Semi-arid regions like eastern Botswana are highly dynamic systems that experience variable and sometimes extreme climates, adverse environmental change, and a relative paucity of and decline in natural resources. Historically, people living in these regions have adopted several coping mechanisms to deal with these conditions. Today, however, many communities exhibit low levels of adaptive capacity due to challenges such as marginalisation, underdevelopment, poverty, inequality, weak governance, maladaptive policies, and increasing population growth. Climate change is expected to augment existing levels of vulnerability as temperatures rise, rainfall decreases, and seasonal climate patterns become more variable.
From 2014-2018, ASSAR’s Botswana team worked in the Bobirwa sub-district of the country to better understand these existing and upcoming challenges. In the last year of the project, we expanded our Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (VRA) work to Mahalapye (Central District) and to Chobe District. Made up of a team of researchers and practitioners from the University of Botswana (UB), University of Cape Town (UCT) and Oxfam GB, we worked with stakeholders from national to household levels to understand what makes people vulnerable to climate change and other hazards, what the barriers to adaptation are, and what could enable more effective, sustained and widespread adaptation to climate change and access to fairer, inclusive development pathways.
