Framework of Best Practice for Climate Change Adaptation in Africa: The Water–Development Nexus

Abstract

In this chapter, a framework for best practice for climate change adaption in Africa is presented, predominantly from the water and natural resources perspective to systematically chart out ways for adaptive capacity building. Africa’s vulnerability to climate change and variability has direct impacts on water availability, access and use. Water is the source of food and livelihood security for millions of its population. The future of food and livelihood security is likely to be challenged due to global environmental changes, particularly global climatic changes, and emerging evidence has gradually demonstrated this fact. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected that global and regional surface temperature and precipitation are likely to change with mixed degrees of severity due to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and other anthropogenic gas emissions. There is high level of consensus on the likely effect of this on all aspects of the hydrological cycle, which in turn may alter the balance between water availability, food demand and supply in time and space in many parts of the world. Climate variability is also projected to increase, leading to uncertainty in the onset of rainy seasons and more frequent extreme weather events, such as more severe droughts and floods. Africa is particularly vulnerable to these environmental changes due to a predominance of rainfed agriculture, limited resource base and weak structural setups to monitor and mitigate climate changes. In the quest for future water and food security, greater attention must now be paid to adaptations to climatic change with a livelihood-centered approach of integrated natural resources and water management, which calls for increased diversification, improved land use and natural resource management interventions, increased use of renewable energy resources, improved risk management through early warning systems and crop insurance, and wastewater reuse for agriculture, among others.