Readiness Index_Dataset.xlsx

As
global changes continue, the repercussions in Africa remain profound. This is
reflected notably in food and water crises across Africa. This work examines
the readiness of Africa to climate change adaptation through a newly developed
readiness Index (ClimAdaptCap Index). Readiness for climate change
adaptation is driven by the intensity of climate forcing and adaptive capacity.
The historical climate score data of precipitation and temperature for the
period 1991-2016 were used in this investigation. The latter were culled from
the World Bank Climate Portal. The historical adaptive capacity score data
included proxies such as poverty and literacy rates for the period 1991-2016.
These were collected from the World Bank and Macrotrends. These climate data
were normalized using the normalization function to enhance interpretation,
comparison/fusion into the Index. Missing poverty and literacy rate data were
estimated by linear interpolation od the poverty and literacy rate data. The ClimAdaptCap
Index was developed to compute readiness. The results show that North and
Southern Africa are the readiest for climate change adaptation. West Africa is
the least ready while Middle and East Africa are in the middle. Consistent is
that readiness has a positive correlation with literacy rates and an inverse
one with poverty rates. The developed readiness Index adequately simulates
readiness to climate change adaptation in Africa and is complementary to
previous frameworks of adaptation readiness.