Climate Change Adaptation Framework and Youth Entrepreneurship in West Africa

162 Pages·2021·3.098 MB·English

by  Andrew Simmons

SDG: 13
Climate Action
Andrew Simmons
Climate Change
Adaptation
Framework and Youth
Entrepreneurship in
West Africa
Sustainable Development Goals Series
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Andrew Simmons
Climate Change
Adaptation Framework
and Youth
Entrepreneurship
in West Africa
Andrew Simmons
Kingshill Development Solutions (KDS)
Enfield Lock, Middlesex, UK
ISSN 2523-3084 ISSN 2523-3092 (electronic)
Sustainable Development Goals Series
ISBN 978-3-030-85753-0 ISBN 978-3-030-85754-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85754-7
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This book is dedicated to Ottis Joslyn, climate change
specialist, environmental activist, my climate change soldier
and friend who passed away earlier this year. He was the
former science officer of the Caribbean Community Climate
Change Centre (5Cs). Your work and memory will always be
with us.
Foreword
The global uneven economic growth has had an impact on the well-being of
livelihood and employment opportunities. The continent needs to cope with
the ever-increasing depletion of its natural resources, climate change, popula-
tion growth, and the heightened urgency to create the development of the
livelihood enabling environment in a sustained manner.
The non-inclusive trend of Africa’s growth and development models is
highly dominated by capital intensive sectors that grant little or no benefit to
the broader portion of the society that possesses a vast potential in labour
force supply. The current economic reality of Africa indicates that it is not
able to increase the capacity of its human capital through the development of
employment opportunities specifically for marginalized youth and women.
The youth segment of the population is being challenged with many issues
that require economic, political, and social supports.
This notion indicates that employment opportunities are not growing fast
to cope with the ever-increasing youth population worldwide. In the context
of African countries, including Sierra Leone, unemployment figures down-
play the issue of underemployment and poverty that prevail on a grander
scale among the youthful population, more specifically with the rural youth
because of meagre employment opportunities. As a result of this, the rural
youth usually migrate to urban areas searching for jobs and livelihood oppor-
tunities. This situation magnifies the need to create sustainable employment
opportunities for African youth. In this regard, the importance of addressing
unemployment from an entrepreneurship perspective is the yet untapped
potential of many nations of Africa. Cultivating this stronghold will also have
its direct contribution to local economic development endeavours.
Dr Andrew Simmons has helped UNDP’s Youth Employment and
Empowerment Programme in Sierra Leone by playing a dominant role in the
formulation of the Blueprint for Sierra Leone Five Year Youth Development
Programme that has laid the strategic youth employment and empowerment
areas of the country. He has also helped in designing the Youth Development
Programmes Coordination Framework, which was aimed at capacitating con-
cerned governmental institutions such as the Ministry of Youth (MOYA) and
the National Youth Commission (NAYCOM) of Sierra Leone. Dr Andrew
Simmons has also assisted in documenting best practices and lessons learned
from YEEP to be used as a knowledge platform in enhancing youth develop-
ment ventures. In addition to that, in his role to lead the evaluation of YEEP,
he came up with a body of knowledge on Youth Employment and
vii
viii Foreword
Entrepreneurship initiatives to address youth and sustainable livelihood in
Africa.
Grounded with this diverse exposure, competencies and knowledge, this
body of work has a valuable form of learning to document the processes and
frameworks, leading to the successful implementation of youth-focused ini-
tiatives, the Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Project. The book is
useful and timely as it focuses on youth entrepreneurship as a form of resil-
ience building in face of a multiplicity of threat, chief among these being
climate change that exacerbates youth employment. It brings together top-
down and bottom-up approaches to address youth employment and climate
change challenges through an entrepreneurship framework in Sierra Leone
and beyond.
Many thanks to Dr Andrew Simmons for his wealth of profound knowl-
edge and seasoned professionalism, including his magnificent local, regional,
and global roles in combating climate change, enhancing youth development,
and capacity development in sustainable development arenas. I want to wish
you all the best on your new book entitled Climate Change Adaptation
Framework and Youth Entrepreneurship in Africa. I am sure it will be most
welcomed by policymakers and practitioners alike and will contribute signifi-
cantly to the body of knowledge on youth development, entrepreneurship,
and climate change adaptation.

