Think piece: Exploring perspectives that underpin decisions for southern African urban development
This think piece was developed as part of FRACTAL’s innovation fund programme. FRACTAL research has found decision spaces in rapidly growing urban centres of southern Africa to be very complex. Hence this project looked at real case studies in three…
Brief: Zambia’s adaptation to climate change
This brief explores how certain ideas and framing potentially shape state action in Zambia. The analysis is based on a review of five key policy documents from Zambian institutions, with a special focus on Lusaka, the nation’s capital. The brief…
The Story of Water in Windhoek: A Narrative Approach to Interpreting a Transdisciplinary Process
The aim of the paper is to present a story about the 2015 to early 2017 Windhoek drought in the context of climate change while using the narrative approach. The story that is presented here is derived from the engagement…
Learning from South Africa's recent summer rainfall droughts: How might we think differently about response?
The 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 summer rainfall seasons in South Africa, as well as in the Southern African Development Community region more widely, are generally agreed to be the most severe droughts on record since those of the early 1980s and…
Business experience of floods and drought-related water and electricity supply disruption in three cities in sub-Saharan Africa during the 2015/2016 El Niño
Drought during the 2015/2016 El Niño amplified disruption to public water supply in Botswana’s capital Gaborone and contributed to unprecedented hydroelectric load shedding across Zambia. In Kenya, moderate precipitation during the El Niño brought localized floods to Nairobi and other…
Overcoming the barriers to climate change adaptation
As adaptation moves from theory to practice, there is growing recognition that barriers may make it difficult for individuals, businesses and governments to plan and implement adaptation actions. These involve a variety of issues, especially for long-term decisions, and include…
Climate change adaptation and cross-sectoral policy coherence in southern Africa
This paper, using the cases of Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, investigates the extent of coherence in national policies across the water and agriculture sectors and to climate change adaptation goals outlined in national development plans. A two-pronged qualitative approach is…
FCFA Mid-Term Conference Report
The FCFA mid-term conference took place in Cape Town from 4th to 7th September 2017. This report presents an overview of the conference activities. It includes brief session reports for all conference sessions, summaries of key outcomes, and progress on FCFA…
Discourse analysis as a method for understanding the framing of urban governance
Discourse analysis is an analytical approach applied by social scientists as part of the FRACTAL urban governance research, and includes both analysis of verbal engagements and analysis of policies and related documents. In practical terms, this implies unpacking how language…
How do sectoral policies support climate compatible development? An empirical analysis focusing on southern Africa
This paper develops and applies a qualitative content analysis to assess national sector policies of ten southern African countries to determine their approaches for water, agriculture, forestry and energy and their compatibility with the aims of the three dimensions of…