How Do Households Cope with and Adapt to Climate Change?
Introduction
As already mentioned in previous chapters, weather and environmental condition sin many areas of the MENA region have worsened in the recent past and are expected to worsen further in the future. This is likely to lead to substantial increases in temperature, reductions in rainfall, and a higher likelihood of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods (Elasha 2010; IPCC 2012;McSweeney, New, and Lizcano 2009; UNDP 2009; Verner 2012; World Bank2010). These trends will exacerbate water scarcity issues and threaten agricultural sectors which remain essential for the livelihood of a substantial share of the population in many countries, and especially in some of the countries analysed this study (for a brief review of the literature which informs this chapter,see the introduction of chapter 1 by Codon et al. [2014] and chapter 2 on the five countries of focus for this work by Burger et al. [2014a] in this study).In chapter 4 of the study, an analysis of new household survey data collected in 2011 in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and the Republic of Yemen suggest that households living in areas exposed to weather shocks indeed do perceive a change in weather patterns and in their environment. Furthermore, a large majority of households declare having lost income, crops, livestock or cattle, oafish due to adverse weather events and changing environmental conditions over the five years preceding the surveys. It was also shown that the poor have paid the highest price in terms of a higher likelihood of losses for the changes that retaking place in the climate.This chapter is based on the same data as that used in chapter 4 (on the data and the choice of focus countries, see Burger et al. 2014a, 2014b), but the focus shifts to a discussion of the coping mechanisms and adaptation strategies used by the households when affected by adverse weather events or changes in their environment. Both the households who declare having been affected by weather shocks and suffered losses and the population as a whole living in the areas where the surveys where implemented are considered. Apart from looking at household specific coping mechanisms and adaptation strategies, data are also provided as to whether communities are promoting adaptation strategies at the local level,and whether the government also provides support for adaptation, as well as for coping among others through the availability of social protection programs that could help households in need.The structure of the chapter is as follows. Section two introduces the data used for the analysis, and especially the main questions in the surveys related to coping and adaptation. Sections three and four respectively discuss household scoping mechanisms and adaptation strategies. Community and government responses are discussed in section five. A brief conclusion follows.Data and Methodology As in chapter 4, this chapter relies on data from five household surveys implemented in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and the Republic of Yemen. In each country, 800 households were interviewed, typically in two main areas per country.A brief description of the areas where the surveys were implemented in eachof the countries was provided in chapter 2. The survey questionnaire included at otal of 17 sections. This chapter focuses on part of the data collected in section five on perceptions related to extreme weather events and climate change, and specifically on the coping mechanisms and adaptation strategies used by households to cope with changing climatic conditions and adverse weather shocks.Data are also provided as to whether communities are promoting adaptation strategies, and whether the government also provides support to do so.On coping, households who declared that they had experienced a loss ofcrops, income, livestock or fish due to weather shocks or changes in the environment were asked if they used the following coping strategies: (1) Selling or pawning livestock; (2) Selling or pawning assets other than livestock, such as land jewellery; (3) Withdrawing children from school; (4) Using their savings; and finally (5) Asking for a loan. In addition, households who did not experience loss linked to an adverse weather events were asked whether they would rely on
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