Ethiopia, a county characterized by climate sensitive economy, where the agricultural sectorrnhas the largest GDP share and the GDP rises and falls about a year following the changes inrnaverage rainfall, in general; the potentially devastating impacts of climate variability onrnlivelihoods and economies in Ethiopia make adaptation to these adverse impacts, a toprnpriority for the country. Institutionally, adding to the existing public and private institutions,rnthe country has a long history of religious and civil society organizations, including localrnsavings groups, mutual self-help groups and regional development associations. Hence, it isrnimportant to understand the extent to which these stakeholder institutions arerncollaboratively involved in enhancing adaptation activities at the grass root level. The studyrnuses Mereb Leke woreda (one of the drought prone woredas in Tigray) as a case study, andrnexamines the collaboration of local stakeholder institutions over improving the ability ofrnfarmers to adapt to climate variability impacts; and assesses if there are particularrnconstraints which limit the collaboration oflocal stakeholder institutions in local adaptationrnpractices. The study is based on interviews with key informants; FGDs with farmers; semistructuredrninterviews with leaders and staffs of key stakeholder institutions, along withrnreview of documents from relevant institutions. Many representatives of the woreda levelrngovernmental offices and agencies; NGO's; labia level government institutions; informalrncommunity institutions including religious institutions and local savings groups were Â·rninterviewed. The study concludes that strong collaborative experiences and culture amongstrnthe local stakeholder institutions, with the required skills and trust has not yet beenrndeveloped. Lack of finance, lack of skills and capacities, top-down administrative culture,rnrapid staff turnover, and lack of facilitator and clear regulation on collaboration has beenrnfound as major constraints to institutional collaboration in the woreda.