Adapting to climate change

Summary of published paper¹

A house destroyed by flooding in Bangladesh

A special issue of the IDS bulletin contains a series of case studies from different countries showing adaptation to the impact of climate change. These are based on insights from the Linking Climate Adaptation (LCA) project that aims to ensure poor people benefit from the adaptation process. The key research aim of the LCA project is to determine what kind of procedural and institutional frameworks are needed to ensure that locally determined adaptation needs are linked 'upwards' to national and international policy and institutional structures.

Group at a Khasdhalai flood shelter in Bangladesh

The case studies include;

• Community adaptations to drought in Rajasthan, India
• Floods in Bangladesh: a shift from disaster management towards disaster preparedness
• Adaptation and mitigation through produced environments - the case for agriculture intensification in Senegal
• Seed fairs as a drought recovery strategy in Kenya
• Climate proofing infrastructure and diversifying livelihoods in Zimbabwe
• Benefiting from global warming and agricultural production in northeast China.

A major conclusion of the project is that climate change is a serious, ongoing threat to development and will add burdens to those who are already poor and vulnerable. Furthermore, climate vulnerability analysis should be incorporated systematically into the three main policy and institutional frameworks relevant for adaptation, development, disaster relief and climate change. Ways of fostering conceptual, operational and institutional linkages between these three domains are described. These focus on how to help communities take centre stage in conducting vulnerability analysis and implementation to enhance their long-term capacities for adaptation.

¹Yamin.F, Rahman A and Huq S (2005). Vulnerability, adaptation and climate disasters: A conceptual overview. IDS Bulletin, 36.4, p iii- vi