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Research centre Climate change
Research centre
Folder: Climate change
Climate change is more than a threat, it’s a reality for millions of the people we work with. We recognise that climate change is a huge challenge in the fight against poverty. The impacts of climate change are already destroying livelihoods and increasing financial, political, social and environmental inequities. CARE's response to climate change is rapidly expanding to reflect the severity of the challenge. We focus on helping poor and marginalised communities adapt to their already changing climates. We use innovative approaches to help vulnerable people prepare for disaster and make their livelihoods more resilient.
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Adaptation, gender and women’s empowerment
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Adapting to climate change is about reducing vulnerability to current and projected climate risks. Vulnerability to climate change is determined in large part by people’s adaptive capacity. A particular climate hazard, such as a drought, does not affect all people within a community - or even the same household - equally because some people have greater capacity than others to manage the crisis. The inequitable distribution of rights, resources and power – as well as repressive cultural rules and norms – constrain many people’s ability to take action on climate change.
This is especially true for women. Therefore, gender is a critical factor in understanding vulnerability to climate change. CARE’s approach to adaptation begins with comprehensive analysis, including an examination of differential vulnerability due to social, political and economic inequalities.
This CARE International Climate Change Brief Adaptation, gender and women’s empowerment assessment helps us tailor adaptation strategies to the specific needs, capacities, and priorities of CARE’s impact groups. We work to empower the most vulnerable women and men to achieve climate-resilient livelihoods and reduce disaster risks. We partner with local organisations to develop their capacity for supporting household, community and government adaptation efforts. We aim to tackle the underlying causes of vulnerability to climate change, including gender inequality.
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Adaptation, gender and women’s empowerment
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Climate change poses the greatest direct threat in history to CARE’s vision of a world of hope, tolerance and social justice where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.
The injustice of climate change is that its negative impacts fall disproportionately on poor communities, who have contributed least to its causes.
CARE’s Adaptation Learning Programme (ALP), implemented in Ghana, Niger, Kenya and Mozambique with the support of DFID, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Austrian Development Cooperation, acknowledges that inequitable distributions of rights, resources and power at all levels constrain many people’s abilities to take action on climate change.
ALP therefore seeks to improve and promote knowledge on how best to protect the livelihoods of the most vulnerable people through community-based adaptation (CBA) to climate change.
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Climate trends in Ethiopia: Summary of ACCRA research in three sites
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This ACCRA brief summarises research conducted by the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) in three sites in Ethiopia in 2010-11. This research analysed meterological data and community perceptions and was conducted by Haramaya University.
Federal officials from Ministry of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Authority took part in validating the research, alongside colleagues from various Wereda and Regional bureaus in Oromiya, Afar and Amhara Regional States.
The brief analyses the impacts of climate hazards, variability and change on livelihoods in all three locations, and concludes with key recommendations for action.
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From local to national: Supporting local government action in climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and development planning
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This ACCRA brief summarises learning from the research and capacity-building activities conducted by the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) in three sites in Ethiopia in 2010-11.
This research was conducted by Haramaya University and Federal officials from Ministry of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Authority took part in validation, alongside colleagues from various Wereda and Regional bureaus in Oromiya, Afar and Amhara Regional States.
The brief explains why adaptation planning matters; why community participation is vital; examines key areas where planning and decision-making could be improved. Based on these findings, the brief makes priority recommendations for action.
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Background note - Towards a characterisation of adaptive capacity: a framework for analysing adaptive capacity at the local level
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Interest is growing in supporting vulnerable people and communities to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate, and there is a general assumption that there are close links between development and adaptation. Yet our understanding of the impacts that development interventions have on adaptive capacity at the local level remains limited.
Most development interventions are not designed with a climate change ‘adaptation’ label, but it is likely that they influence communities’ capacity to adapt to changing shocks and trends – whether as a result of climate change or other pressures associated with development (see Jones et al., 2010).
A framework for understanding and assessing adaptive capacity at the local level is needed to begin to understand how it can be supported through wider development processes at both local and national levels. Such a framework may in time serve as a platform to monitor progress, identify needs and allocate development resources to enhance a system’s ability to adapt to change.
