Climate Change Adaptation programme East Africa

Since 2008, Wageningen International has been involved in a new initiative on Climate Change adaptation in East and Southern Africa. The initiative focuses on linking research to policy makers by making available the WUR resources on climate change to regional partners in East Africa. The initiative is funded by the dutch ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

In June we organised a scoping workshop with partners in Nairobi to identify the focus of the initiative and linkages with other ongoing programmes. In November we facilitated a follow-up meeting. Key partners in the initiative are IUCN, ASARECA and RUFORUM. The meeting was well attended and had several positive outcomes that will drive the continuation of this initiative.

The participants of the meeting concluded that the following activities will be pursued:

1. Organising a 2-week climate change adaptation course, to be organised in the second half of 2009;
2. Developing the 'Hotspot idea', by offering a framework for assessing climate change adaptation Hotspots and starting action research in the region;
3. Exploring policy engagement, by organising a high level meeting for policy makers.

Work on the climate change course and the hotspot idea will start immediately, while the policy engagement event needs more thinking and discussion, which will evolve when we engage in the other ideas.

More information about the initiative can be found on this website