Search

This report on adaptation to climate variability and change draws together the conclusions of a series of comparative case studies undertaken for the Area-Based Development and Climate Change (ABDCC) project of the Social Development Department of the World Bank. The report contributes to a better understanding of pro-poor adaptation by addressing the growing need for systematic analyses of existing rural adaptation strategies in the face of climate variability. The study shows: 1) how different types of climate phenomena affect households that are already vulnerable owing to their political-economic and social circumstances, 2) the ways in which households cope with and adapt to climate hazards, and 3) the role of rural organizations and institutions in helping vulnerable households cope with climate impacts and other sources of vulnerability more effectively. The study also complements other macro-level analyses in which the focus is primarily on government policies in the context of adaptation. The ABDCC study relied on four strategies for its implementation, data collection, and capacity building efforts: 1) review of secondary information and the selection of study sites; 2) data collection through household, focus group, and expert interviews; 3) data analysis and identification of feasible policy options; and 4) capacity building and dissemination of results. The study generated data both from secondary sources as well as primary research. The data was used to prepare country reports and policy notes but has also been analyzed using basic statistical methods to understand the relationship between institutions, adaptation strategies, and social groups within communities and territories.

The Costing Adaptation through Local Institutions (CALI) study aims to highlight how adaptation by households to climate change and climate variability is shaped by institutions, and how governments, through local institutions, can support adaptation that addresses the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable households. The main objective of the study is to provide recommendations regarding adaptation options for households in rural regions and facilitate the necessary institutional support. The methodology of the study draws on past adaptation experiences, particularly for vulnerable groups in different fragile ecological contexts. It uses participatory approaches to assess the costs of different adaptation strategies used by such groups. In this synthesis report, the analytical results from the three country case studies are presented and compared. Among the adopted strategies in the three cases, some were similar, while others were country-specific. The report describes some of the institutional, socioeconomic, and political differences that contributed to the individual or communal adaptation strategies among the countries. These country comparisons make it possible to present a number of policy recommendations that provide a better insight on how future interventions might be more effectively targeted. The results of this study confirm the view that it is important to place greater emphasis on integrated approaches to development. A focus on only a single issue will most likely not have the envisaged results and will in the end lead to higher costs. Several constraints ranging from constraints on a household, village, regional, or national level prevent households from successfully improving their livelihoods and preparing adequately for changing climate variability.

In Ethiopia, village surveys were conducted in six villages and two expert workshops were organized to discuss the organization of the study and to evaluate the draft results. Based on household surveys, focus group discussions, and institutional stakeholder interviews, we assessed household vulnerability, analyzed the strategies households adopt to reduce the hazards faced, and evaluated the assistance households receive from institutions. Vulnerability profiles were formulated, which show that household vulnerability differs substantially among and within villages. The size and diversity of income and the ability to flexibly decide on alternative measures to mitigate the adverse climate effects, which depends on, for example, level of education and dependency ratio, have effects on the adaptation options households adopt and the type of institutional assistance they receive. This report presents the results of the World Bank-funded project on Costing Adaptation through Local Institutions (CALI). The objectives of the CALI-project are: (1) to identify the costs of adaptation through local institutions, and (2) to investigate the institutions that support households in adapting to climate variability, the efforts and costs required to realize the adaptation options, and how they facilitate adaptation to climate variability. The study has been carried out in Ethiopia, Mali, and Yemen. This report discusses the results for Ethiopia.

This review focuses on the role of local institutions in adaptation to climate change. It does so under the belief that climate impacts will affect disadvantaged social groups more disproportionately, and that local institutions centrally influence how different social groups gain access to and are able to use assets and resources. It suggests that adaptation to climate change is inevitably local and that institutions influence adaptation and climate vulnerability in three critical ways: a) they structure impacts and vulnerability, b) they mediate between individual and collective responses to climate impacts and thereby shape outcomes of adaptation, and c) they act as the means of delivery of external resources to facilitate adaptation, and thus govern access to such resources. In focusing on local institutions, the review fills two glaring gaps in the existing understanding about institutions and climate change: the lack of middle-range theories of adaptation practices to help frame policy debates, and the absence of comparative empirical studies of adaptation to support policy interventions. To contribute to middle-range theoretical knowledge about climate change the review develops a conceptual framework to understand and classify the adaptation practices of the rural poor, view the institutional structuring of adaptation, and examine the types of external support interventions that local institutions inevitably channel. The review proposes a focus on different forms of mobility, storage, diversification, communal pooling, and market exchange in rural settings as the basic mechanisms through which households address riskiness of livelihoods. Using the familiar typology of public, private, and civil society institutions the review proposes an institutional linkages framework that highlights the role of institutional partnerships in facilitating adaptation and drawing from social network analysis it presents a conceptual toolkit to analyze institutional partnerships and their impacts on resource access of vulnerable social groups. In examining the role of institutions in channeling financial, information and technological, leadership, and policy interventions into rural areas, the review highlights that institutions are critical leverage points through which to determine the direction and magnitude of flows of resources to different social groups.