USR PUBLISHER

Coastal communities in Sub-Saharan Africa face disproportionate climate risks including sea-level rise, coastal erosion, flooding, and saltwater intrusion. Despite the proliferation of national climate adaptation policies, implementation at the local level remains weak. This conceptual paper examines the relationship between climate adaptation policies and local government capacity in delivering adaptation outcomes in coastal communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on literature from 2022 to 2024 and anchored on Institutional Capacity Theory, the paper argues that policy effectiveness is contingent on the financial, technical, administrative, and political capacity of local governments. The study identifies systemic gaps including inadequate funding, limited technical expertise, poor intergovernmental coordination, and weak community participation that undermine policy implementation. This study adopts a qualitative research design using thematic content analysis to examine data therein. The paper found out among others that local government capacity, particularly financial and technical dimensions, is the most critical determinant of climate adaptation policy implementation in coastal Sub-Saharan Africa. The research therefore recommends among others that climate adaptation should be mainstreamed into local development plans and annual budgets to ensure political commitment and resource allocation. The paper concludes that without building local government capacity, national adaptation policies will continue to fail coastal populations who are most vulnerable to climate change.