In a new research brief released November 30th, CCAPS researchers Kate Weaver and Christian Peratsakis discuss why identifying where development aid has been effectively deployed is critical to addressing climate security risks and building adaptive capacity in Africa.

In a new research brief released November 30th, CCAPS researchers Kate Weaver and Christian Peratsakis discuss why identifying where development aid has been effectively deployed is critical to addressing climate security risks and building adaptive capacity in Africa. The research brief – Can Better Tracking of Adaptation Aid Reduce Climate Change Vulnerabilities on the Ground? – outlines CCAPS work to geocode all aid projects in Malawi. The work is a collaboration between CCAPS, the Ministry of Finance of Malawi, Development Gateway, and AidData to assess how adaptation fits within development efforts in the country.

Geocoding adaptation aid holds the potential to help Malawi and its aid donors to coordinate their efforts, inform the public of their activities, and better assess how well adaptation projects target the particular climate security risks of the country.

This research was also discussed at a Side Event on Monitoring, Evaluating and Prioritizing Adaptation Options at the UNFCCC COP 17 negotiations in Durban, South Africa on December 3rd.

On November 4, 2011, the Strauss Center, AidData, and the World Bank Institute convened international development experts this month for a conference on Putting Aid Data to Work, exploring new tools for tracking and analyzing climate finance.

CCAPS and AidData presented their work with the Government of Malawi to track aid flows in Malawi. The map of Malawi aid represents the first-ever effort to track all active aid from all donors within one country using dynamic mapping. CCAPS also released a map showing African countries’vulnerability to climate change, as well as the location of World Bank adaptation aid projects. Mapping such aid flows provides a new tool to discern if adaptation aid is effectively targeting the regions where climate change poses the most significant risk to the sustainable development and political stability of a country.

“Simply put, we cannot know if aid is targeting regions and societies most vulnerable to climate change unless we know where that aid is,” said Catherine Weaver, who is Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and leads the adaptation aid work of the CCAPS program. “The CCAPS work on tracking climate aid fills this critical knowledge gap.”

The geocoding work of the CCAPS program aims to help recipient and donor countries better coordinate their efforts and tailor adaptation to the particular climate security risks within a country. “There must be an open dialogue that empowers local citizens to have an active voice in the adaptation process,” said Christian Peratsakis, co-author of the new CCAPS research brief on mapping climate aid. “The CCAPS climate aid coding effort serves as the first step in creating this dialogue, by assisting recipient communities and donor partners in identifying climate-related aid projects.”

Panelist bios and presentations are available here. The Live Blog for the conference also details conference presentations and discussions.