Private adaptation in semi-arid lands: a tailored approach to ‘leave no one behind’.

Abstract

Semi-arid lands (SALs) in developing countries are climate change ‘hotspots’ where climate hazards will affect poor populations disproportionately. This represents a major threat to the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda pledge to ‘leave no one behind’. In this paper we argue that national governments have underestimated opportunities to support climate resilient development in SALs and highlight ways in which the resilience of SAL populations has been undermined by current top-down approaches to adaptation and development. We argue a radical shift in national policy landscapes is required that refocuses on leveraging the existing adaptive capacities of private actors – women, farmers, cooperatives and firms – to cope with and respond to prevailing environmental shocks and weather extremes. This, we argue, requires providing enabling business environments that are tailored to the diverse and specific needs of the private sector in SALs and which support the full range of private sector actors in SALs to meet the chal lenges and opportunities of climate change. In doing this, we identify opportunities to overcome structural weaknesses that currently contribute to a lack of private investment, undermine import ant resilience strategies and limit opportunities to unlock broader resilience in SALs through the private sector