🌍 From Global Dialogue to Grassroots Action: Localizing Climate Adaptation Through Disaster Data in Africa

As I read Shelley Hoover’s insightful reflections on the UNFCCC SB62 meetings in Bonn — particularly the challenges surrounding measurement of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) — I was struck by how relevant these global debates are to the everyday experiences of vulnerable communities in Africa. While the conversations in Bonn were rich with frameworks, indicators, and negotiations, they also exposed a critical gap: how can we ensure that the metrics we develop at the global level actually reflect the realities on the ground, especially in places where data is sparse, and adaptation is often informal, gendered, and community-led?

In my own work and research in disaster management and international diplomacy, I’ve witnessed firsthand how disaster data — or the lack thereof — shapes community resilience. In Kenya and many parts of Africa, extreme weather events like floods, prolonged droughts, and urban fires are increasingly frequent. Yet much of this data is either undocumented, gender-blind, or inaccessible to the very communities that are meant to adapt.

📊 The Disconnect: Data Exists, But It’s Not Localized

One theme that emerged in SB62 was the difficulty of agreeing on indicators for measuring adaptation progress. This reminded me of a recurring issue in African contexts: while satellite imagery and global climate dashboards may show "exposure" or "risk", they often miss the localized lived experience — especially for women, persons with disabilities, and informal settlement dwellers.

For instance, how do we measure adaptation in a rural community where women are building earth dams, practicing agroecology, or creating informal early warning systems via WhatsApp? These actions rarely enter formal data systems, yet they are forms of adaptation in their own right.

👩🏾‍🌾 Gendered Impacts, Gendered Innovations

Another important angle — and one that Shelley rightly highlights — is the gendered nature of adaptation. African women are not just at the frontlines of climate impact; they are also leading many adaptation strategies — often unpaid, unrecorded, and undervalued.

The global debate on adaptation metrics must ask: Are we capturing women’s unpaid labor in adaptation? Are we tracking their access to climate finance, or their leadership in disaster preparedness? And if not — what kind of adaptation story are we really telling?

💡 Toward Community-Led Data Solutions

If we are serious about measuring adaptation in a just, inclusive way, then we must democratize disaster data:

• Train local communities, especially women and youth, in basic data collection using mobile tools.

• Encourage citizen science and participatory mapping of disaster risk.

• Push for disaggregated data in all adaptation reporting — by gender, age, ability, location.

Africa doesn’t need to copy-paste solutions. We need to embed global frameworks into local realities, with local voices, especially those of marginalized groups, shaping the narrative.

📝 A Call to Action: Bridging Global Frameworks and Grassroots Wisdom

As the climate crisis intensifies, the distance between UN conference rooms and African villages must shrink. Platforms like the Global Goal on Adaptation are essential — but they will only be meaningful if they recognize and value grassroots knowledge, and if data systems are designed to capture what matters to communities, not just what is measurable from space.

I thank GDN for creating space for these reflections, and I echo Shelley Hoover’s call to deepen the connection between disaster data and climate adaptation measurement. In the African context, this must mean locally sourced, gender-responsive, and action-oriented data — the kind that doesn't just monitor change but enables it.

By Janet Moraa. Kenya