Table 3.

Summary of key findings

LevelPerceived effects of climate changeAdaptation and mitigation strategiesKey gaps and risks
Micro (VSLA communities and rural women entrepreneurs)- Unpredictable rainfall, prolonged droughts and floods damage crops and livestock - Reduced yields → food insecurity, difficulty repaying loans - Constraining VSLAs’ major activities of saving and loans; increasing loan defaults threaten VSLA sustainability- Anti-erosion measures, terracing, tree planting, wetland cultivation - Irrigation, seasonal timing adjustments - Diversification into livestock and small businesses- Limited formal knowledge about climate change adaptation - Reliance on informal peer learning - Increased financial vulnerability of VSLAs
Meso (local support ecosystem: NGOs, local government, micro-finance)- Some awareness of VSLA vulnerability, but limited climate-specific interventions- CARE and partners provide training on financial literacy, entrepreneurship- Climate adaptation not integrated into VSLA training - Weak linkage between macro-level policies and micro-level needs - Meso actors lag in promoting transformative skills
Macro (national government and policies)- High level of awareness of climate change impacts on agriculture and rural poverty - Climate change is recognised as threat to SDG #1: No Poverty- Wide range of adaptation and mitigation policies (irrigation, forest restoration, renewable energy, water governance, climate-smart agriculture) - Large projects (e.g., Green Gicumbi, LAFREC) and investments to combat climate change effects- Implementation gap: strategies not reaching VSLA members effectively - More effort is needed to build transformative capacity for rural entrepreneurs
Source(s): Authors’ own work

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