Columbia Climate School's Office of Faculty Affairs is pleased to announce that Lovees Ahfembombi will deliver our November research seminar, “Operationalizing Anticipatory Governance and Equity-Driven Climate Finance through Integrated Production Systems in Africa: Evidence from a Multi-Regional Smallholder Survey,” on Thursday, November 12, from 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM in Hogan Hall A-level Conference Room, at 2910 Broadway.
If joining on Zoom, RSVP here. You will receive the Zoom link the day before the event. If you cannot access this link, please email [email protected] to be added to the Zoom list. Light refreshments will be served.
Abstract: Climate change is intensifying risks to African smallholder agriculture, yet adaptation remains fragmented across early-warning systems, governance, climate finance, and production support, limiting farmers’ ability to act before shocks. This study investigates how institutional participation, climate-information access, financial inclusion, and production diversification interact to shape anticipatory capacity and adaptive responses. The study aims to develop and empirically examine the Anticipatory Equity Systems (AES) framework as an integrated approach to smallholder resilience. A convergent mixed-methods Participatory Action Research design combined 1,263 household surveys across 11 countries in West, East, Central, and Southern Africa with 21 focus-group discussions, 16 key-informant interviews, participatory co-design activities, and multivariable statistical analysis was used to investigate the problem. The results revealed substantial governance and access deficits with 27.1% respondents haven participated in climate-tool design and testing, 24.2% reported community input was considered during tool development, and 36.3% had received early warnings. Governance participation was associated with 83% higher odds of greater climate-information access, while farmers receiving early warnings had over four times higher odds of greater crop and livestock diversification.
Bio: Lovees Ahfembombi is a climate change scientist and climate justice scholar whose research examines how participatory governance, anticipatory action and equitable climate finance can strengthen the resilience of vulnerable farming communities across Africa. His work focuses particularly on smallholder farmers and forest-dependent communities, exploring the intersections between climate information services, early-warning systems, climate-risk financing, gender equity and resilient agricultural production systems. His research advances community-centered approaches that links scientific evidence to policies with local and Indigenous knowledge to improve the relevance, accessibility and practical usability of climate services. He has authored and co-authored peer-reviewed research on climate adaptation, climate finance, food security, environmental governance, gendered vulnerability and natural-resource management in Africa. Lovees is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Columbia Climate School, where he contributes to research on climate-risk governance and resilience. Through his scholarship, he seeks to advance equitable, locally grounded and actionable pathways for climate adaptation and climate-resilient development across Africa.
