Publication Review: "Why is socially-just climate change adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa so challenging?"
By Alicia Okeyo with contributions from Professor Sheona Shackleton and Dr Gina Ziervogel.
ACDI Research Chair Dr Gina Ziervogel recently co-authored a review paper, alongside Rhodes University’s Professor Sheona Shackleton, and others. The publication, entitled “Why is socially-just climate change adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa so challenging? A review of barriers identified from empirical cases”, is a review of empirical literature from sub-Saharan Africa, which aims to enhance the understanding of the processes of climate change and a deeper consideration of the barriers that impede climate change adaptation.
ACDI recently asked Professor Shackleton to explain to us a little bit about what inspired her to publish this paper and what her research interests are.
Sheona Shackleton (PhD) is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at Rhodes University, where she has been on the full-time staff since July 2008. She has worked extensively at the interface between rural development and natural resource management for the last 30 years, undertaking research in such spheres as community conservation, rural livelihoods and vulnerability, ecosystem services and human well-being, non-timber forest product use and commercialisation, and climate change adaptation. Shackleton’s recent international research projects include a four year study on the “Vulnerability, coping and adaptation within the context of climate change and HIV/AIDS in South Africa” with partners at the University of Alberta, Canada, a project on “Human Adaptation to Biodiversity Change” coordinated by University of Kent, UK, an NRF GCSSRP project on “Comparative transdisciplinary case studies of change towards enhancing water security practices in the eastern and southern Cape”, two SANPAD (South Africa-Netherlands) projects – one on urban forestry and the other on water governance, and a project on “Limits to Adaptation” funded by Worldwide University Network (WUN) and managed by Penn State University, USA.
The latter connection with the WUN was the basis from which the recent co-authored a review paper stemmed. Shackleton noted the following about the origins and inspirations behind this publication:
“The article was an output of a WUN project on ‘Limits to Adaptation’, led by Petra Tschakert from Penn State University”. Through existing networks she invited me to participate in this international project, which included collaborators from Australia, USA and South Africa”. During the first meeting in the USA we agreed on a set of outputs which included a literature review of barriers to climate change. I agreed to lead this. About a year later we all meet in Cape Town for a writing retreat and during this time decided that we needed to narrow down the focus to Africa, partly because the continent is under-represented in the literature, despite what the empirical literature reveals.”
Shackelton recalled her sabbatical in 2013, during which she wrote most of the paper; “it was a very time consuming process consulting over 100 publications. I am delighted it has been published in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change Journal (WIRES CC)”.
In a nutshell: A Summary of the review paper.
The paper begins by outlining what is meant by adaptation and the characteristics of the sub-Saharan context within which the research review is focussed. Adaptation is defined as a multifaceted, complex and continuous process that aims to reduce the impacts of climate change and is able to influence different factors and conditions at multiple scales, or different contexts (Shackleton, Ziervogel, Sallu, Gill & Tschakert, 2015). The authors aim to explore adaptation challenges in the highly dynamic climatic and socioeconomic context of sub-Saharan Africa, characterised by persistent poverty, socioeconomic inequality, low levels of development, high dependence of climate-sensitive livelihood sectors (such as agricultural production), limited economic capacity and a myriad of political and institutional challenges. Shackleton et al. (2015) noted that the complexity of adaptation itself, which involves multiple linkages and steps at different scales, leaves it subject to multiple hindrances.
Shackleton et al. (2015) attempt to yield a better understanding of the complex, often context specific, phenomenon of adaptation, by categorizing several types adaptation barriers. This is a systematic means that the authors describe as an exploration of factors and conditions that may hinder societal, governmental, community-wide and individual capacity for adapting to perceived future climate-related vulnerabilities and threats. However, there are several other factors that weaken the credibility of categorizations of adaptation barriers. Shackleton et al. (2015) state that some barriers to adaptation are fairly easily identifiable and obvious, while others appear to be hidden and are often overlooked. Additionally, there are often no clear boundaries that separate adaptation barrier typologies, Shackleton et al. (2015) describe “boundaries becoming blurry” when the barriers in communities are “seemingly endless”. Indeed, barriers to adaptation may appear to be infinite from their complicated heterogeneity, and the numerous number of ways in which barriers operate in different context or across scales.
