ADAPTATIONAND BEYOND

LOCAL GOVERNMENTOCTOBER 2014

12

MAINSTREAMING

MULTILEVEL PARTNERSHIPS FOR MAINSTREAMING CLIMATE CHANGE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Amanda Bourne

From project to process to programme

Conservation South Africa (CSA) first began to work on climate change adaptation in Northern Namaqualand, an area predicted to be hard hit by temperature increases and seasonal shifts in rainfall in the future, in 2009. An initial project involved working with community conservation groups and small enterprises to build local level resilience to climate change. From 2011, an international ecosystem-based adaptation project taking place simultaneously in the Namakwa landscape, and in Brazil and the Philippines provided an opportunity to expand the network of partners to include farmers and local government. The first step in this project was a climate change vulnerability assessment (VA) for the Namakwa District Municipality (NDM), completed in 2012. The NDM’s comprehensive disaster management planning process, which involved extensive stakeholder consultation to the village level, informed the VA process extensively.

Primarily a desktop research assessment, the VA involved the development of climate change scenarios from downscaled models (A2) and Maxent modelling of biomes, mapped at the Namakwa District scale. It also included an analysis of available documentation on existing social and economic vulnerability, and institutional capacity at various scales. Based on the work of many national and international experts, the vulnerability assessment is scientifically robust, but did not involve extensive direct stakeholder engagement during development.

In order to achieve increased participation and improve our understanding of the local context, CSA relocated project staff to Springbok in the NDM. This strategic move, combined with

the existing networks of CSA’s Namakwa programme and prior links with disaster management planning, resulted in the NDM rapidly becoming an interested, dedicated, and very involved partner in the finalisation of the VA. On completion of the VA, CSA and the NDM began looking together for opportunities to integrate the results effectively into local level policy and planning.

The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) designed a Toolkit specifically for mainstreaming climate change and climate change response into local government integrated development planning processes. The Let’s Respond: Integrating Climate Change Risks and Opportunities into Municipal Planning (DEA, 2012) package provides a Guide and Toolkit with supporting information and exercises for mainstreaming climate change into local government processes. It was designed specifically to take municipal leaders (both elected and corporate) through the necessary steps towards climate responsive planning, and provides a set of practical tools to support the process.

Let’s Respond proved a useful methodology for operationalising the VA. A stronger focus on participatory methods meant designing and running interactive workshops with local government based on the Toolkit and focused on generating enthusiasm for and building capacity in local level adaptation planning amongst government officials and political decision-makers. Workshops sessions were designed by CSA, Indigo development and change, and Sustainability Energy Africa. Lessons from this process are being shared nationally by all of the partners to inform the roll-out of Let’s Respond in other locations. From a process of climate change integration and mainstreaming, we are now increasingly moving towards a programme of work in which national government, local government, and NGOs are designing and implementing climate response projects locally that respond effectively to the threats identified in the VA.

Intelligent Chauke from SALGA talks the Richtersveld Local Municipality through climate change adaptation options in terms of sudden shocks and slow-onset stresses (Photo: Conservation South Africa)

Adaptation and beyond No 12 - October 2014 Adaptation and beyond No 12 - October 2014

Perspective: Department of Environmental Affairs

Mikateko Sithole, Deputy Director, Adaptation

Climate change is now a measurable reality and, along with other developing countries, South Africa is especially vulnerable to its impacts. To address these impacts at local level, the DEA, CoGTA, and SALGA, in partnership with GIZ, has developed a Let’s Respond Toolkit and Guide, aimed at supporting local government to integrate climate response directly into the planning headquarters of municipalities – the Integrated Development Plan (IDP). In ensuring the Research – Policy – Practice interface, the toolkit was tested in 5 municipalities as pilots. Following up to ensure mainstreaming within the piloted municipalities proved to be challenging in the long- run, due to capacity related issues. To eradicate such hindrances, a new programme was developed with the aim of rolling-out the toolkit guide to a greater percentage of district municipalities.

Parallel to this, various organisations have already initiated similar processes with various Municipalities. Through these processes, DEA has ensured continued involvement through dedicated personnel with special interest in local government, provision of guidance and technical input as far this and other processes that affects this work is concerned. The full time involvement and availability of key role players in on the ground supporting areas or institutions requiring integration has proven to be more effective than just a once off type of an engagement. Several interventions can be used to ensure that work continues where it has already started and bridge the gap of institutional memory loss. DEA supports partnering with organisations that are already carrying similar work forward with the municipalities; sharing Lessons and information within and with different institutions, and also anticipates providing training to DEA Local Government Support officials based in District Municipalities to ensure continuity.

