Climate change increasingly impacts the lives and livelihoods of small-scale producers (SSPs)in Africa (Abegunde et al., 2019; Trisos et al., 2022; Van den Berg et al., 2022). In response, a mix of local and international climate change adaptation interventions are being implemented at different scales (Ford et al, 2011). These interventions, driven by diverse funding sources, policy priorities and other intervention goals, typically involve public, private, and civil society actors, including local non-governmental organizations (NGOs). We refer to these organizations as meso-level organizations (MLOs).
MLOs operate in the space between the ultimate beneficiaries (i.e., small-share farmers; small share producers; small-scale producers, agriculturally dependent communities) and the macro-level actors such as policy-makers and financial institutions. MLOs work independently or in partnership, significantly influencing farmers and farming communities through the knowledge they integrate, decisions they make and the resources they provide. Despite their critical role, there has been little attention on the characteristics, roles, and impacts of MLOs involved in adaptation interventions targeting SSPs. This Landscape Analysis (LA) aimed at exploring the similar or dissimilar roles of MLOs in climate change adaptation (CCA) and their impact on SSPs. Understanding MLOs, their size, funding sources, thematic foci and sectoral positions can enhance the effectiveness of adaptation financing. This helps the funders to better identify capacities and potential roles of MLOs, as well as enhance planning around the project scope and expectations (Manuamorn et al., 2020). Critically, this helps funders to identify ways to reduce investment risk associated with CCA interventions targeting SSPs (Mostafa et al., 2016; Campillo et al., 2017).
Additionally, focusing on MLOs is important for understanding how CCA interventions can address local needs such as inequality, inequity and injustice (Leach et al., 2018; Fuso Nerini et al., 2019; Eriksen et al., 2021). Literature shows that climate change disproportionately impacts vulnerable groups such as indigenous women and children (Leichenko & Silva,2014; Schipper et al.,2022; Trisos et al., 2022). Thus, studying MLOs and their role in adaptation to climate change can respond to calls for more work ensuring that CCA interventions address critical issues of equity and justice (e.g. Leach et al., 2018; Fuso Nerini et al., 2019; Eriksen et al., 2021). Specifically, as equity issues such as gender are often highly specific to cultural contexts, MLOs can play important roles in mediating access to resources, navigating local norms and enabling women and other vulnerable groups to be recognized in policy processes (Chingarande et al., 2020). Furthermore, MLOs often play a role in ensuring that project outcomes empower women and reduce their vulnerabilities while respecting local traditions, norms and practices (Ifejika Speranza, 2011; Acosta et al., 2021).
Focusing on MLOs also helps us to understand their role in the provision of climate information and services (CIS), which is an important dimension in CCA interventions targeting SSPs. More broadly, CIS involves the production, translation, transference, and use of climate information for individual, group and societal decision-making (Carr et al., 2020). The primary aim of CIS is to provide users such as SSPs with timely, tailored, and targeted climate information that may be used to adapt to climate change and variability (Vaughan & Dessai, 2014). In addition, CIS provides users with information critical for rapid response to weather and climate extremes (Abily et al., 2020; Lemos et al., 2020) Currently, there is limited understanding of the diverse organizations, networks and institutional relationships central to the provision of CIS in the context of CCA for SSPs.
The Accelerating Climate Adaptation via Meso-level Integration (ACAMI) project seeks to examine how MLOs can improve the effectiveness and scalability of CCA investments. This project identifies leverage points for enhancing MLO effectiveness in aligning climate adaptation objectives with agricultural development goals. By focusing on the nexus of MLOs and projects to which they are affiliated, the ACAMI project provides urgently needed insights into an unexplored but critical component of climate adaptation in the agriculture sector in Africa. Thus, through explicit attention to the roles, capacities and contributions of MLOs in CAA, inclusive and climate resilient agricultural transformation in Africa will be greatly enhanced.
The landscape analysis (LA) was conducted as part of the ACAMI project and provides initial insights into the characteristics and functions of MLOs in CCA across four countries: Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and South Africa. These countries are in Africa’s three regions, i.e. East (Kenya), West (Ghana) and Southern (Malawi and South Africa). These countries, representing the diverse social-economic and political contexts in East, West and Southern Africa, offer a comprehensive view of CCA interventions targeting SSPs.
The LA adopted an exploratory approach underpinned by two parallel processes, (i) conceptual: involved review….