3.3.1. Existence of the Relevant Institutions Facilitating Local Level Adaptation
Adaptation to climate change comprises the transition from awareness to practicing viable strategies and plans in society [
2,
7,
21,
36,
37].
The existence, strengths, and effective coordination of all types (governmental, civic, political, and private) and all levels of institutions play a crucial role in climate change adaptation in local settings [
22,
35,
37]. In addition, a review of the related literature showed that government institutions had been established to support the practices of climate change adaptation and mitigation nationally: Ethiopian Environment and Forest Research Institute (EEFRI) established in 2014 [
38]; Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (currently restructured as a commission); National Disaster Risk Management Commission; Commission of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change; Colleges of Agriculture and Vocational Trainings; Ministry of Education (MoE); Ministry of Science and Higher Education; Ministry of Finance; and the Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy [
39]. Although their equivalents exist at regional and subregional levels, this study identified some vital national programs for climate change adaptation and mitigation that did not exist at local levels. For example, forestry is among the four pillars of the Climate-Resilient Green Economic Strategy, which aims to reduce national emissions by 50% by 2030. The government has recognized the national REDD+ program as one of the four fast-track programs to realize the vision of a green economy [
40]. However, the REDD+ program was not applied to the districts of this study area affected by climate change, nor was there a national adaptation plan (PAP-ETH). The PAP-ETH develops drought index-based crop insurance in response to drought escalations, enhancing renewable power in such a way that it increases a sink-base by reducing biofuel demands and improving portable water sources. Correspondingly, seventeen of the eighty-six civic organizations registered in Sidama have engaged in various projects specific to agriculture, water and sanitation, education, livelihood and food security, and cooperation and marketing. It was observed that these philanthropic organizations contributed to climate change adaptation through life-saving schemes, creating awareness, and reducing vulnerabilities. However, no project-specific civic organization was observed to have engaged directly in climate change adaptation at a local level of the study area (Annual Report of SZAFED, 2017). Most of them had no office base in their primary mission area. Most of them were pooled in the Bureau of Finance of the region, where they signed a memorandum of understanding and were coordinated. Except at this level, there were no rooms where they were coordinated below the regional level. On the other hand, a cross-sectional household survey analysis indicated that 51% (N = 400) of the households confirmed the importance of institutions for food security and risk-management service delivery. In comparison, 47% and 52% of households agreed to the establishment of capacity-building (farmer training centers (FTCs)) and cooperative enhancement offices, respectively. Similarly, 73%, 73%, and 53% of the respondents confirmed the importance of environmental protection, educational, and credit services institutions, respectively.
Data from PRA further enriched these figures. The farmer training centers were not easily accessible to the farmers, nor were they currently functional, as they remained either run-down or demolished, mainly due to poor initial construction and a lack of focus on maintaining them. Districts such as Dibbicha and Miridicha (Aletta Chuko), Rukkeessa Sukke (Haawassa Zuria), and Falka (Lokka Abbaayya) were examples of this. One of the purposes of establishing farmer training centers was to enhance farmers’ capacity for good agricultural practices in such a way that improves farm productivity and compensates for the loss by climate variabilities and other constraints. However, as data showed, they were neither easily accessible nor existent at a local level, despite the existence of relevant government organizations (Ministry and bureau of agriculture) at national and regional levels. There were also traditional indigenous institutions: Olluu Songo, the lowest unit of elders’ council; Ayiiddu Songo, a medium level council; and Garote Songo, the highest council (and a counterpart of the Parliament) of elders operating at different levels of the settlement patterns [
13,
41].
Specifically, Cimeeyye (ascribed elders), who were key informants, shared that these settlement patterns are distinguished by Qa’es (which include some 2–5 households), Qachaas (which are composed of as many as 7–10 Qa’es together), Ollaas (which consist of 4–7 Qachas and are equivalent to a single farmers’ association), and Qamattes (which consist of different Ollaas and are equivalent to a district administration). This arrangement shows the existence of well-defined, delineated, and value-oriented indigenous institutions at a local level with potential knowledge, experience, and, remarkably, local resources such as workforce to easily adopt strategies that the government identifies to employ.
