Updated: September 2008

The Role of Local Innovation in Supporting Climate-Change Adaptation

Background

Back in the international partners meeting in Cambodia in 2006, Prolinnova partners had voiced their interest of working on the link between climate change adaptation and PID. After all, if farmers adapt to local conditions, their innovation processes are most probably also going to be aimed at coping with climate change.

In a first review of literature, we have realised that few people have actually tried (and managed) to implement initiatives based on local-level activities aimed at climate adaptation. There are few actual accounts of experiences in the field. There is a lot of rhetoric, not much action. Even fewer people mention farmers’ own creativity as starting point for an intervention. There is, in short, a need to bring relevant experiences into the debate.

Prolinnova partners have recently mobilised a small amount of funds to do just that: bring some interesting field-based cases into the overall debate.

Pilots

Because of shortage of funds, only a few Country Programmes could become involved in this initiative. The initial exploratory study will last throughout 2008.

The overall objective of the study is to explore the relevance of local adaptation/innovation and the PID approach to climate-change adaptation at the local level. More specifically, the study will try to:

• Systematically document local experimentation processes which come about as a response to a felt need to adapt to climate change;
• Understand local communities’ perceptions of "climate change";
• Stimulate documentation of local innovation (processes) at local level;
• Draw lessons on the potential impact/influence of local innovation processes on climate-change adaptation policies and programmes.

Most of the activities will be carried out by three Country Programmes – in Ethiopia, Nepal and Niger. In addition, partners in Bolivia (coordinated by Agrecol Andes, an NGO) are bringing in their experience and studies on local people’s strategies for dealing with climatic risk, based on locally developed adaptation tools.

For further information, see the concept note: Strengthening local adaptive capacities: the role of local innovation in supporting climate-change adaptation (Word Document ; size: 126 kb)

For a brief account of an approach developed by some Prolinnova-Andes partners, see the document: Katalysis: Enabling Andean Farmers to Weather Climate Change (PDF File; size : 130 KB)

Contact details

Ethiopia: Mebratu Kifle Kifle (Mebratu@pfe-ethiopia.org), Yohannes Gebre Michael (yohannesgmichael@yahoo.com)

Nepal: Pratap Shrestha (pshrestha@libird.org), Suman Manandhar (smanandhar@libird.org)

Niger: Saidou Magagi (saidmag@refer.ne)

Bolivia: Anne Piepenstock (annpi@agrecolandes.org)

International Support Team: Mariana Wongtschowski (m.wongts@etcnl.nl) Miranda Verburg (m.verburg@etcnl.nl) Laurens van Veldhuizen(l.van.veldhuizen@etcnl.nl)