelihood activities through the skilful application of their indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), albeit not without challenges. This has fortified the call for locally-driven solutions to be injected into climate governance schemes to support communities as this will contribute directly towards achieving the thirteenth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 13). This entails recognising and valorising the IKS of SSA communities and ensuring its integration into climate change adaptation strategies at the local level. By systematically reviewing existing literature on climate change adaptation and governance, this chapter unearths factors that have facilitated the incorporation of IKS into local governance to strengthen climate change adaptation in SSA. Findings reveal that factors such as creating viable platforms for dialogue between indigenous stakeholders at different levels and providing institutional support for indigenous people to implement local plans are enablers to IKS and local governance collaboration at local levels. These issues are discussed within the broader theoretical debates revolving around how to ensure IKS are integrated into climate change adaptation at the local level to facilitate the achievement of SDG 13.KeywordsIndigenous knowledge systemsLocal governanceClimate change adaptationSub-Saharan AfricaSDG 13