3.3.2. Fitness of Local Institution to Existing Contexts
The fitness of the local institutions regarding adaptation to climate change [
8,
10,
27] is related to these institutions’ functionality in addressing environmental issues, including their policy provisions, implementations, and implementation challenges [
10].
Adaptation is a response to climate change and its impacts that occurs at the local level, and it requires predominantly centering local governments and local indigenous knowledge [
37].
A survey (N = 400;
Table 2) revealed that the percentages of households who received relevant service from functioning local government institutions were 35% (SD = 48), 29% (SD = 45), and 37% (SD = 48) in the form of the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), the Household Asset Building Program (HABP), and receiving climate information, respectively (
Table 2). Similarly, those households who received training on good agricultural practices, marketing and market networking (supply of selected seed varieties and better animal breeds), and natural resource (soil water and ecosystem) conservation were, respectively, 38% (SD = 49), 28% (SD = 45), and 89% (SD = 31). Further, about 84% (SD = 37) and 25% (SD = 44) of households, respectively, responded that they had received educational and credit services (
Table 2). Given that four out of ten Ethiopians are chronically food insecure [
17,
42,
43], it is fair that 35% (with less dispersion of the responses) of the community receives the social protection services of the PSNP (
Table 2). As the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) has been working aggressively to ensure increased access to primary education [
10,
14,
16], it is expected that 84% of the community reports having access to educational services. Similarly, the macro-policy level of FDRE vows to ensure the green economic revolution as manifested in Climate-Resilient Green Economy Strategy (CRGE) [
18,
40,
44]. As part of this strategy, 89% of households reported receiving natural resource (soil, water, ecosystem) management services. Nevertheless, as pointed out above, the households’ access to HABP, climate information, training on good agricultural practices, market (improved agricultural inputs), and credit (financial) services was seen far from average with less deviation of the responses. Local institutions’ competitiveness is reflected by their effectiveness of service delivery [
21,
23,
35,
43], which could be determined by its receivers’ level of satisfaction. Household survey data indicated that from the receivers of the services from above said governmental institutions, 26%, 40%, and 16% of households were satisfied with the services they received from PSNP, HABP, and climate information, respectively (
Table 2). On the other hand, 50%, 51%, and 53% of households (
Table 2), respectively, said that they were satisfied with training on good agricultural practices, market and market networking (access to agricultural inputs such as selected seeds, better animal breeds, fertilizer, pesticides, and farm outputs), and natural resource conservation (soil, water, and ecosystem). From the receivers of educational and credit services, 24% and 21% reported their satisfaction, respectively. These statistics show that households had the least satisfaction with climate information, credit services, education services, PSNP, and HABP. The maximum number of satisfied households was only 53 out of 100 households that received services on natural resource conservation (
Table 2). A household’s access to climate information helps farmers to adapt to a crisis and enables them to act proactively about the risks of shocks [
7,
9,
16].
On top of this, one of the key informants, a rural development agent of the study area, pointed out that the rural development agents and agricultural extension workers had no access to official links with meteorological organizations. Thus, they could not disseminate timely weather information to the farmers with no access to nationally disseminated information via mass media. Further, they explained a severe gap regarding access to local level meteorological observation centers in the study area. A few were found in the distance beyond the 50 km radius, and most were broken due to poor management, as similar agents noted. Moreover, participant observation (OB) showed that centers of ground weather observation were located as far as some 62 km from each other, but some were found to no longer exist, challenging the reliability of using data from these centers. Education is a way to develop human capital. For a monotonic livelihood community like Sidama, although it is also the most effective tool to open avenues of alternative income besides rain-dependent agriculture, data showed that households were not satisfied with educational services institutions given to them. Participants in the focus group discussion echoed similar voices to the data of the household survey (
Box 1).
Box 1. Notes of one of the FGDs Source: survey (March–May 2020).
We sent our decent boys to the school by selling out our cows, calves, oxen, trees, and other most valuable assets to afford for their education, hoping that we will be paid back later upon their employment after graduation. Currently, however, we found our boys at the same home in recurrent delinquency. We lost both our financial and obedient human resources at the school. ‘It was not common to be unemployed after school at our age (40 years ago), and it is common to be unemployed after school nowadays, another added.
