One notable example of a community-centered adaptation plan in Nigeria is the REBUMMA project, which focused on empowering local communities to predict and respond to flooding through a Community-Based Early Warning System (CBEWS). The initiative installed 20 manual river gauges in nine flood-prone communities and trained around 90 community members to monitor water levels, share alerts, and coordinate with emergency agencies. This approach ensured that early warnings were locally generated, understood, and acted upon, making flood preparedness a bottom-up process rather than a top-down one.
Reflection on the Adaptation Plan
1. Represents community values The plan was designed with direct involvement from community members — including data collection and warning dissemination — which reflects local priorities and ownership of the adaptation process rather than externally imposed solutions.
2. Addresses challenges (Nigeria context) Frequent flooding in Nigeria displaces households, damages crops and infrastructure, and undermines rural livelihoods. By strengthening locally run early warning systems, the project directly tackles the challenge of timely flood response, which is critical in flood-prone riverine areas across the country.
3. Adequately assesses vulnerability The project began by identifying the most vulnerable localities and equipping residents with tools and training to assess rising river levels. This community-driven vulnerability assessment ensured that interventions were directed where risk was highest.
4. Demonstrates conflict while not a conflict resolution program per se, the community approach helped align the interests of local residents, volunteers, and crisis management agencies — reducing potential tensions from miscommunication and creating shared responsibility in flood preparedness.
5. Meets the community’s expectations and needs Residents gained actionable information and practical skills to anticipate floods and take early action. This addresses one of the biggest frustrations in vulnerable areas late warnings and unmanaged risk that leave communities unprepared.
6. Contributes to adaptive capacity By training local monitors and embedding warning capacity at the community level, the project builds lasting adaptive capacity. Communities are no longer passive recipients of external information — they can generate, interpret, and act on data themselves in future flood events.
Conclusion
Overall, the REBUMMA community-based early warning system in Nigeria illustrates how locally led adaptation — built on community participation, local knowledge, and practical tools — can strengthen resilience to climate hazards like flooding. It aligns priorities with community needs and enhances long-term adaptive capacity, showing that effective climate adaptation is possible even with limited resources when communities are placed at the centre of the design and implementation process.