Perceived impacts on livelihoods and range of responses both short and long term 2008, 2009 Precipitation data Where local data was available Kisumu Airport, Ahero, Kibos and Awasi stations Musoma Airport and Tarime station Monthly and daily rainfall data between

1951 and 2008 September 2009 Mapping of seasonal calendars Four local groups, two with women only (n = 10–30/group) Thurdibuoro and selleck chemicals llc Onjiko Kisumwa and Kunsugu Mapping of climate, health, income, expenditure, food production and consumption/year January 2010 Multi-stakeholder workshop (2 days) LVB stakeholders: KARI, KEFRI, LVDC KEMRI,U of Nairobi, Kenya Seed, Vi-AFP, Red Cross, Equity Bank, LVEMP, Maseno CH5424802 chemical structure Uni, ILRI, KMFRI, SIDA, Local farmers from both Kenya and Tanzania Held in Kisumu, Kenya (n = 65)   Identifying impacts of climate variability and change on local communities. Identifying current coping and adaptation strategies, alternative future pathways, synergies and future needs for collaboration between existing actors January

2011 Focus group and individual interviews Widows, two groups (n = 7/grp) Onjiko   Challenges and opportunities of being a widow in a small holder context Selleckchem KU55933 HH Households, LVB Lake Victoria Basin Fig. 2 Map of Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) with marked study sites (source: International Lake Environment Committee 2005) Local stakeholders were involved in our research at several junctures to give us the opportunity to test, evaluate and verify initial empirical findings. This also enhanced the

iterative process by allowing 4��8C empirical data to be revised and revisited throughout the research process. Initially, this was done through interviews with stakeholders, specifically farmers themselves, but also other informants working locally such as health care practitioners, representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and politicians, i.e., location chiefs or ward executive officers. Subsequently, through the organization and execution of a multi-stakeholder workshop, it served as a first step to raise awareness and open up a critical dialogue about climate adaptation. Importantly, it also served to increase collaboration between high-end stakeholders themselves as well as between them and local farmers. Contextualizing climate vulnerability in the LVB The most fundamental connection between natural systems and human well-being in the LVB appears to be smallholders’ heavy dependence on biophysical assets for their livelihoods. Barrett (2008) argues that when the key state variables of two systems are shared then strong interdependence follows automatically. Emerging questions relate to the nature of these interrelationships and the balancing or reinforcement of feedbacks within and between systems. In the communities we studied, people rely on rain-fed mixed agriculture based on labor-intensive small-scale farming and livestock rearing.