Africa - Making Development Climate
Resilient : A World Bank Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa

This strategy for making development
Climate-Resilient in Sub-Saharan Africa is the World
Bank's operational response to climate variability and
change on the continent. Grounded in a climate risk review
of the Africa Region's sustainable development
portfolio, it adds the climate change dimension to the
Region's development strategy and business plan, the
Africa Action Plan (AAP, 2009-2012), and will be an integral
part of the AAP in the future. The AAP and the climate
change strategy are a sound and realistic framework for
climate-resilient development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The
strategy is based on the premise that increased climate
variability threatens the development gains of African
countries, and that these effects need to be anticipated so
that development efforts can be made more resilient to
climate change. Climate has always featured prominently in
African development, and people across the continent have
been living with and adapting to a high degree of climate
variability and its associated risks for many centuries. Yet
the accelerated changes in the climate and increasing
incidence of climatic disasters (floods, droughts, cyclones)
during the last century, and the scientific consensus that
Africa is the continent most vulnerable and least able to
cope with these changes, have brought these risks into
sharper focus, and made the need to address them more urgent.