New pathways to resistance: outcomes of the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa research and capacity building program 2006-2012
This report presents a brief and interactive summary of the Climate Change in Africa research and capacity program’s chief contributions. It provides a guided tour of the program’s efforts and legacy – its aims and means, the principal outcomes of the funding and mentoring it provided to African researchers, and the lessons it offers for future adaptation efforts in Africa and elsewhere. Throughout this report, there are links to programme and project resources, and directions for delving further into its scientific findings.
Outcomes from the programme are presented in the following areas: research capacity; engagement of vulnerable populations; findings; sharing of knowledge; and informed policies. A variety of case studies are present as examples of the programmes work such as in Malawi, where the national Greenbelt Initiative promotes large-scale irrigation as a means to enhance food security. There were concerns, however, that irrigation may increase the incidence of malaria by multiplying breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. The analysis undertaken as part of the programme suggests that the malaria pattern, in this specific context, was mainly associated with rainy season flooding and not irrigation.