Abstract

Due to the severe impacts of climate change in Southern Africa, there is a high pressure to adapt to ecological, social and economic systems
Necessary changes aim to adapt policies, structures and processes at the societal level in such a way that risks can be managed and resilience to climate impacts can be achieved.
Bi- and multilateral actors of international cooperation take on a supporting role to advise policy, build capacity, support change management and transfer knowledge.
The work package examines (1) the risk perception in selected countries to create an analytical basis for answering the question of why, despite the already perceptible dramatic consequences, the policy response has so far been rather restrained. Furthermore, (2) the question will be addressed as to which mechanisms have proven successful in the development of adaptation strategies so to date, (3) which sectors are central to promising adaptation, and (4) how national and regional adaptation strategies can be designed coherently with each other. Cooperation partners in this project are the University of Malawi: Chancellor College, the Namibia University of Science and Technology and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.