Africa’s climate change adaptation pathway
Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change and variability, a situation which is further aggravated by its low adaptive capacity and the interaction of factors such as poverty, energy demand and rapid urbanisation.
In many places in Africa there is a close relationship between societal well-being and environmental conditions, relating particularly to biomass for energy and food production, as well as water availability and water quality. African societies face growing global change risks, with rapidly changing patterns of human settlements and intensity of use of ecosystem services.
At the same time, climate variability and climate change are intensifying stress on both terrestrial and marine ecosystems that ensure environmental security. Meteorological droughts (lack of rain) often lead to hydrological and agricultural droughts (lack of water in surface to underground water bodies, and of moisture in the soil), so that the fulfilment of crop water requirement is at risk from both the rainfed and irrigation side. Moreover, climate variability accounts for up to 60% of yield variability in major parts of the world and is thus a crucial factor for food stability.
In addition to the intensification of climate shocks and stresses, last year the small-scale rural producers in Eastern and Southern African countries faced many challenges such as recovering their livelihoods after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and new threats to food supply and affordability caused by the war in Ukraine. According to the latest annual report published by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), these threats are making small-scale farming increasingly difficult and have contributed to an increase in food insecurity across the region, after 20 years of improvements.
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