Other KII participants also expressed their evaluation that the educational institutions were ineffective in producing competitive labor power that could attain a non-agricultural livelihood. They mentioned a variety of factors, which were related to heat stress, droughts, winter frost in the morning, food shortage during drought season, frequent illnesses such as malaria and waterborne diseases, temporary migration during drought season leading to absenteeism, poor motivation and attention, dropouts. These factors led to common later effects on standard test performance on one hand, and on the other hand, inherent educational policies such as a “direct pass” policy (in which no child repeats the same grade despite failing the classroom test for that grade) at lower grade levels; a self-content policy (in which one teacher teaches all subjects in a classroom regardless of his/her competency in any of the subjects); a lack of entrepreneurship, in which theories about being an entrepreneur rather than being employed are presented to lower and upper grades, either in the form of content or subjects, and lack of vocational content and/or subjects, such as electricity, crafting, designing, and artisanship, which would allow students to be introduced to such opportunities and try these skills with the potential to choose any of them as their later livelihood. As can be learned from the Education Sector development strategy of the MoE, Ethiopia’s previous educational policy is 4:4:2:2, which is defined as follows: The first four levels are the first cycle of primary school (grades 1–4). The second four are the second cycle of primary school (5–8). The remainder refers to secondary school (grade 9–12), where the first two levels are the first cycle of secondary school (9–10), followed by the second cycle of secondary school (11–12), which is a preparatory school to join higher learning institutions [
45]. It was observed from the educational sector development strategy of the MoE [
45] that no vocational disciplines are found in any school grades. Instead, vocational training is only found at technical and vocational education training colleges. Students, therefore, only have access to such disciplines after completing grade ten and joining the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges based on their score on the Ethiopian secondary school exit examination. Generally, with other things being equal, the lack of education policy concurrence and compatibility with the study area contexts lead to the education system’s ineffectiveness in enabling learners to engage in non-agricultural livelihood opportunities. Thus, rural community households are not satisfied with the educational institutions’ services, which reflects institutional unfitness.
Easier access to credit opportunities [
2,
3] assists farmers’ adaptation to the impacts of climate change by improving the productivity of on-farm adaptation and by encouraging them to engage in off-farm activities. Nonetheless, in the National Bank proclamation of 592/2008, there is no way for farmers to access credit services from financial institutions. Only two microfinance institutions were observed, supplying a minimum number of loans under collateral terms that the poor people in rural settings could hardly fulfill. As was observed in their operational manual, loan services’ interest ranged from 16 to 18% for the first year and doubles thereafter. The FGD participants unanimously described similar situations, referring to how the situation prevents their participation in such credit services and applauding their Liqoo-indigenous practice of borrowing and lending in the Sidama community. This finding agrees with the reports by [
10,
12,
41] and the inscription [
13]. Therefore, despite the existence of climate adaptation assistance from governmental institutions at the local level of the study area, data revealed that they were not accessible, nor were their services satisfactory enough if accessible, which reflects their lack of fitness in the context of this study.
3.3.3. Structure, Systems and Interplays of Local Institutions
Structurally, it was observed that there were relevant governmental and institutional offices, including the Environmental Climate Change Commission, from regional to local districts of administration levels. Nevertheless, there was no single civic organization at a local level.
All multilateral and bilateral NGOs had their offices at a regional level with almost no structures at a local level, as learned through all PRA sources and other secondhand data reviews.
The 1981 African Charter on Human and People’s Rights under Article 24 included environmental rights as part of human rights, and Africa as a whole thus became the first continent to introduce environmental rights [
46]. In 1995, the Federal Constitution of Ethiopia recognized the environmental rights and the citizens’ right to enjoy a conserved and managed environment, which was endorsed for implementation by the government’s executive organs. In line with this, it was observed that governmental institutions in this study’s focus, each have their respective systems of operations (regulations and guiding manuals). In addition, many scientific reports [
11,
22,
43,
46] commended that such initiatives need to be people-centered. Unless such governmental climate adaptation programs and civic organizations are operationalized by the maximum participation at the local-level community of concern, they are unlikely to meet the needs of local vulnerable groups, as is the case of the Global Environmental Facility-managed coastal adaptation project in Tanzania [
47], Uganda [
48], and East Africa [
49].
