Climate-smart livelihoods for marginalized communities on the global front-lines of extremes  

By the Climate Centre

A new brief from the IFRC published this week details case studies on the role of “climate-smart livelihoods programming” by National Societies in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador and Honduras in managing the impact of climate extremes on livelihoods among marginalized communities.

It highlights outcomes of the climate-smart livelihoods programming implemented by the IFRC under the three-year Pilot Programmatic Partnership with the European Commission; the climate-smart approach to livelihoods is housed in Pillar 1 of the PPP, disaster risk management.

“Addressing climate change lies at the core of the IFRC’s work. The IFRC responds to disasters, and disaster management and climate adaptation must go hand-in-hand,” the brief says.

Issues include limited access to localized climate data, competing priorities during emergencies, and an “evolving funding landscape [that] challenges the sustainability of climate-smart programming”.

Field schools for farmers

But these can be improved through locally led adaptation, integrated, long-term programming, and “cross-learning within the IFRC network”. A flavour of the work:

* PPP activities were undertaken in the Centre-North and East regions of Burkina Faso that between them host more than 700,000 displaced people – many in towns under blockade where there is immense pressure on land, water and other resources. PPP activities were designed to protect household cultivation under crisis conditions using climate information.

*In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, field schools for farmers taught climate-smart agriculture in locations prone to drought, flooding and landslides.

*Under the PPP, the Ecuadorian Red Cross engaged with communities with very different agricultural livelihoods, facing different climate risks, but all reflecting national policy for managing climate change in a country that sees a very wide range of impacts.

*Two-hundred-and-forty-five coffee producers in Honduras participated in the PPP work, introducing new varieties better adapted to higher temperatures and resistant to pests, and planting trees to improve water catchment and prevent landslides; farmers were trained to produce organic fertilizers, manage soil acidity, and prune plants to boost productivity.

The new IFRC brief also recommends “investing in climate change specialists and focal points, cross-team collaboration, regular training and effective dissemination of harmonized tools in collaboration with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre [also using the IFRC-Climate Centre Guide to climate-smart programmes and operations], the IFRC Livelihoods Resource Centre and other network actors”.

The Kakombe farmer field school in the DRC’s South Kivu province, helping growers adapt to climate change and combat food insecurity among the most vulnerable groups; it was originally set up under PPP to help flood victims and IDPs. (Photo: Esther Nspau/IFCR)