After a year of publishing scenarios on the security implications of climate change at a global scale, the focus has shifted to the local and regional level. At last ministries and agencies in the arena of development cooperation are heading towards a "climate proofing" of their development cooperation programmes. This means that the impacts of climate change should be taken into account during the design and implementation of projects to ensure that these are resilient in the face of future climate change. Doing so, projects should enable local communities to adapt to the local and regional challenges of climate change and to improve the political, economic and social stability of a country.



To this end, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned the International Institute on Sustainable Development (IISD) to outline potential futures for two Western African countries, namely Ghana and Burkina Faso. IISD identified a number of issues that domestic authorities and external actors should take into account when designing development programs. In the case of Ghana, for example, the authors point out the need to consider the division of water between energy in the south and agriculture in the north. In addition, economic stability may be challenged if cocoa production becomes less viable. Regarding Burkina Faso, IISD stressed the future relationship between pastoral and agricultural communities in the light of increased land degradation. There may also be a need to manage potential migration movements both regionally and to urban areas.



It remains to be seen to what extent these country studies will in fact guide the designing of development programmes. However, the need to assess the climate sensitivity of such programmes is especially high in already conflict-prone countries. This is one of the results of the recently published report "Climate Change and Security. Challenges for German Development Cooperation", which was prepared by Adelphi Consult on behalf of the German Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). (Dennis Tänzler)



For the IISD report "Assessing the security implications of climate change for West Africa", please see http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2008/security_implications_west_africa.pdf



For the report "Climate Change and Security. Challenges for German Development Cooperation", please see

http://www.gtz.de/de/dokumente/gtz2008-en-climate-change-security.pdf

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, June 2008