Approach

ALBATROSS is built upon the recognition that climate resilience can only be achieved by adaptation and development policies and actions. The aim is to accelerate climate adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa by co-creating with local and national actors feasible and effective policy recommendations for adaptation in several Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. They will be grounded on reliable, user- and need-tailored climate services combined with scenarios of socio-economic-environmental change. The aim is to accelerate climate adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa by co-creating feasible and effective policy recommendations for adaptation together with local and national actors in five Sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Madagascar.

ALBATROSS is committed to advancing the understanding of complex dynamics between climate-ecosystem-society and its multiple vulnerability dimensions; translating this knowledge into guidelines and policy recommendations, integrating it into customised climate services and tools relevant for decision-making, and co-designing adaptation measures, particularly nature-based solutions targeted to the specific needs and vulnerabilities of the local communities. Both the Climate Services aimed at guiding the decision-making process and the nature-based solutions for accelerating climate adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa will be co-created them with local and national actors, and giving prominence to the indigenous practices and local knowledge in the regions ALBATROSS is working in for adapting to climate change they are already being practised.

ALBATROSS is building its activities in and together with local communities, for what the so-called Climate-Resilience Development Network (CRD Network) has been established, which represents a pan-African and transnational structure integrating indigenous communities together with local research and policy organisations, which is articulated on three levels:

1. CRD Nodes: The first level is constituted by the individuals and householders of the local communities distributed over a large part of the national territory, both in peripheral urban zones and remote rural areas. They are precious interlocutors since they suffer first and foremost from the negative effects of climate change and greatly impact social and economic dynamics.
2. CRD Hubs: A second level consists of well-developed territorial communities managed directly or indirectly by the project partners; they represent the network of hubs (explore the hubs network) and are the fundamental unit on which the project actions are based.
3. CRD Network: The third level is the network itself, which connects the Hubs with the Local Nodes, and represents a communication thread between all CRD Hubs. The interlinkage between the Hubs makes it possible to systematically share the knowledge acquired, the difficulties, and the solutions found. It also provides a single, transnational interlocutor for Sub-Saharan Africa for regional climate services and international organisations.