DIIS seminar: Social ansvarlighed ved klimatilpasning

Experience with governance of rural development initiatives strongly suggests that strengthening the voices of citizens to demand greater accountability and responsiveness from local government officials and service providers is required for assistance to be effective.

However, many planned climate change programs are only upwards accountable to central ministries and research institutions.

This seminar will explore the experience with social accountability of local government climate change adaptation in Africa.

Understanding governance of climate change adaptation at the local government level is important, as institutions this level are largely responsible for mediating between national policies and demands articulated from citizens. The seminar will draw on two sets of experiences.

Firstly, Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) has worked in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Uganda with support for an approach called “Flexible and Forward-looking Decision Making”. Overseas Development Institute has been involved with ACCRA through action research.

Secondly, the Adaptation Learning Programme for Africa (ALP) is piloting community-based adaptation to climate change in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Niger and generating learning for other practitioners, policy advocacy, and scaling up.

A successful model of community-based adaptation is integration of community adaptation plans into District development plans in Ghana.

Speakers