Adaptation Strategies Compendium

Locally Led Adaptation & Resilience

Disaster Risk & Humanitarian Action

The Adaptation Learning Programme for Africa (ALP) has sought to increase the capacity of vulnerable households in sub-Saharan Africa to adapt to climate variability and change. The four-country programme reaches vulnerable communities in northern Ghana, southern Niger, eastern Kenya and northern coastal Mozambique by using participatory initiatives aiming to pioneer and deepen practical understanding of Community Based Adaptation (CBA). ALP’s approach gives explicit focus on integrating gender equality and diversity into the process.

ALP uses a learning-by-doing approach in facilitating CBA in a growing number of vulnerable communities across a range of livelihood groups, agro- ecological zones and climates. The goal is to develop and document effective CBA approaches that result in practical community-generated adaptation decisions that will increase and sustain peoples resilience to climate change. The CBA approaches have the potential to be adopted and integrated into community district and county level development planning cycles and adaptation and related sector programmes. Community plans resulting from participation in CBA approaches relate to livelihood and risk reduction activities, collectively known as ‘adaptation strategies’, which the communities prioritise as those which will best support their climate resilience in the short and long-term.

This compendium presents the range of different adaptation strategies supported by ALP in communities across the four countries where the programme is working. For each strategy evidence and lessons are provided from successful implementation and impacts in reducing vulnerability and building adaptive capacity in different contexts in Africa. The material is relevant to practitioners, policy makers and local government officers in promoting the future adoption of CBA approaches and adaptation strategies that enable more sustainable adaptation.