Institutional challenges in scaling-up climate change adaptation actions: experiences from rural communities in Senegal and Kenya

Regional institutions in Africa have the potential to reinforce the adaptive capacity of rural communities in handling climate change impacts. The institutional arrangements provide the rationale for scaling-up adaptation actions by setting the roles of individual players involved in the planning process at local, national and regional levels. The scaling-up then seeks to extend and disseminate the lessons learnt across the levels to support refinement and inclusive implementation of long-term climate change adaptation strategies. This article discusses these considerations through studies of two rural communities faced with the implementation of climate change adaptation strategies in Senegal and Kenya. The cases illustrate different approaches of institutional arrangements and scaling-up of adaptation actions from community to national levels. The lessons from the communities are typical of most vulnerable rural regions and were hence important for extended dissemination considering that the impacts of climate change in Africa are felt largely at community levels. A reduction of this vulnerability requires efficient and realistic adaptation strategies that seek to understand the rural communities while developing considerate policy-based alternatives at all levels of administration.