Climate Change Adaptation in the context of shared transboundary basins in Africa: building adaptive capacity

Jean Boroto and Thomas Petermann

on behalf of

InWent Capacity Building

Work done in partnership with

ANBO UNEP GEF IW- LEARN UNDP GWP Eastern Africa GTZ NBI Most River and Lake Basins Commissions or

Authorities in Africa Host countries of the workshops Research and other institutions WWC (Africa Programme)

A shared river and lake basins context

In Africa, more than 60 rivers and lakes are shared:

Climate change needs a transboundary response

Need to transcend national context

What can be done?

Orange River

BotswanaLesothoNamibiaSouth Africa

Pangani River

Lake Tanganyika

1960: 26000 km2

2000: 1500 km2

Recent shared lake and river basins workshops

Where Dates Target

Entebbe, Uganda

26-29 Aug. 2008 Africa continent

Abuja, Nigeria 2-3 Dec. 2008 West and Central Africa

Pretoria,South Africa

3-5 March 2009 Eastern and Southern Africa

Outcomes

Consensus that urgent action is required, but what exactly?

Considering limited mandate of L& RBOs?

Things that ought to be done anyway?

Two kinds of actions

Operational level…

Advisory and advocacy level

By who?

Three levels of intervention

Regional Economic Communities (SADC, ECOWAS,…)

RBOs (Commissions, Authorities)

Member States

Action by RECs

Appropriate policies, laws and strategies (such as SADC Protocol) – to mainstream CC

Fund (raising) – approach cooperating partners or own resources

Coordination

Action by RBOs

Commissions and Authorities have different mandates!

Advisory, advocacy and capacity building (all)

Operational (authorities) such as infrastructure development and operation

Coordination (between member states) and lessons from elsewhere

Fundraising (on behalf of member states)

Member States

Action on the ground (education, capacity building)

Infrastructure and Non infrastructure (WCWDM, RWH, Conjunctive use of Surface and Groundwater)

Disaster Management Policies and Strategies

Involvement of other sectors

Funding (contribution to RBOs’ budget)

Critical action items

Monitoring (out to be done anyway), CC is a further incentive!

Educate, prepare vulnerable communities to understand CC (not a punishment from the gods from God)

Funding, including research(ers)

Lessons

Do not rush into up scaling model results: Extrapolate findings, adapt and adopt… (a

challenge!)

Often baseline data is NOT available!

Use best wisdom: plan for the future even if it can’t be predicted.

Conclusions

Though CCA is not the top priority in the programmes of L&RBOs in Africa, its gradual mainstreaming into policy, advocacy, capacity building, financing and other activities (data, infrastructure or other), is today’s best response.

Coordination is critical!