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We need a special committee or government agency to address issues of climate change in the country, something similar to a committee that was formed in the past to deal with HIV/ AIDS,"  

  said Lucas Shemndolwa, the recently elected Lushoto District Council Chairperson in his opening speech at the Lushoto climate change district alliance reflection meeting on 6 October 2016.

He recounted the observabl  e impacts of climate change in the district, including depletion of water sources in the district, loss of known bird species, deepened water tables, among other constraints. Referring to the depletion of water in the on-going underground and surface water harvesting projects implemented in the country, he reiterated the need for development stakeholders to re-evaluate the appropriateness of technologies that are being disseminated to farming communities.

Amidst uncertain conditions, he applauded the learning alliance initiative and pledged to take the agenda of climate change adaptation and the learning alliance initiative to the council’s budgeting and planning meetings.

Learning alliances were adopted by the CCAFS Policy Action for Climate Change Adaptation (PACCA) project to foster exchange of new climate knowledge, ensure multi-actor climate action and connect public policy formulation and implementation structures at different governance levels to enhance policy implementation. Experiences gained in implementing this model illustrate variable lessons across locations. The one key observation that cuts across countries and sites is the use of learning alliances to share knowledge and exchange information.

However, there have been spillovers that present opportunities in localities. For example, the Tanzanian government is currently developing implementable projects from the national Agriculture Sector Development Plan (ASDP). The Lushoto learning alliance coordinator, who is also the District Agriculture, Irrigation and Cooperatives Officer (DAICO), has been appointed the Chairperson of the climate change and environment committee that will be approving proposals. In her closing remarks, Dr Lucy Sendi, the new director of Marketing and Productive Sectors in the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Governments (PO-RALG) revealed that Lushoto’s DAICO was appointed because Lushoto district is ahead of other districts since they had a multi-stakeholder action platform and an adaptation action plan that was collectively developed by multi-stakeholders. She also pledged her allegiance in making Lushoto district a pilot space for collective climate action, hoping that lessons learnt could be scaled out to other districts.

Lushoto community members participate in a previous CCAFS workshop. Photo: A. Eitzinger (CIAT)

In Kilolo district, the learning alliance facilitator reported to have downscaled the learning alliance model to the agro-ecological zone level and communities, based on the livelihoods zones developed jointly by stakeholders during previous climate change adaptation planning meetings. The model has been reflected in a proposal submitted to USAID, and the proposal was rated higher than others for having a clear implementation plan that brings stakeholders together across scales.

With district leaders showing interest in advancing the plight of learning alliances at council level, platform members realized that they could be more relevant and create demand from other sectors. As a result, Lushoto and Kilolo district in Tanzania have planned to expand their borders to integrate health and energy sectors so that they can be relevant to a broad range of stakeholders.

While more in-depth reflections will be undertaken at the end of the year, preliminary results show that district learning alliances can be, indeed, beneficial. The learning alliances of Lushoto and Kilolo have demonstrated that not only do they serve as a platform for climate change policy action but can also potentially serve as an ‘institution’ that connects district sectoral activities and can be used for negotiating and attracting funding. What needs to be addressed now is how the learning alliances can become sustainable beyond the PACCA project initiative. While there are signs and promises that the learning alliance model might be integrated in district structures, we are still watching the steps the districts will take to make this feasible.

Read more

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• Project report: The role of policy in facilitating adoption of climate smart agriculture in Uganda