The African Perspective

You are in the Systemic Risks group – what is your topic?
Adenike Oladosu: I am researching how to deal with flooding in connection with food insecurity. My initial focus is on understanding what lessons can be learned in terms of climate adaptation and resilience when comparing Nigeria and Germany, and what would be appropriate for the situation in Nigeria. This is because my home country has a problem with flooding: 30 of the 36 states we have in Nigeria are affected. The recent flooding in Mokwa, Niger state in Nigeria is a one of the typical examples of the various systemic impacts of floods. This affects social, economic, and infrastructural aspects of society, because everything is systemically interconnected. Using different approaches could lead to a more stable situation. At the same time, I want to bring the Nigerian and African perspectives into the discourse. We can learn from each other to solve this crisis, because Germany also has a flooding problem in some regions. What is Germany doing differently that Nigeria could incorporate into its process?

How are you going about this? Where will you ask your questions, for example?
A.O.: My field of research is basically in areas that have been affected by flooding in Germany or are prone to flooding. And, of course, the region affected by the 2021 flood of the century, which hit Ahrweiler particularly hard. I am looking at what has been done differently there in terms of climate adaptation or resilience, for example. What approaches can be applied to the governance issue? What does governance look like and what are the structures of the various communities? What needs to be done to make a community or city climate-resilient? Basically, I would like to travel to the affected areas to get in touch with political decision-makers. What do we need to examine to ensure that we are in a position to overcome this crisis? I want to learn how we can become climate-resilient in a country like Nigeria. And I want to use what I have learned to contribute to Nigerian society, perhaps among political decision-makers, civil society and even government work.

I ask questions such as: Who are these people who make decisions for other people? Is it in the interests of the people? How do they consciously interact with their environment? What have they done differently? Did they talk to the people? Or did they just make the decision? How well did they know the community? Maybe it's the mayors, maybe it's the city councillors – we'll see.

You founded “I Lead Climate Action” – how does this fit in with your research project on flooding and food security?
A.O.: “I Lead Climate Action Initiative” is about empowering women and raising awareness of the climate crisis in society. When a drought comes and affects their food supply or productivity, they don't realise that there is an environmental problem behind it. One of the things we do is make them climate-conscious. We make it clear to them that a flood also affects the availability of food and takes away their agricultural harvest. And that's why I combine my topic with food insecurity, because they go hand in hand. When a flood happens, it is a systemic risk that leads to other crises and to the crisis of the system. Food insecurity is one of these aspects, along with the loss of livelihoods and the displacement of people. Because when a flood occurs, other risks arise that stem from the system. “I lead Climate Action Initiative” is now trying to introduce climate-friendly measures that have been enriched with indigenous knowledge. We go to the grassroots level to see what knowledge has been used in the past to solve these problems.

What is the goal of “I lead Climate Action”?
A.O.: We want to use indigenous knowledge or bring back the indigenous knowledge that was used in the past to solve our current problems. So far, it has worked because people used to cut down trees to use as firewood for cooking. However, people are now beginning to realise that cutting down trees also affects or contributes to the climate crisis. It is becoming increasingly clear that leaving trees standing is a better way to protect farmland from flooding or drought.

What would you like to achieve during your year as a fellow at RIFS?
A.O.: One idea is to bring together different interest groups in Germany who are working on these issues, perhaps through a conference, to see what has been achieved or what is achievable at the end of the day. Secondly, I would like to visit these places and get a vivid impression of what solutions look like and how they work. Thirdly, I would like to work with my group abut “Systemic Risks” at RIFS, especially on existing projects where they are working on this aspect, and contribute my Nigerian or African perspective, because I see that we also need other perspectives – and besides, Africa is the continent that is warming much faster than the rest of the world due to climate change .