Perspective: South Africa Local Government Association (SALGA)

Intelligent Chauke, Specialist Advisor

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” Henry Ford

Climate change and its impacts on the functioning of municipalities has become an important feature of the development agenda of South Africa. Municipalities are at the epicenter of service delivery, and are extremely vulnerable to the risks and hazards posed by climate variability. Local government plays an important role in developing and implementing responses to climate change and, at the national level, relationships between multiple stakeholders and role-players have begun to take shape towards supporting municipalities to formulate and implement local climate change responses.

The Lets Respond IDP Toolkit is a true reflection of the impact and successes that are borne from partnerships; and has seen the building of strong relationships between national and local government, as well as with NGOs such as GIZ and CSA. SALGA’s facilitatory role and participation in the rollout of the Lets Respond Toolkit, in fulfillment of its primary mandate as a representative of member municipalities, has both enriched the process and mobilized immense municipal support and appetite for contributing to the country’s climate change response.

Collaboration between the partners, particularly in the Namakwa and Alfred Nzo District Municipalities, has demonstrated the importance of investing in partnerships and exposed all involved to an array of approaches and methods of supporting municipalities. It has been particularly impactful in packaging and communicating climate change science to participating municipalities. SALGA is assured that municipalities stand to gain far more from a continued association of these role players; and stands firmly behind this partnership, with the belief that having come together, and by staying and working together, we will have great success in improving the resilience of municipalities to the effects of climate change!

Namakwa District Municipality Perspective Chris Fortuin, Acting Municipal Manager

In our quest for survival we need to adapt to a changing environment. My forefathers, the San people, were very good at living in harmony with nature but somehow I’ve lost the skill. I was aware of the changes taking place, fig trees losing their leaves much later than usual, changes in weather patterns, but I could always walk away from this. It was just a natural occurrence. When we started this journey I became aware of and responsible for climate change initiatives. Before it was someone else’s responsibility but now I could no longer walk away from this challenge.

We have started the journey with two big conferences on Climate Change, a Municipal Learning Exchange, a Working for Water Project that was extended again – all of these are testimony to our commitment to adapt to our changing environment. We are only at the starting point and we still have a lot to learn but I am sure that as long as we are willing to take the first step we can overcome this challenge. This relationship with partners will certainly have its ups and downs but, as Namakwa District Municipality, we want to minimise the effects of droughts, eliminate wild fires, and minimise the impact of storms along our coasts. This journey with our partners will enable us to reach these goals.

A panel comprised of community leaders, local government climate champions, and scientific experts discusses grazing management and rehabilitation as a critical ecosystem-based adaptation strategy for Namakwa (Photo: Conservation South Africa)

Adaptation and beyond No 12 - October 2014

Officials at Khai Ma Local Municipality work through the Let’s Respond Toolkit: integrating climate change risks and opportunities into their local level planning (Photo: Conservation South Africa)

Through playing Balancing Act, municipal officials learn more about the role of partnerships and working together in local level climate change response (Photo: Conservation South Africa)

Mainstreaming experiences in other South African municipalitiesAlfred Nzo District Municipality

Process facilitated as part of the Umzimvubu Catchment Partnership Programme which includes NGO and government stakeholders

Established a climate change committee to advise on the VA, support climate mainstreaming, and develop appropriate responses

Representatives from Integrated Development Planning, Environmental Management, Disaster Management, and Communications from the 4 local municipalities sit on the committee

Amathole District Municipality

Climate change is on the Integrated Development Plan agenda

The mainstreaming of climate change into the IDP has been positively affected by political buy-in; although for now climate change is not deeply integrated and is currently seen primarily as an environmental issue

West Coast District Municipality

Brought in experts to do research on historical climate trends and climate change impacts

Focused in climate change mainly in a disaster risk context

Focus on adjusting existing planned and budgeted projects to respond effectively to climate change

Table by Yamkela Lupindo

OwnershipAn important aspect of partnership in the approach taken here has been the regular communication of activities, plans, and lessons learned. Shared ownership of and wide access to the products of the process has been encouraged. We believe this transparency, feedback, and shared learning is an important element to any successful partnership. What all of the partners have found more challenging to address at times is ownership of the process. Where climate change, a complex, multi-scale, and cross-cutting issue, can be seen as everyone’s responsibility, it can be difficult to determine who should be leading on the integration of climate change at the local level. Is it a national government entity such as DEA or SALGA or CoGTA? Is it a donor funded NGO with a particular interest in climate change? Or is it the local government themselves who should be the driver? And what are the implications of this allocation of responsibility?