The level of community participation in the regulation and guidance systems was low, and in particular, regulation and guidance related to improving seed variety, breeding a variety of cattle, and training on other good agricultural practices was below 25% (N = 400) for all three, while it was 54% and 70% for education and natural resource conservation, respectively (
Figure 5a). The frequency of participation levels was rare, occasional, or regular for all analyses (
Figure 5b).
According to notes collected through FGD and KII on this issue, there was no evidence that community members participated in market practices (e.g., how to access improved seed variety, cattle breeds, and training on good agricultural practices). However, three rural development agents from Daarra, Aleta Chuko, and Borricha districts disagreed with FGD and KII notes. Previous studies on institutional matters in Ethiopia aligned, supporting local adaptation [
43] in general, and [
13,
50] highlighted how awkwardness of local government’s systems impaired endeavors to reduce poverty in Sidama.
Furthermore, [
10,
14] reported institutional maladaptation in the area. Based on these scientific insights, it can be concluded that the findings of both the survey and the PRA are more acceptable than those of the rural development agents whom the government employs. Nevertheless, there were community participation practices in the school governance system at intermittent times through various platforms such as parent–teacher associations (PaTA), school governing boards (SGB), and general parents’ assemblies (GPA). Moreover, rural development agents and experts from the district offices facilitated community participation to carry out various environmental conservations. Specifically, the FGSs data from Daarra and Lokka–Abbaayya districts show that the sanctuary initiative in earmarked areas (e.g., hot springs and Lokka–Abbaayya National Park) was the participatory one where inhabitants took various discussions continuously.
Environmental concern has been included and systemized into the curricula of grades 1–4 and those of social science subjects up to grade ten [
45], which were observed in different students’ texts. These curricula enabled the schools to impart environmental lessons to the pupils of the abovementioned grades, as the school directors of all five districts shared in one-on-one interview sessions. These directors also added that different extracurricular clubs had been established since 2000. Recently, the schools have been working on climate change and environmental management activities through awareness creation at the schools and afforestation in and around the schools. As a result, green schools and bushy plantations in and around the schools have contributed to shade from heat stress, which was severe some fifteen years ago.
Civic organizations [
6,
23] play a significant role in addressing latent demands and needs not addressed through public institutions’ existing efforts by favoring the most vulnerable parts of a community. In this way, the success of philanthropic services depends on various factors, and the level of stakeholders’ participation stands out as one of the key factors [
10,
22,
35,
37,
51]. PRA source data indicated that the level of community participation in all phases of the projects of civic organizations, which were few in number and similar in their operations, was said to be the lowest.
The stories of KII and remarks from all FGDs indicated that indigenous institutions played vital roles in the environment and natural resource use and management, including using and conserving in terms of “the tragedy of commons”. Other notable good practices of the Sidama community concerning the usage and management of their natural resources are the Seera principles, which work through the “Affini?” dialog. The Affini? dialog as a pillarin the making of Sidama indigenous institutions is described by [
13,
41]. Songo (session of elders) decides on many community matters. Some of the roles of Songo include (a) deciding who, when, and how to use a given commons’ resources such as grazing fields (Dannawa); (b) deciding on the sanctuary of sacred places from which members of the community are exclusively prohibited from using and remains conserved for the practice of Sacrosanct ceremonies; (c) punishment decisions (e.g., for criminal acts, homicides, prohibited deforestation, and insubordinations); and (d) compensation to the offended ones through the Affini? dialog. Fortunately, Sidama’s elders convoke their structures (songos) of all settlement patterns at the place known as Gudumaale, where big podocarps and leafy trees are accompanied by younger trees. As the elders’ Songo convokes in every settlement stratum, in principle, there is a need to have Gudumale’s for every stratum that it is highly likely to have numerous carbon sequestration bases in Sidama. Specifically, Sidama communities have well-recognized and organic endogenous knowledge of envisaging weather conditions of a day, a week, a month, a season, and even beyond that. For example, [
41] wrote that Sidama’s traditional astrologists (Ayyaanto) read the stomach of a slaughtered sheep for that purpose at the eve of the Sidama’s new year (Fichee–Cambalaalla) and predict the likelihood of fortunes (rain, agricultural productivity, and economic prosperity and peace and security) in the following year. If their reading shows misfortunes (e.g., drought) for the following year [
13], they warn the society to prepare appropriately.
