Despite widespread recognition of Ethiopia's rising temperatures by the government of Ethiopia and other development actors, planning for climate change suffers from under-investment. Without closer scrutiny of how the climate is changing, future investments may not deliver sustainable results. While more needs to be invested in building climate models, uncertainty in climate predictions is likely to continue. This demands an approach that both manages the uncertainty and fosters adaptive capacity, resulting in a more flexible system that is able to adjust to future environmental and climate-related hazards.

This brief, Development interventions and adaptive capacity in rural Ethiopia, summarises research conducted by the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) in three sites in Ethiopia in 2010-11. It highlights how existing development interventions in disaster risk management, social protection and sustainable livelihoods already contribute to local adaptive capacity and how their contribution could be improved. Based on these research findings, the brief highlights priority recommendations for action. The 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 project, Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA): Helping policy-makers understand rural adaptation, is a two-year DFID-funded programme that focuses on a high priority research area: adaptive capacity in rural livelihoods. It is a consortium that works to increase governments’ and development actors’ use of evidence in designing and implementing humanitarian and development interventions to increase poor and vulnerable communities’ adaptive capacity.

Further reading:

Project homepage:
Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA): Helping policy-makers understand rural adaptation

Project summary:
Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA): Helping policy-makers understand rural adaptation

Policy briefs:
Climate trends in Ethiopia: Summary of ACCRA research in three sites
From local to national: Supporting local government action in climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and development planning
The national picture: climate trends in Uganda

Research papers:
Preparing for the future? understanding the influence of development interventions on adaptive capacity at local level in Ethiopia
Preparing for the future in Uganda: understanding the influence of development interventions on adaptive capacity at the local level