Frontierizing Climate Change: Geographies of Adaptation and Vulnerability Across Africa's Arid Belt

Africa's arid belt, encompassing regions like the Sahel, Horn of Africa, and parts of Southern Africa, stands as a critical frontier in the global climate change discourse. This paper explores the intricate geographies of adaptation and vulnerability within these ecologically fragile and socio-economically challenging environments. Faced with escalating temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns, prolonged droughts, and increased desertification, communities in these regions are at the forefront of climate impacts. We analyze the multi-scalar dimensions of vulnerability, ranging from individual household susceptibility to regional systemic fragility, emphasizing the interplay of biophysical stressors, socio-economic marginalization, governance deficits, and historical legacies. Concurrently, the study examines diverse adaptation strategies, from traditional ecological knowledge and indigenous coping mechanisms to planned interventions in agriculture, water management, and early warning systems. The concept of "frontierizing climate change" is employed to highlight these regions as laboratories for understanding extreme climate impacts and pioneering resilience-building efforts. The paper argues that effective climate action in Africa's arid belt requires context-specific, integrated approaches that bridge scientific understanding with local realities, empower vulnerable communities, and foster equitable development trajectories to enhance adaptive capacity and reduce overall vulnerability.