This practice of the rural community was complemented by FGD and KII data. Accordingly, Sidama communities depend more on weather conditions of a given time through what they foresee: (a) temperature heat stress they observe, (b) wind direction and intensity, (c) cloud cover, (d) air moisture, (e) rainfall on holidays (raining on the day of Asterio-Mariam—Ethiopian Epiphany—hints at rainy seasons (Aletta Chuko), (f) seasonal thunder (roaring thunder; the more frequent the roaring is, the higher the likelihood of observing heavier rainfall), (g) a rainbow in the sky (observance of the rainbow at the sky is attached with end of the rainfall), (h) sounds of birdcalls named Giggishsho and Qo’laante—the signal for the rain that will fall later on—and the flocking of insects known as Okkoshaama from the earth, which signals water and moisture sufficiency in the soil, after which perennial crops (e.g., enset and coffee) are to be planted. Different works in the literature [
12,
41,
50] have also described similar points. This analysis shows that there are contextually well-fitted endogenous institutions and knowledge in Sidama that support local-level climate adaptation practices. These institutions also have their structures (songos) and systems (Halaale and Affini?) that enable the pervasiveness of smooth functioning between and among them.
In short, data from the survey and PRA showed that though there were defined systems through which local government institutions are assumed to support local-level adaptation function, most institutions’ systems showed less participation; the frequency of participation identified was rare. Moreover, despite their similar operations at the local level, civic organizations have no parallel structures (offices) with local public institutions’ structures working on adaptation plans. This subsequently has created gaps in horizontal and vertical interplays. On the other hand, indigenous institutions have locally recognized traditional systems that enable rural communities to apply indigenous knowledge to local-level adaptation practices (
Figure 6).
Institutional interplay (i.e., regular interaction) is one of the vital factors determining the success of individual and joint purposes for which each of them was established [
1,
4,
6]. However, there are too many global instances to mention [
11,
23] of local indigenous institutions in which local governments played a remarkable role in climate change adaptation, including those in Ghana [
21], Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, southern Zambia [
23], Fuji [
21], and Bolivia [
52]. At the macro-policy level, the NAP-ETH envisaged building a platform that assists local knowledge management in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, it was observed that there was no single point at which these indigenous organizations convene together with local government or civic organizations working on climate change adaptation. This finding accords with reports by [
10,
12,
43,
50,
53] that there is a lack of horizontal and vertical interplay between and among the institutions working on the local-level adaptation role attributed to the failure of adaptation practices in Sidama’s drought-prone areas.
3.3.4. Scales of Local Institution’s Operation
There are several ways through which the sustainable effectiveness of institutions assisting with adaptation are constrained at a local level, including (i) their inability to scale up their operations for longer time periods (temporal scale-up); (ii) their incomprehensiveness, which is explained by their inability to include the most vulnerable groups who were victimized by formal institutional impropriety (e.g., abuse of rights by police, war and conflict regimes, and market failure) and harmful traditional practices (e.g., exclusion of women from the right to inherit property, early marriage, polygamy); and (iii) their inability to expand areas of operation (spatial scale-up) [
8,
37,
52,
54].
It was observed from rural Sidama that endogenous-knowledge-based practices of local-level adaptation are sustained over time on a broader basis (
Figure 6). It is uncommon to observe the storage of crop residuals, especially of maize, on wet trunks and leaves of trees in Sidama’s drought-prone districts, which is a habitual practice of farmers in these districts throughout the years. The farmers consider the weather condition of the upcoming season based on their long-lasting experiences and store residuals during harvesting and good days to use them as animal fodder when drought occurs later on.
According to [
40,
44,
55], Ethiopia predicts a 50% reduction in carbon emissions and its equivalents by 2030 through its Climate-Resilient Green Economic Strategy (CRGE) while reducing vulnerability to climatic shock and enhancing resilience. Nonetheless, the focus given to their effective implementation was observed to be intermittent. According to information from rural development agents of all districts, afforestation activity focused only on planting seedlings, while stewardship of plants is neglected. Afforestation was also campaign-based and seasonal, whereas less attention was given to monitoring and evaluating the real stock grown. Undeniably, billion of seedlings were being planted annually according to the “Green Legacy” motto to achieve CRGE efficiently and effectively. Still, there is a need for a kind of institutional apparatus to follow-up and take care of the planted seedlings. In addition, government institutions started a campaign of water harvesting schemes at a local level ten years ago. The objective was to supply water for drought-prone areas, mainly for agricultural uses. However, there are no such initiatives at present, and even former establishments have presently disappeared while the community is under severe water shortage.
