Climate Change in Africa: Vulnerabilities and Options for Building Resilience

Abstract

African countries and regions are experiencing extreme weather events and this contributes to socio-economic lagging. The aim of the article is to explore factors which contribute towards the vulnerability of the African region and examine the viable options which may be employed to reduce such vulnerability and thus promote climate change resilience. The motivation for this study is the heavy toll of climate change effects on the continent and thus the study is justified in that it may open some avenues among policy-makers and other stakeholders, which may reduce climate change-related carnage and destruction. As such, the study is desktop research which involving a review of relevant literature. As such, the study confirms that climate change is among the factors contributing towards a slow development pace in Africa. Furthermore, the effects of climate change were found to be fuelled by poor rural and urban planning and a lack of resources, particularly funding. As such, whereas the less economically developed countries of Africa are worse off in combating climate change, countries of the global North are less vulnerable to the climate change vagaries. It is, therefore, recommended that the more vulnerable African countries should partner with better-off countries to allow effective pooling of resources. Furthermore, resilience building against climate change is recommended to include participatory engagement with all stakeholders and a bottom-up decision-making strategy is seen to be effective