Collaborative governance as a lever of climate change adaptation for populations and their living environments. A comparative analysis of two municipalities in Benin
For a long time in Africa, the central state alone designed and led development actions for the benefit of the population. This has revealed its limitations. In the meantime, climate change (CC) has intervened, accentuating these limitations. With decentralisation, local authorities not only take over the planning role of the state but also have to integrate CC into their development plans and projects. Given that the approach used so far to plan and implement development and adaptation actions has been limited, how can these newly created communities succeed? Our hypothesis is that the more decentralised communities innovate with governance arrangements (involving various actors and decision-making levels), the more successful they are in planning and implementing CC adaptation projects. Based on the four dimensions (agents, goals/objectives, drivers and processes) of innovations proposed by (Edwards-Schachter et al., 2012), this paper focuses on a comparative analysis of two municipalities (Sô-Ava and Aguégué) in southern Benin to demonstrate the importance of collaborative governance in the planning and implementation of adaptation projects. After the elaboration of their 2016-2022 development plan, they initiated, with their partners, CC adaptation projects. The research analyses these two initiatives.