Building resilience and inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa through social learning around climate risks

撒哈拉以南非洲特别容易受到干旱、洪水和其他与气候有关的压力和冲击的影响。该地区一些最脆弱的群体是干旱和半干旱地区的农村社区，他们依赖农业和畜牧业。现在人们认识到，导致这些国家易受气候变率和变化影响的不平等进程对实现可持续发展目标至关重要。这项研究的目的是有助于更好地理解风险的潜在驱动因素，同时也确定了通过弥合“可用性差距”来改善气候信息对建立复原力可能产生的影响的途径。研究的重点是了解建立复原力和支持生计的学习过程，这些过程在复杂和高度不确定的背景下应对跨时间尺度的多重压力和机遇。有助于管理不确定性的知识来自一系列传统的、土著的、地方的和科学的来源。在这种情况下，围绕一个特定压力源在一个时间尺度内从数据收集到信息生成再到知识生产的知识生成的线性模型是不够的。因此，社会学习过程，作为与他人分享经验、想法和环境时发生的反复反思，是建立弹性的核心。本研究旨在提高我们对弱势群体在不同时间尺度和复杂的历史、社会、经济和政治背景下的社会学习的理解。跨学科的努力将特别关注环境历史和其中的权力、政治和性别动态，并探索它们如何与正在进行的提供改进的科学气候信息的工作联系起来。这项研究将建立在萨塞克斯大学和发展研究所在气候科学、气候信息交换、适应、环境历史以及撒哈拉以南非洲社会学习中的权力和政治过程方面的跨学科记录的基础上。这项合作将在与肯尼亚一个广泛的研究与发展伙伴联盟（Ada联盟）建立的既定伙伴关系的基础上，利用深入的案例研究和参与性行动研究。这些案例研究将提供来自该国干旱和半干旱地区以农业和畜牧业为重点的连续社区的学习和证据。将通过与本地区致力于气候变化适应和减少灾害风险的主要利益攸关方和网络的接触，分享从社会学习和地方复原力建设案例研究中获得的经验。与主要利益攸关方的便利对话将探讨改善气候信息交流与减少灾害风险战略之间联系的潜在途径，以建立脆弱社区的复原力。该项目将有助于规划未来的工作，以NERC/DFID资助项目和其他项目的合作伙伴正在开展的工作为基础，并确定通过GCRF或其他工具进一步筹集资金的机会。

Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly vulnerable to droughts, floods and other climate-related stressors and shocks. Some of the most vulnerable in the region are rural communities in arid and semi-arid areas, dependent on agriculture and livestock rearing. The processes of inequality that drives their vulnerability and risk to climatic variability and change is now recognized as important in pursuing the sustainable development goals. This research aims to contribute to greater understanding of the underlying drivers of risk, while also identifying pathways to improve the impact that climatic information may have on building resilience through bridging the 'usability gap'. The focus of the research is on understanding the learning processes that build resilience and support livelihoods, which are responding to multiple pressures and opportunities across timescales in contexts that are complex and highly uncertain. Knowledge that feeds in to managing uncertainty is derived from a range of traditional, indigenous, local and scientific sources. In such contexts, linear models of knowledge generation from data collection to information generation to knowledge production around one specific stressor in one timescale are insufficient. Consequently, the processes of social learning, as iterative reflection that occurs when experiences, ideas and environments are shared with others, are central to building resilience. The research aims to improve our understanding of social learning in vulnerable communities across temporal scales and in complex historically, socially, economically and politically mediated contexts. The interdisciplinary endeavor will pay particular attention to environmental history and the dynamics of power, politics and gender within them, and explore how they link to ongoing work on delivering improved scientific climate information.This research will build on the interdisciplinary track record of the University of Sussex and the Institute of Development Studies in climate science, climatic information exchange, adaptation, environmental history and processes of power and politics within social learning in Sub-Saharan Africa. The collaboration will use in depth case studies with participatory action research building on an established partnership with a broad consortium of research and development partners in Kenya - the Ada consortium. The case studies will provide learning and evidence from a continuum of communities focused on agricultural to pastoral livelihoods in arid and semi-arid regions of the country. The learning from the case studies on social learning and local resilience building will be shared through engagement with key stakeholders and networks working in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in the region. A facilitated dialogue with key stakeholders will inquire in to potential avenues for improving the links between climate information exchange and disaster risk reduction strategies to build resilience in vulnerable communities. The project will facilitate planning of future work, building on the ongoing work of partners' in NERC/DFID funded projects and others, and identifying opportunities for further fundraising through the GCRF or other vehicles.