( AIACC AF-14 )

1. HCENR /SEI_B (AIACC AF-14 ) . Development and Adaptation Days at COP-11, December 3 and 4, 2005, Montreal, Canada Adapting to climate change: linking local coping mechanisms to development policies and strategies . Balgis Elasha and Bill Dougherty 1 Higher Council for Environment &Natural Resources 2 Stockholm Environmental Institute-Boston (SEI_B) 3

2. Overview • Objective of assessment/ importance • Questions / • Methodology • Major policy-relevant Findings • Major policy implications

3. The objective of the policy analysis • Assessing the local and national policies and conditions that support or inhibit certain successful climate related response measures employed in a drought –prone areas of Sudan. This is important !! Why? Because, it provide for linking local coping mechanism to the development policies through: • Understanding of the impacts of policies and institutions in the livelihood of rural people in fragile ecosystems, as well as their role in shaping their livelihoods; • based on this assessment community needs and interests could be defined, as well as priority options for sustainable livelihoods i.e. its outcome could be considered as the basis for future policy decisions.

4. Questions considered • Who are the vulnerable communities under focus? • What were the coping strategies adopted by the communities and what was their impacts on their livelihoods; • What is the relationship between community resilience-building activities and micro-, meso-and macro-scale policies, institutions and processes? in other words how does policy affect livelihoods, and how can these links be strengthened in a beneficial way?

5. Methodology • a nested assessment approach was chosen for assessing the policy impacts at different scales, where analysis started by the household, then the community, state, and finally, the national or regional context

6. The components of Policy Analysis for Sustainable LivelihoodsAdapted from Pasteur (2001) • -

7. Examples of policies that influenced the SL

8. Key finding: • It is found that certain instances of policies, landmark legislation, reform, etc. play a direct role in enabling SL activity today as well as in developing future adaptation. Moreover, institutions are common element in any policy process, their analysis is needed to complement the policy analysis. • Major policy –relevant findings (1) • Policy on paper does not necessarily mean there is policy in practice, This emphasizes the need for education and the two way communication between decision makers and local communities • The same Policy could yield contrasting results , for different sectors or different activities in the same sector • To ensure proper implementation of policies, work should focus on enhancing knowledge of rights and duties of community members and promote regulations or laws that aimed at creating positive changes in human behavour and attitudes towards the environment and natural resources.

9. Major Policy-relevant findings (2) • The policy priorities of poor people will be realized more effectively if they have the capacity to articulate their demands and influence the policy process. • Contingency short-term plans for mitigating the impacts of drought, have always led to short term improvement of living conditions, but at the same time contributed to the creation of relief dependent communities not capable of future adaptation. • Traditions, community values and, religious affiliations can play major role on the success of policy intervention, care should be taken to build upon these and avoid policies that contradict with them . Hence Community Leaders are key players in the policy process , they possess a wealth of indigenous knowledge regarding the wise use and conservation of natural resources

10. Major policy implications (1) The study Shed light on existing policies that have impacts on community’s coping capacity to climate hazards, ideally, some of what has been captured through this project will be integrated into Sudan’s emerging adaptation efforts and used as a basis for mainstreaming adaptation with development policy. The information generated through the study was assembled into policy analysis paper that could be developed into a policy document, and serve as valuable guidance to adaptation planning as well as to the longer-term adaptation mainstreaming process; inform national adaptation strategies (both National Communications and National Adaptation Programmes of Action) under the UNFCCC; If the outputs – either the methods or the lessons – can be taken up and applied elsewhere, they have the potential to help improve the effectiveness of regional adaptation planning efforts as well as future development work

11. For more information on AIACC-AF14 • www.start.org/Projects/AIACC_Project/