What African countries perceive to be adaptation priorities: results from 20 countries in the Africa adaptation programme

Climate change adaptation is widely acknowledged as an urgent need for African countries. However, African governments face considerable challenges in prioritising adaptation interventions and, in particular, aligning these adaptation interventions with existing national development priorities. This article focuses on the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP) as a case study to investigate what African countries perceive to be priority adaptation interventions. The AAP provides support to 20 African countries to identify and implement priority adaptation interventions under five AAP outcomes. This is achieved using participatory and consensus-based consultation with a wide range of stakeholders across a range of sectors. We classified each adaptation intervention identified in AAP project documents based on the following categories: (1) soft versus hard, (2) scale, (3) sector, and (4) type of intervention. We found that AAP countries selected predominantly soft adaptation interventions covering multiple sectors at the national scale. Of note, development of human and financial capital at a national scale was prioritised over hard or soft interventions at a local scale (e. g. hard infrastructure and restoration of natural capital). This suggests that (1) stakeholders were concerned with risks associated with such interventions; (2) capacity was limited to make informed decisions; and/or (3) there was a lack of coordination to create a consensus on the interventions. Our study highlights the importance of creating an enabling environment for more informed adaptation decisions and practices in African countries.