Thursday, August 30, 2012

Study highlights lack of climate-linked aid to Malawi

Bernard Appiah in SciDev.net: Contrary to popular belief, relatively little donor funding is being channelled towards climate change adaptation activities in Africa, according to researchers who conducted a study released this month (9 August) that examines foreign aid to Malawi.

Aid funding specific to climate change activities represented less than two per cent of the total donor aid to Malawi, according to what the researchers say is the first study to analyse specifically all climate aid to any single country.

Providing such data to disentangle climate-specific aid and map its application with geospatial tools can help compare the effectiveness of climate aid projects, as well as boost donor coordination, say the researchers.

The study analysed all aid to Malawi from September 2011 to May 2012, and was published by the Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) programme at the Strauss Center, University of Texas at Austin, United States.

"Despite all the media attention on climate vulnerability in Malawi and other African countries, there doesn't seem to be much aid going into climate change adaptation in the region," lead researcher, Catherine Weaver, told SciDev.Net. 

Developing countries receive nearly US$150 billion in aid annually for socio-economic development and poverty alleviation, but need US$100 billion more a year to address the threats of global climate change, according to a 2010 World Bank report....

An irrigated field in Malawi, shot by Alexandria Riboul, USAID

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