Cross-sector integration of climate science and livelihoods critical for effective Adaptive Social Protection

1st November 2020

A new paper published in Climate and Development and co-authored by EfD’s Dr Celia Petty on the work of the ASPIRE (Adaptive Social Protection: Information for enhanced Resilience) project, has highlighted the importance of cross-sector integration of climate science and livelihoods information to ensure effective and timely triggering of targeted social protection systems to support communities in times of crisis.

High year-to-year climate variability in the Sahel can significantly impact communities and livelihoods. Adaptive social protection (ASP) is being introduced in the region to support vulnerable people by enabling more effective responses to climate shocks, bridging traditional approaches to  social protection with disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.  ASPIRE was funded by DfID and the World Bank, to provide technical support to the World Bank’s Sahel ASP Programme.

By training project partners in household economy analysis and modelling, the project team were able to demonstrate that climate is only one factor that determines the resilience of households to poor growing conditions and low crop yields. This demonstrates the importance of promoting dialogue between actors to co-develop climate forecasts which provide actionable information. It also emphasises the critical need for continued investment in the underpinning science, in information systems to monitor local livelihoods  and finally, in people working within national institutions to interpret and act on this information.

The journal article is open access and can be viewed/downloaded here.