The world is facing global warming due to emissions of greenhouse gasses and other pollutants by humanity. This global warming is going to lead to different regional changes and impacts on society. In Africa, climate models are suggesting that Africa's going to warm much faster than the global mean temperature change, and that many areas will actually become drier in the future. Also today's extreme events whether they are drought, heatwaves or heavy rain are probably going to become more common in the future. Therefore, the extremes of the future are going to be beyond what you've experienced up to now. Adaptation is the process of adjustment or change to actual or expected climate risks and effects. In this course, we're going to look at this adaptation process in the African context, drawing on research and practice from across the continent and beyond. Africa is facing numerous difficulties to achieve its development goals. The question we're asking in this course is how contemporary climate risks and the future climate changes we're expecting intersect with these development trajectories that Africa is trying to achieve. Therefore, out of this how to build climate resilience on the continent as part of a broader sustainability agenda in the region. I'm Mark New and I'm director of the African climate and development initiative or the ACDI as we like to be known. ACDI is an interdisciplinary research and teaching institute at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and I invite you to join this free online course, Climate Adaptation in Africa. Climate and weather impact on many aspects of the developing world, but in this course we will look at four key areas of impact that are critical for development in Africa. These are water, food, ecosystem services and cities. What we're going to do is explore climate change risks for these different sectors and then the adaptation opportunities using examples from both within and outside Africa as relevant. We're also going to bookend the course with an introduction to climate change in Africa and what we can expect, and key concepts around risk and vulnerability and adaptation to frame what we cover in the rest of the course. Then, in the closing section, we'll look at practical approaches to both assessing adaptation options and also designing adaptation strategies. So, if you're a development practitioner, working in a business, a government official, a student or even an individual who's concerned about how to respond, this course will deepen your understanding of how climate change will impact on African societies and how to respond. That is how to adapt to these expected and currently experienced impacts. The need for sustainable development has recently been reinforced and reinvigorated by the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. As Ban Ki-moon, the former Secretary General of the UN said, these goals are a to-do list for people and planet and a blueprint for success. But development can't be sustainable if it doesn't address climate change. So, together in this online learning community, we're going to think about how to develop resilience and adaptive capacity in Africa for Africa's future.