Local Farmers’ Financial, Economic and Social Institutions’ Role in Promoting Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change in Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change is expected to have particularly a sever effect on communities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Rural households and institutions often respond to these impacts by pooling individual and collective strategies that build their resilience. Adaptation to climate change may be largely shaped through local institutions such as financial, economic and social organizations operating at a village level. Using focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and survey methods, this paper address the research question how local institutions facilitate the use of adaptation to climate change through Farmer Organisations (FOs) in Ethiopia. Findings show that farmer organizations do not only foster rural economic development but also promote adaptation to climate change through livelihood diversification, communal resource pooling, and market exchange. Each type of adaptation strategy is facilitated through both formal and informal interactions between pubic, civic and private organizations, implying the latter distinction among local institutions is blurred in practice. This shows that FOs are highly localized, complex networks that link multiple local organizations operating within and outside the boundary of the village in fostering the adaptive capacity and adaptation to climate change. Such types of partnership exit at multiple-scale and have been used as vehicles for flow of information and sharing of resources that facilitate collective responses to climate change. Policymakers should account for the multiple links among and between farmer organizations, and higher-level rural organizations in promoting adaptation to climate change.