Deconstructing institutional roles in climate change adaptation: The case of local public institutions in drought-prone districts of Sidama



Tafesse Matewos



Local institutions play pivotal role in climate change adaptation though less attention
has been given to them compared with other components of adaptation. The conventional
approach to study local institutional roles focuses on how institutions can support 
climate change adaptation with little emphasis to other institutional dimensions.

Thus, the current study deconstructs the conventional institutional roles in climate 
change adaptation to reframe them on broader institutional dimensions inspired by 
Young (2002). Data were collected from households, experts and community leaders 
on institutional frontiers of local public local institution. The study used mixed 
methods to analyse the data. The findings indicated that despite the presence of 
institutional set ups, most of the national policy provisions had not been implemented 
at local levels due to various reasons. Further, even the implemented policies had limited
 success because of lack of participation in policy making processes, absence of policy 
implementation guidelines and limited institutional capacity. The study also revealed 
very weak coordination among institutions working on climate change adaptation. 
As the result, climate adaptation policy implementation lack continuity, monitoring and
 evaluation system, and failed to yield transformative changes to the farmers. 
Therefore, there is an urgent need to participate, capacitate, and synergize local 
institutions, and establish policy monitoring and evaluation system so that national
 policy provisions can yield intended results.

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