In the case of mainstreaming climate change in the NDM, it has been a local NGO, CSA, that partnered with the NDM to host workshops and conferences, review planning documents, bring in experts, provide local expertise and logistical support, and, importantly, resource the process. In the absence of a dedicated climate change function in local government, an NGO partner can be a very effective catalyst to kick-start a process. As discussed, government at all levels in South Africa experiences capacity constraints and an NGO partner can help to address these by bringing human resources, expertise, and resources. However, the greatest risk to such a collaboration is sustainability. NGOs can be constrained by their dependence on donor funding, which limits their ability to guarantee continuity in activities over time. Although in the NDM it is CSA’s commitment and intention to provide climate change integration support in the long-term, any potential sustainability risk will be greatly mitigated by integrating climate change clearly into the mandates, functions and budgets of local institutions. To this end, all partners are working together to ensure that clear policies are in place and the necessary support from the

province and from national government is available in order for local government to implement these processes effectively on their own as well.

FinancingWhile existing legislation does provide an overarching mandate for municipalities to address sustainability broadly, this is neither a strong nor a clear mandate in terms of addressing climate change specifically. This is complicated by the fact that there are currently no dedicated budgets for climate change response at the local level (see Ziervogel et al, 2014). Although there are processes at the national level to address this, which we have been able to share with local government in the NDM through the partnership, these have not yet solidified into dedicated funding streams, agreed-upon key performance areas, and adapted political and bureaucratic infrastructure.

One way in which the partnership is addressing this right now is by looking at the national level for clear requirements for local government action on climate change and how to access funding for this, including working with National Treasury for dedicated local adaptation finance support through the Government Technical Adaptation Centre and communicating lessons learned to inform resource allocation in DEA’s Natural Resource Management programmes and Long Term Climate Change Policy development processes At the local level, CSA and the NDM are working together to build capacity to consider existing budget streams and project types in a new light, one that considers effective climate change response planning.

Moving forwardMoving forward, in order to achieve continuity in the process, CSA and the national institutional partners are pursuing a formal MoU. In this way there will be an institutional commitment that clearly defines all parties’ responsibilities so that these remain clear

Indigo development & change

Nieuwoudtville, South Africa info@indigo-dc.org

www.indigo-dc.org

Adaptation and beyond is published by Indigo development & change as a contribution towards effective and participatory adaptation to climate change. The contributions are varied and demonstrate the multitude of adaptation options we can draw on.

Adaptation and beyond No 12 - October 2014

Local government officials from different departments work on an adaptation plan of action for the Namakwa District (Photo: Conservation South Africa)

Officials from a number of South Africa District and local municipalities got together in Springbok in October 2013 to share their climate change integration experiences and lessons (Photo: Conservation South Africa)

should any one of the individuals currently involved move on to other positions or organisations. Furthermore, all members of the partnership are actively exploring mechanisms to support the development of clear, unambiguous mandates, staffed positions, internal capacity, and measurable key performance areas that will make integrating and reporting on climate change responsive planning an ongoing activity and assist in a more direct ownership of the process at the local government level. Part of this process includes investigating how existing budgets could be mobilised for climate change projects through a process of mainstreaming climate change into the Integrated Development Plans. Further capacity development and increased local level human resources

will contribute to increased climate resilience into the future

ReferencesDEA (Department of Environmental Affairs, Department of Cooperative Governance, the South African Local Government Association). 2012. Let’s Respond: Integrating climate change risks and opportunities into municipal planning. South Africa.

DEA (Department of Environmental Affairs). 2013. Long-Term Adaptation Scenarios Flagship Research Programme (LTAS) for South Africa. Climate Trends and Scenarios for South Africa. Pretoria, South Africa.

Pasquini, L., and C. Shearing. 2014. Municipalities, Politics, and Climate Change: An example of the process of institutionalising an environmental agenda within local government. The Journal of Environment and Development 23:271-296

Ziervogel, G., M. New, E. Archer van Garderen, G. Midgley, A. Taylor, R. Hamann, S. Stuart-Hill, J. Myers, and M. Warburton. 2014. Climate change impacts and adaptation in South Africa in WIRES Climate Change 5:601-620. Doi:10.1002/wcc.295.

AcknowledgementsOur work on mainstreaming climate change at the local government level in the Namakwa District has been funded by BMUB. We would like to thank Sarshen Scorgie, Dr. Lorena Pasquini, and Ronald Newman for their edits and comments which were integrated into and supported this publication.

Corresponding author:

Amanda Bourne, Conservation South Africa, PO Box 1086 Springbok 8240, abourne@conservation.org