Climate change, sustainable water management and institutional adaptation in rural sub-Saharan Africa Admire M. Nyamwanza 1 • Krasposy K. Kujinga 2 Received: 22 July 2015 / Accepted: 7 January 2016 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016 Abstract Much current work on climate adaptation options vis-a `-vis water management in rural sub-Saharan Africa has tended to focus more on technological and infrastructural alternatives and less on institutional alternatives. Yet, vulnerability to climate variability and change in these contexts is a function not just of biophysical outcomes but also of institutional factors that can vary significantly at relatively finer scales. This paper seeks to contribute towards closing this gap by examining institutional options for sustainable water management in rural SSA in the context of climate change and variability. It explores challenges for transforming water-related institutions and puts forward institutional alter- natives towards adapting to increasingly complex conditions created by climate change and variability. The paper suggests revisiting the Integrated Water Resources Management approach which has dominated water institutional debates and reforms in Africa over the recent past, towards actively adopting resilience and adaptive management lenses in crafting water institutional development initiatives. Keywords Climate change Á Water management Á Institutional adaptation Á IWRM Á Resilience Á Adaptive management 1 Introduction Climate change is now well recognized as a physical and global reality. The Intergov- ernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007, 2014) notes that even under the most optimistic scenarios of coordinated global action to reduce further emissions of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, an era of rapid and accelerating climate change is inevitable. & Admire M. Nyamwanza anyamwanza@gmail.com 1 African Climate and Development Initiative, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa 2 WaterNet Secretariat, Harare, Zimbabwe 123 Environ Dev Sustain DOI 10.1007/s10668-016-9762-2