Climate Change Adaptation

Climate change, if not considered and woven into development efforts, stands to stall or even reverse developing world communities’ ability to pull themselves out of hunger and poverty.

The World Bank has estimated that 75-80 percent of the cost of climate change damages will fall on the developing world, likely to lead to a permanent reduction in developing world GDP levels. Already people and governments around the globe are feeling the negative impacts of climate change; adapting to this crisis is a tremendous development and humanitarian challenge.

In a warmer world, we can expect declines in agricultural productivity across much of the developing world and a resulting increase in hunger and food insecurity. The world will experience declines in the quality and quantity of freshwater, both clean water for drinking and water for irrigation.

Experts predict an increase in natural disasters, with the inevitable humanitarian cost from floods, fires, droughts and storms. Others predict escalating conflict over access to natural resources, particularly freshwater, as shifting climate patterns redraw the boundaries of the world’s productive lands and waters. And by midcentury, rising sea levels will force unprecedented internal migrations as people move inland from coastal regions. Some island nations may cease to exist.

What Counterpart International is Doing:
Counterpart’s approach to climate change adaptation aims to mitigate and develop appropriate coping measures to address the negative impacts of climate change on development. A key component of our climate adaptation involves building resiliency in the capacity to tolerate shocks and rebuild itself when necessary.

Our current climate adaptation work includes encouraging farmers to plant heat and drought-resistant crops in Dominican Republic , building and rehabilitating cereal banks in Niger and staging natural disaster preparedness supplies in crisis-prone areas like Tajikistan.

Our capabilities within Climate Change Adaptation:

• Alternative Livelihoods
• Civic Education
• Community Mobilization
• Conflict Mitigation
• Conservation and Restoration
• Coral Reef Restoration
• Food Security Programming
• Grant Making
• Irrigation
• Microenterprise
• Smallholder Agriculture Development
• Social Enterprise
• Sustainable Tourism
• Youth Volunteerism and Civic Engagement