The R2 grant funded by NFRF in Canada responds to international calls to enhance adaptive capacities and resilience-building strategies to address the risks of climate change to food security, rural and urban livelihoods, and human mobility in Africa. The objectives of the project include:
- coproducing and mobilizing knowledge about the role of migration and remittances in rural and urban resilience to climate change;
- identifying adaptation strategies for enhancing remittance infrastructure resilience and leveraging remittances for reduced food insecurity among migrants and sending communities;
- building capacity of research partners, local communities, migrant groups, and agencies in mobilizing remittances for climate adaptation.
Working with migrant associations and local communities in rural and urban study sites in partner countries, R2 employs an interdisciplinary and trans-sectoral approach to achieve these objectives. It aims to develop action-oriented climate adaptation plans for vulnerable groups through ten case studies of international and internal corridors that involve both urban migrant destinations and rural migrant-origin communities in marginal environments. The R2 project activities will be organized into four overlapping workstreams (WS1-4) as follows:
- WS-1 Remittance Pathways: Generate detailed knowledge on migrant remittance channels, behaviours, and motivations with reference to enhancing food security for vulnerable groups, especially women and girls, in home communities affected by climate change disruptions
- WS-2 Remittance Practices: Investigate the obstacles and opportunities for vulnerable groups, especially women, in selected communities of migrant origin to utilize remittances to adapt to climate-related food insecurity
- WS-3 Remittance Potentials: Conduct community-based resilience analyses (CoBRA) and participatory scenario building (PSP) with vulnerable groups in marginal environments to co-develop strategies for optimizing the potential of remittances in mitigating climate related food insecurity
- WS-4 Remittance Platforms: Implement knowledge dissemination and stakeholder engagement strategy to raise local, national, and international awareness of the need for a conducive environment and trans-sectoral support to maximize the potential of remittances in climate mitigation and adaptation
The R2 team comprises 42 researchers and collaborators from eight countries including Canada, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and the UK. The team will collaborate closely with community organizations in Africa, Canada and the UK who work with and for vulnerable groups in the migrant origin and destination sites in the project’s various migration and remittance corridors.