Institutional mapping for climate change adaptation in Eastern Africa

Commissioned by IDRC and DFID in order to strengthen institutional engagement of the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) programme, this study maps out the various institutions working on climate change and environmental management in Eastern Africa. The main activities included literature reviews and web searches, country visits to selected institutions, and focused consultations with experts.

Key conclusions:

• despite having high numbers of qualified staff, the universities and state funded national research institutions continue to perform poorly owing to high inefficiencies in management, low research budgets and lack of innovative research strategies
• there are diverse (about 5) ways of agenda setting identified across the various types of institution, with only 2 of these being consistent with Participatory Action Research (PAR)
• numerous local examples of PAR exist across the sub-region that could provide important lessons for improving the CCAA programme strategy
• postgraduate students are engaged b y research institutions as interns on short term or MSc and PhD candidates under supervision on institution’s projects. However, most do not get employed thereafter
• other than international research institutions and some regional ones, the rest hardly carry out research output impact assessment and feedback into new projects and programmes
• institutions within the current CCAA pipeline have a range of opportunities to inform the strengthening of their research capacities through strategic partnerships, etc.
• regional research partnerships/networks such as WIOMSA and HoARECN emerge the best institution in managing educational programmes including coordinating research grants for graduate students
• the criteria for identifying the most suitable regional institution to take on devolution should be guided by:

1. research capacity assessment within CCAA programme areas
2. partnership management performance
3. sustainability of the institution
4. human, financial and physical resources available
5. institutional capacity to respond to change.

Keeping these points in mind, the following key recommendationsare proposed for CCAA:

• consolidate scattered projects with climate change adaptation links under a common programme for easier coordination, visibility and impact
• facilitate the identification and matching of partners for PAR at local and regional levels
• facilitate the development of partnership strategies and management systems by the institutions
• survey and document local PAR-related activities ongoing in countries in the sub-region and disseminate key lessons widely among CCAA project partners
• facilitate the streamlining of research and training programmes at national and regional research institutions
• promote partnerships between national and locally based international research institutions to facilitate skills development in research output impact assessment
• encourage incorporation of appropriate engagement approach in project development and implementation by partners
• commission research capacity needs assessment among institutions and partnerships for currently-funded climate change adaptation projects
• adopt the suggested criteria in short-listing potential candidates for gradual devolution.