There have been some initiatives since 2012 by civic organizations (e.g., the Abenezer Rehabilitation and Development Association (ARDA) and the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program (WASH)) intervening through “school feeding” programs in Daarra, Aletta Chukko, and Borricha (
Figure 7) where food insecurity caused by drought was commonly reported [
31].
However, such interventions have been withdrawn. It should be noted that a given civic organization could withdraw for any reason, including the project’s phase-out.
Since formerly intervention programs positively contribute to addressing socio-economic problems a community faces, similar interventions should be scaled-up and sustained until the problem is no longer a challenge for socio-economic development and human wellbeing. These interventions’ discontinuities implied a temporal scale-up limitation on both public and civic institutions. This limits the sustainability of adaptation practices, which then constrains transformative adaptation.
A household data analysis revealed that 89% of women, children, youth, and people with physical disabilities did not participate in all stages of projects that engaged in intervening and supporting local-level adaptation. According to various recommendations from the literature [
33,
37,
54,
56], when working with empowering the most vulnerable groups, mainstream and integrated programs could yield better outcomes than those that operate discretely. A review of progressive, summative, and scientific reports on integration identified two major inherent limitations of civic organizations. First, there was redundancy, which is explained through three or more civic organizations operating in the humid and highland district of Hawassa Zuria (within 25 km of Hawassa). In contrast, only one was operating in dry and lowland districts of Lokka Abaya and Daarra (90 km from Hawassa). This could be attributed to the governance of civic organizations, which usually sign their agreement with federal and regional governments and operate on the local level by commuting from the regional city of Hawassa with no formal interplays with institutions at the local level. The other limitation is related to their inclusiveness. Their interventions to support the vulnerable groups had flimsy operations. Theoretically, children, women, the elderly, and peoples with impairments were collectively defined to be vulnerable groups [
3,
7,
52], and economic, political, and social empowerment of women was said to most important one to scale-up the outcomes of interventionist investment [
6,
34,
46]. However, the evaluation mentioned above observed that most civic organizations’ intervention was in terms of agriculture, education at school, and integrated health. Only two out of seventeen civic organizations were observed as providing education to disabled people in Aletta Chukko and Borricha, whereas no similar organization was observed in the other three districts. It was only in Darra districts that civic organizations were observed working on girls’ and women’s empowerment through education. No civic organization was observed to be working on programs for the elderly. Overall, limitations were observed to be linked with continuity in terms of interventions (temporal scale-up), the scope of operations (spatial scale-up), inclusiveness, and intensification of interventions of civic organizations in supporting vulnerable groups. Data indicated that, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable groups of the community to which the support’s transfer was direct, the productive safety net program (PSNP) intervention was scaled up across all districts analyzed. This intervention worked well the last time it was implemented, which shows its better position vis-à-vis civic organizations in terms of the three abovementioned types of scales. It was reported by [
43] that the social protection program was constrained by the government, which feared social dependency to proliferate among beneficiaries. Notwithstanding misappropriations and improper implementations at local levels [
10,
20], the social protection program (PSNP) played a significant role in lifting up chronically food insecure beneficiaries from hunger and further death.
Conversely, similar sources indicated that there was temporal scale-up, inclusiveness, and spatial scale-up limitations due to the access to and use of credit services, meteorological information, water supply (e.g., schemes of irrigation including water accumulation and use of schemes that were later abandoned), market, and market networking, veterinary services, and drought-index insurance, all of which were parts of government institutions. This finding was relevant according to [
13] and reports by [
10,
14,
16,
17,
43]. Further, in addition to household survey data, data from PRA indicated that notwithstanding temporal limitations showing a continuous follow-up of their growth, seedlings that had been planted across districts previously mentioned were widely scaled up and intensified. Therefore, in addition to its policy provision and cascading its policies to its relevant structures downwards, the government should focus on monitoring, evaluating, and learning.