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The national picture: climate trends in Uganda
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With agriculture providing about 70% of Uganda’s export earnings and the primary economic activity for much of its population, livelihoods are particularly sensitive to the fluctuations and uncertainties of seasonal rainfall − whether premature, delayed, prolonged or failed.
The Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment recognises climate as ‘not only a natural resource, but a key determinant of the status of other natural resources’.
The Ugandan government is also concerned about climate variability to the extent that it has listed climate change as a key factor to consider in the country’s development.
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Preparing for the future? Understanding the Influence of Development Interventions on Adaptive Capacity at Local Level in Ethiopia.
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This paper was written by Eva Ludi and Simon Levine based on three site reports (see references) which were produced by a team of researchers from Haramaya University comprising Million Getnet, Kindie Tesfaye, Beneberu Shimelis, Hiluf Gebrekidan, and Belay Kassa and from contributions by Million Getnet and Kirsty Wilson provided during a working session in Addis Ababa in July 2011.
The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of the communities in Ander Kello, Kase-hija and Wokin kebeles as well as staff from Chifra, Gemechis and Dabat wereda bureaus and Care, Oxfam, ORDA and Save the Children UK.
The valuable contributions from Federal and Regional officials who gave their inputs via the validation exercises conducted in each site are also greatly appreciated and staff of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency and Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Sector within the Ministry of Agriculture gave helpful feedback which was used to enhance the quality of this report. Valuable comments were also received from Josephine Lofthouse, Lindsey Jones, Catherine Pettengell, and ACCRA steering group members. Section 1 was written by Lindsey Jones.
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Preparing for the future? Understanding the influence of development interventions on adaptive capacity at local level in Uganda
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This brief summarises research conducted by the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) in three sites in Uganda in 2010-11. Climate Change, Adaptation and Adaptive Capacity – what are they, and why do they matter in Uganda? While Uganda has made significant gains with regards to economic growth and poverty reduction in recent years, development pressures still exist and act as significant barriers to progress.
Uganda’s population growth rate is 3.4%, higher than average for sub-Saharan Africa, and the population is expected to double by 2025, compared to 2002. The backbone of the economy is rain-fed agriculture, with over 80% of the country’s labour force employed in this activity. The country now faces the challenge of responding to a rapidly changing climate, that greatly magnifies existing development pressures. Since most Ugandan communities have a low capacity to adapt to these changes, the challenge is compounded.
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Preparing for the future in Uganda: Understanding the influence of development interventions on adaptive capacity at the local level
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This research is a result of considerable input and support from various individuals across ACCRA’s consortium of members: Oxfam GB in Uganda, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), CARE International in Uganda, World Vision Uganda, and Save the Children in Uganda.
Special thanks go to all our colleagues in the Office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Water and Environment, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, the Department of Water, the Ministry of Health and the Department of Meteorology for their continued support and inputs to ACCRA’s work.
Thanks are also due to the country researchers and the ACCRA coordinator who led the data-collection process and contributed greatly towards analysis of the research findings: Doreen Ruta and Fredrick Ayorekire (Gender Development |Initiatives), Margaret Barihaihi and Anthony Kagoro (World Vision Uganda). Special thanks also go to Josephine Lofthouse and Catherine Pettengell.
This document is an output from a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID) for the benefit of developing countries. However, the views expressed and information contained in it are not necessarily those of, nor endorsed by, DfID or the members of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), which can accept no responsibility or liability for such views, the completeness or accuracy of the information, or for the reliance placed on them.
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Building Community Resilience to Climate Change Testing the Adaptation Coalition Framework in Latin America
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Climate change impacts involve three defining features that are not always a part of other development challenges: they are diverse, long-term and not easily predictable. Adapting to these three traits is difficult because they require making contextspecific and forward-looking decisions regarding a variety of local climate impacts and vulnerabilities when the future is highly uncertain. The 2010 World Development Report: Development and Climate Change, echoes this by stating that, “Climate change adds an additional source of unknowns for decision makers to manage” and planners must accept “uncertainty as inherent to the climate change problem.”
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