International Development Expert Molla Makonnen Alemu
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Definition of Terms
Adaptive Capacity – the ability of a system to adjust to climate change,
including climate variability and/or extremes, moderate potential damages
or cope with consequences, and take advantage of the opportunities cli-
mate change may bring and/or cope with the consequences (IPCC, 2007).
Bottom-Up Approach – the approach assumes that if one can address actual
vulnerability today, one inevitably reduces future (expected) vulnerability
(Burton et al. 2002). The bottom-up approach develops a process and pro-
cedures for implementation of the approach by identifying the network of
actors and stakeholders who are involved in the delivery of services at the
local area level by focusing on their goals, strategies, activities and con-
tacts (Hanf, Hjem and Porter, 1978, Stochowiak et al., 2016).
Climate Change – a change of climate which is attributed directly or indi-
rectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmo-
sphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over
a comparable period (UNFPCCC, 2012 in IPCC, 2014pg.5).
Climate Change Adaptation – refers to the adaptation human driven adjust-
ment in ecological, social or economic systems or policy processes, in
response to actual or expected climate stimuli and their effects or impacts
(LEG, 2011). Various types of adaptation can be distinguished, including
anticipatory and reactive adaptation, private and public adaptation, and
autonomous and planned adaptation (IPCC AR4, 2007).
Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development (CCESD) –
“Preparing people from all walks of life to plan for, cope with and find
solutions for issues that threaten the sustainability of our planet”
(UNESCO, 2014 pg. 16).
Empowerment – creating and supporting the enabling conditions under
which young people can act on their own behalf, and on their own terms,
rather than at the direction of others (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2007)
Exposure – the presence of people, livelihoods, species or ecosystems, envi-
ronmental functions, services, infrastructure or economies, social or cul-
tural assets in place and settings that could be adversely affected (IPCC,
2001, IPCC, 2014).
Green Jobs – any decent job that contributes to preventing or restoring the
quality of the environment, be it in agriculture, industry, services or admin-
istration (UNEP, ILO, IOE and ITUC 2008 in Poschen 2015)
A Hybrid Approach to Adaptation – a combination of the micro-level vari-
ables of bottom-up and the macro-level variables of the top-down
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x Definition of Terms
approaches in the development and implementation of climate adaptation
projects to benefit from the advantages and strengths of both approaches
by enabling the various levels of stakeholders to interact and influence
project outcomes (Matland 1995; OECD, 2013). Combining both
approaches highlights their strengths and minimizes their weaknesses.
Human Capital – the skills, knowledge, ability to labour and good health
enable people to pursue different livelihoods strategies and achieve their
livelihoods objectives (Angelsen et al., 2011).
Human Capital Models – presume that an investment in education is made
with the expectancy of positive returns to the individual or state on their
investment.
Human Capital Theory – theoretical framework responsible for adapting
education and development policies (Olaniyan & Okemakinde, 2008).
Life Learning Approach – emphasizes the need for policymakers and edu-
cation and training institutions to link training and skills provided with
market needs as an initial strategy to prepare youth to make full use of
opportunities created by climate change in the future (UNDP, 2015).
Livelihood – the capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of
living (Chambers & Conway, 1988).
Resilience – the ability of a social or ecological system to absorb distur-
bances while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning,
the capacity for self-organization, and the capacity to adapt to stress and
change (IPCC AR4, 2007).
Sample – the subgroup of a target population studied, i.e. the group from
which data are collected (Angelsen et al., 2011).
Sensitivity – the degree to which a system is affected by or is responsive to
climate inducements (Lomos, 2001), i.e. it is also referred to as the degree
to which a structure or organism is affected unfavourably or beneficially
by climate-related impacts (Lomos, 2001).
Shocks – destructive events that occur unexpectedly and last for noticeably
short periods, includes tsunamis, earthquakes, storms, volcanic eruptions,
landslides, avalanches and wildfires. (Calgaro et al., 2014).
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) – recognized as a distinct, diverse
group of developing countries encountering specific social, economic and
environmental vulnerabilities at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED in Rio in 1992), also known as
the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (3–14 June 1992) http://
unohrlls.org/about- sids/
Stressors – events that happen slowly with their impacts being felt for longer
periods (Calgaro, 2011; Calgaro et al., 2014).
Sustainable Development – “development that meets the needs of the pres-
ent without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
needs” (United Nations, 1987 in UNESCO, 2014 pg20).
Sustainable Livelihoods – a livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with
and recover from the stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance its capa-
bilities and assets both now and in the future without undermining the
natural resource base (Chambers & Conway, 1992).