Strengthening Climate Change Adaptation in the Cities of West Africa: Policy Implications for Urban Resilience

Abstract

Urban areas are home to over 40% of the people living in West Africa and are already stressed due to unfavorable socioeconomic conditions. The main objective of the chapter is to identify evidence gaps and map out the climate change adaptation policy process in the urban areas of West Africa. The chapter identifies the main research streams in urban climate change adaptation using qualitative approach. In addition, guided interviews were conducted among the key stakeholders to elicit information on the urban climate change policy processes. This chapter identifies a number of research priorities for the subregion that could be carried out at the city level. One of the critical outcomes found weak links among the key actors on the governance, planning, and implementation of climate change programs in urban areas. In essence, most of the plans of action are either implemented without consideration for the development programs or not considered because of an array of factors such as finance constraints, weak institutional structures, and lack of political will. The chapter concludes that in order to build climate change resilience in the urban areas of West Africa, state and local governments should take the lead and formulate policies that address unsustainable use of resources, shortage of technical competence, unsustainable growth, uncontrolled environmental degradation, and bad governance.