Recent Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in the Sahel: A Critical Review

Climate change adaptation continues to be central on the agenda of most African countries. Current understanding of the state of adaptation is limited in Africa. The Sahel is selected because of persistent declines in precipitation and rising temperatures. Here, we examine the status of adaptation actions across the Sahel by reviewing the primary peer review literature. A total of 70 peer review papers that document 414 discrete adaptations provide a snapshot of adaptations developed between 1975 and 2020. From a country-to-country perspective, Kenya has the highest number of reported adaptation actions (75 or 18.1%). From a regional standpoint, West Africa recorded about 261 or 18.1% of all adaptation actions reported. Income diversification of livelihoods, and water harnessing were reported as the most used adaptation actions in the Sahel. Based on categories, technically based adaptation actions are the most used options. The period 2008–2016 registered 65.2% of all adaptations. 98% of adaptation actions are reported to be driven by climate while non-climatic drivers account for 95% of adaptation actions. The findings presented here are proxies of climate change adaptation; some relevant information might be found in gray literature which not used because gray literature is less standardized because it is not subject to peer review.