In an attempt to give an overview of multiple barriers to adaptation to climate vulnerability and change, Shackleton et al. (2015) focussed specifically on barriers experienced by small-holder farmers. Many of these barriers are explored from the perspective of resources needed for adaptation, factors influencing adaptive capacity, and the reasons that hinder deployment of adaptive strategies at an individual or group capacity. Most barriers that are mentioned and well-studied are often those that are easily detected, such as financial, biophysical, technological and informational barriers, and governance barriers such as lack of adequate assets for the adaption of new adaptive farming technologies. Fewer studies have noted barriers that are less easily identified; Shackleton et al. (2015) aim to shed light on some of what are term the “hidden barriers” to adaptation below:
- Cognitive and Psychological Barriers: Various psychological factors such as “mind set” and “risk perception” are said to influence adaptation. Additionally, perceived abilities and culturally-based beliefs can also influence adaptation. Shackleton et al. (2015) mention a study in Mozambique where a community believed extreme weather events to be the work of their ancestors or witchcraft, thus hindering their uptake of planned adaptation strategies. On a similar note, the belief that natural variation and climate change are phenomena beyond what human action can control may also act as barrier to adaptation.
- Institutional and Cultural Barriers at local level: These barriers include what Shackleton et al. (2015) term as “elite capture”, which occurs when the corruption of few individuals or groups of individuals of authority allows them to have complete control over resources (usually finical) that were to be designated to the greater share of local communities, thus limiting the adaptive capacity of the greater community.
- Governance and Approaches to Planned Adaptation: Shackleton et al. (2015) reports that differing approaches for supporting adaptive strategies can themselves act as barriers to adaptation. These approaches may sometime disregard peoples own logic of adaptation strategies and ignore their understanding or perception of the vulnerabilities they face. This can result in climate change policies and strategies being viewed as an inhibitor of local, more pragmatic adaptation options.
- Information and Knowledge barriers: Perhaps one of the most important and wide-spread barriers to adaptation is information or knowledge barriers. Semi-Arid regions differ immensely from other contexts, however Shackleton et al. (2015) believe that the lack of real-time information about current and future climate change issues to facilitate decision making, is a universal barrier. Often lack of information or knowledge manifests in people not knowing what to do (i.e. what actions to take) or what to expect, especially when people feel that their indigenous knowledge can no longer suffice, or is being undermined by the current institutional systems. This often leads to feelings of misunderstanding and mistrust
These knowledge and information barriers are very closely linked to cognitive barriers mentioned earlier, which alludes to the interconnectedness of barriers to adaptation, despite attempts to rigidly categorise them. Considering multiple barriers to adaptation and their interconnectedness can aid in our understanding of how climate change adaptation can be supported or promoted at different levels, and how poverty traps and extreme vulnerability can be avoided. Consequently, Shackleton et al. (2015) argue that this requires further research on how barriers interact, particularly across scales; “An explicit focus on intersecting dimensions of inequalities would help identify the complex drivers that prevent certain groups of disadvantaged people from successfully adapting to climatic change, while others may be more fortunate or even benefit.”
In conclusion, the review by Shackleton et al. (2015) reveals a number of important and diverse barriers to adaptation from various studies of semi-arid regions, whilst emphasising the interactions between these barriers that often compounds their impacts. Therefore, in what is perhaps the most important point of the review, Shackleton et al. (2015) suggests that a more useful endeavour would be not to research the barriers to adaptation, but for more studies to take up opportunities to research the enablers of adaptation, and to find conceptual and practical ways to overcome known barriers whilst supporting these enablers at multiple scales.