“Climate change adaptation discourse in sub-Saharan Africa has increasingly recognised the socio-cultural dimensions of vulnerability and resilience. However, the phenomenon of maladaptation — responses to climate stressors that inadvertently increase vulnerability remains insufficiently examined,” said Christopher A. Shisanya, of the Department of Geography, Kenyatta University. “This project proposes a re-conceptualisation of climate-change maladaptation in the region, emphasising the entanglement of cultural beliefs, traditional practices, social norms and institutional dynamics in shaping adaptation pathways.”
Shisanya explained that the team project, which includes himself, Truphena E. Mukuna of the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), and
Wambongo CS Recha of the Department of Geography, Environment and Development Studies at Bomet University College is aiming to reconceptualise maladaptation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to move beyond these debates.
He explained that climate mitigation and adaptation are two different concepts with many complexities. Mitigation is about addressing and redressing the effects of greenhouse gases, which lead to climate change, while the response to the impacts of climate change is via adaptation. “There has been an adaptation focus in the South but a mitigation focus in the North. We should ask if they should be integrated or pursued separately.”
He also explained that maladaptation is when adaptation doesn’t work. “The risk is when well-intentioned strategies unintentionally enforce inequity and transfer risks,” he said.
“Climate change is a global problem, but the impact and response are local,” he added. “Our spotlight is on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which is an area of acute vulnerability. The statements used to describe it include ‘disproportionate exposure and sensitivity’, ‘low adaptive capacity’, ‘high exposure to extreme events’, and ‘food insecurity’.”
The region faces a disproportionate burden despite low emissions and is bearing the brunt of climate change.
Shisanya noted that currently 70 to 80% of farmers in SSA are subsistence farmers for whom climate change is a disaster. There is also widespread poverty, limited infrastructure, and weak governance.
“There is still a dependence on grain-fed agriculture, on which climate change has had devastating effects. Rising temperatures, rainfall variability, water stress, increasing competition for scarce resources, and even climate-change-related violence. There is also an expanded range and seasonality of vector-borne diseases like malaria as well as heat-related illness.”
Conflict and its accompanying displacement worsen all of this.
And the much-needed funding is not necessarily forthcoming. Shisanya emphasised that the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, seen then as the ‘best hope for the planet’, promised $100 billion. “None of that money has been released, and what was supposed to be grants has been converted to loans, leading to more overburdening.”
“According to the African Development Bank, 60% of funding needs to be in green energy,” he said. “But in South Africa, for example, there is still a 70% reliance on mining coal. The cost of alternatives is a real dilemma for African countries. They must rely on funding, which often comes with strings attached.”
He explained some of the climate-change debates, which include adaptation versus development – “poverty eradication, resilience, and infrastructure development are all inseparable from adaptation. Adaptation needs to be mainstreamed.”
Equity and justice debates emphasise that adaptation finance is inadequate and unequal, with marginalised communities receiving little or none. “Who should pay and how should resources be distributed?” he asked.
“There is also conflict between local knowledge and technocratic approaches. Science is often privileged as well as top-down solutions versus local realities.”
He also emphasised the need to balance immediate needs and intergenerational justice. “Temporary fixes may work, but they may affect generations downstream. We need to understand longer-term resilience.”
The project methodology includes a literature review and content analysis underpinned by a theoretical framework that takes cognisance of political economy, post-colonial theory, social constructivism, vulnerability, resources, and network theory to understand the complex interactions among actors and structures.
Drawing on interdisciplinary literature and case studies from East, Southern, and West Africa, the study critiques technocentric and externally imposed adaptation models that fail to engage with local cultural contexts. It argues that some maladaptive outcomes stem not only from policy gaps or resource constraints but from the persistence of social structures, gender roles, and belief systems that limit transformative change.
“Gendered socio-cultural structures, power dynamics, and norms interact with climate-adaptive policies and practices to produce maladaptation for vulnerable populations,” said Mukuna. “The tip of the iceberg is the successful outputs of adaptation; while the big part below the water is maladaptation − often caused when local realities are overlooked.”
“The drivers of maladaptation include top-down policies that ignore social dynamics, unequal power, and patriarchal governance affecting women, children, and indigenous groups. Poverty can be exacerbated by poorly designed solutions,” she observed.
She highlighted issues like social inequalities, power imbalances, gatekeeping, exclusion from decision-making, gender-based violence, socio-cultural norms and practices, discrimination and marginalisation, loss of traditional knowledge, and even the digital divide.
“Many rural women are illiterate and don’t get digital early warnings. Also, these are not in local languages,” she said.
Describing case studies in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia. Mukuna pointed to inadequate water infrastructure, which increased the time needed to collect water by women; the introduction of invasive plant species like the Mathenge plant (Prosopis juliflora) to stop desertification, but which degrades forage for livestock and blocks channels that are important in directing flood waters; and, the targeting of climate-smart agricultural solutions to male farmers only, further exacerbating inequalities.
“All of these need more gender-sensitive consultation,” she said.
She called for intersectoral, gender-transformative approaches that include more equitable resource allocations, emphasise the voice of women in decision making, and involve monitoring and accountability strategies; integration of indigenous knowledge, collaboration and co-production, protection of community Intellectual Property Rights; redistribution of financing to support women-led initiatives; and embedded gender equality in institutional reform.
Recha highlighted the need to include maladaptation in policy and regulatory frameworks and to ensure that policies are explicit and provide appropriate classifications of maladaptation. Frameworks also need to consider the extent of vulnerability, which is subject to different time scales and sensitivities.
“SSA economies and natural resources are closely intertwined with climate change,” he said. “Strategies need to meet the needs of more than one sector and cost-benefit analysis must include socio-cultural, economic, and environmental interests; community values; as well as a full understanding of the place of indigenous knowledge.”
He also emphasised the need to strengthen regional institutions and ensure they are properly financed to have an impact.
Considering all of this, the project has proposed a framework for identifying maladaptive practices and outlines pathways for culturally and environmentally sensitive adaptation action. It considers policy as the overarching variable to provide the context for climate-change vulnerability assessment, design and implementation of adaptation action, and diagnosis of maladaptive outcomes. The team believes that reframing maladaptation in this way offers a foundation for more context-responsive climate governance and equitable resilience-building in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Thus far, climate-change acts and frameworks are funded by the North and the agenda is guided by the United Nations’ frameworks,” said Recha. “We are hoping to have the term maladaptation and appropriate policies included in national plans in sub-Saharan countries”.
“For many, climate change is still seen as a distant problem,” he added. “There are more pressing issues like education, health, poverty, and employment. Discussion on climate change needs to address these socio-economic issues. But the adaptation actions already there are yielding some negative results, which may conflict with community desires.”
Michelle Galloway: Part-time media officer at STIAS
Photograph: SCPS Photography