Analysis of local community adaptation to climate change in semi arid areas of Dodoma region in Tanzania: strategies and challenges.

Abstract

This article examines local community strategies and challenges to climate change adaptation in the semi arid areas of Dodoma region in Tanzania. The data for the article was collected using household survey, focus group discussions, and key informants interview to collect the required data from Kongwa and Bahi districts in Dodoma region. Responses from the household survey were analysed by multiple responses and chi-square of independence techniques using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences version 16 to determine frequencies, percentages and relationships of respective variables. Furthermore, content analysis was used in analysing focus group discussions and key informants responses. The findings indicate that the local community in Dodoma region use various climate change adaptation strategies. In addition, chi-square results indicated significant relationship between migration of household member(s) and district of residence (p value=0.000), effect of drought (p value=0.005), effects of unpredictable rainfall (p value=0.007) and the status of Household food production in the past five (2007-2011) years (p value=0.001). Nevertheless, local community adaptation strategies were not effective enough to address the problem of climate change due to various implementation challenges such as lack of resources, weak institutional support, lack of needed technical support, high cost of adaptation technologies, and uncertain climatic conditions among others. In this regard, the article calls for the development of strong local institutions alongside strengthening the resources and assets of the local community so as empower the local communities to effectively deal with climate change challenges.