Opinion: Africa’s climate adaptation efforts need locally led metrics

Africa, a continent disproportionately bearing the burden of a global climate crisis it has contributed little to, faces a decisive moment in its climate response. Over half of Africa’s labor force, heavily dependent on the climate-sensitive agriculture sector, is grappling with intensifying challenges as rising temperatures and erratic weather patterns disrupt livelihoods. This underscores the undeniable urgency of developing effective, locally led adaptation strategies. However, a fundamental question remains: How can we accurately assess the impact of these efforts, ensuring that resources reach the most vulnerable and that adaptation initiatives drive meaningful, lasting change? Currently, adaptation efforts largely follow a top-down approach, driven by global and national policies that, despite their good intentions, often fail to account for the nuanced realities of local communities. The absence of localized adaptation metrics creates a critical gap in tracking the true impact of locally led adaptation interventions, aligning them with broader national and global adaptation goals, and ensuring that lessons learned inform future policies and investments. In response to this challenge, the Locally Led Adaptation Metrics for Africa, or LAMA, project, spearheaded by the Africa Research and Impact Network and supported by the International Development Research Centre, is pioneering a transformative approach. This initiative bridges the gap between local adaptation needs and broader climate action frameworks by developing a platform that consolidates community-driven adaptation indicators. By supporting local voices to shape the metrics used to evaluate adaptation success, LAMA ensures that interventions are not only effective but also context-specific and sustainable. This shift is crucial, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted, “There is no single approach to adaptation planning because of the complex, diverse, and context-dependent nature of adaptation to climate change.” This emphasis on local understanding is critical because climate change impacts manifest differently in various places, requiring tailored solutions that address specific vulnerabilities and needs. Many adaptation projects in Africa operate in silos, with findings rarely disseminated beyond immediate stakeholders. This isolation hinders scaling up successful strategies and impedes the ability to measure progress at a national or continental scale. LAMA's interactive dashboard, which visualizes adaptation data from diverse regions, enables policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to identify patterns, compare intervention outcomes, and refine adaptation strategies accordingly. An emphasis on knowledge sharing is vital. African countries and researchers struggle with limited access to high-quality data on adaptation, making it difficult to develop policies that accurately reflect local realities. The LAMA platform aims to rectify this by facilitating capacity building, providing training and resources for local groups to develop and track adaptation indicators. This can be based on efforts that bring together researchers, community-based organizations, and academics to ensure flow of knowledge and experience. Such initiatives ensure that adaptation knowledge is not confined to academic or policy circles but is accessible and actionable for the communities that need it most. This aligns with the principles of participatory action research, where communities actively contribute to knowledge creation. This localized approach is particularly relevant as Africa pushes for a fairer climate finance system, especially in light of the discussions at the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference surrounding the new collective quantified goal, or NCQG. During COP29, discussions regarding the allocation of climate finance between adaptation and mitigation did not yield a conclusive decision, highlighting the persistent debate about securing adequate resources for adaptation. By integrating locally relevant adaptation metrics, LAMA helps the African continent advocate for a more transparent and needs-based distribution of adaptation funding. Demonstrating impact through robust, community-driven data will be crucial in ensuring that financial flows accurately reflect the realities faced by those on the front lines of climate change As global climate negotiations continue to underscore the importance of adaptation, Africa’s pioneering approach to measuring locally led adaptation can serve as a model for other regions. The global goal on adaptation and the global stocktake require robust data on adaptation effectiveness, and Africa’s leadership in this domain could significantly influence how adaptation is measured worldwide. Ensuring that adaptation metrics reflect the lived experiences of vulnerable populations will not only reinforce Africa’s resilience but also contribute to a more equitable global climate response. For Africa to truly benefit from the billions pledged for adaptation, investments must be guided by data that reflects real-world adaptation needs. The era of abstract commitments must give way to tangible, measurable, and community-driven solutions that ensure no one is left behind in the struggle against climate change. By using locally led adaptation metrics, Africa is not just responding to climate change, it is setting the global standard for effective, community-driven adaptation, proving that by measuring what truly matters, true resilience can be built. Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Africa Research and Impact Network.