A new paper "Adaptation interventions and their effect on vulnerability in developing countries: Help, hindrance or irrelevance?" has just been published in the journal World Development. The paper, led by Siri Eriksen with an author team of 20, including Katharine Vincent, uses a review of 33 empirical studies, nearly 200 papers, and the insights of the authors to highlight how some interventions inadvertently reinforce, redistribute or create new sources of vulnerability. These maladaptive outcomes result from shallow understanding of the vulnerability context; inequitable stakeholder participation in both design and implementation; a retrofitting of adaptation into existing development agendas; and a lack of critical engagement with how ‘adaptation success’ is defined. Overcoming these shortcomings requires shifting the terms of engagement between adaptation practitioners and the local populations participating in adaptation interventions; expanding the understanding of ‘local’ vulnerability to encompass global contexts and drivers of vulnerability; and promoting learning processes within organisations and with marginalised populations. It concludes by asking whether scholarship and practice need to take a post-adaptation turn akin to post-development, by seeking a pluralism of ideas about adaptation while critically interrogating how these ideas form part of the politics of adaptation and potentially the processes (re)producing vulnerability.
Tag Archives: vulnerability
“Adaptation interventions and their effect on vulnerability in developing countries: Help, hindrance or irrelevance?” New paper with inputs from Kulima
UMFULA publishes a variety of outputs relating to climate information
At its annual meeting and stakeholder events last week in Malawi, UMFULA published a number of outputs relating to climate information. Climate briefs were presented for both Malawi and Tanzania, in which future climate projections are highlighted, based on 34 global climate models used by the IPCC (CMIP-5). As well as the main brief, there is also a 2 page summary for policy-makers, and an annex for more technical readers. In addition a guide was published on "How to understand and interpret global climate model results". This accompanies an earlier guide on "Climate models: what they show us and how they can be used in planning". There is also "Climate Risk and Vulnerability: A Handbook for Southern Africa", which was launched by CSIR and Kulima in October.
New paper on the Vulnerability, Impacts, Adaptation and Climate Services Advisory Board with inputs from Kulima
A paper on the role of the Vulnerability, Impacts, Adaptation and Climate Services Advisory Board (VIACS AB v1.0) and its contribution to CMIP6 has been published in Geoscientific Model Development. CMIP6 is the mechanism for comparing global climate models. The VIACS advisory board represents the researchers who use climate information as one input to analyse vulnerability, impacts and adaptation. The aim is to inform the CMIP6 impact model outputs by highlighting priority variables. Dr Katharine Vincent is a member of the VIACS Advisory Board and a co-author on the paper.
Kulima director in Southampton with the DECCMA northern team
Dr Katharine Vincent is at the University of Southampton this week to work with colleagues in the northern team of the DECCMA project. DEltas, vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration as an Adaptation is one project within the Collaborative Adaptation Research in Africa and Asia programme. It focuses on the extent to which, and circumstances under which, migration is, and may be, used as an adaptation in three deltas: the Ganges-Meghna-Brahmaputra; the Mahanadi; and the Volta. Kulima's involvement is to ensure gender is integrated throughout the project (from proposal development to analysis). The meeting will focus on activities for the upcoming whole consortium meeting in Ghana.
Photo: NASA
Kulima and DRFN submit Vulnerability and Adaptation chapter for Namibia’s Third National Communication
Kulima Integrated Development Solutions and the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia are submitting to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism the Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment chapter for Namibia's Third National Communication to the UNFCCC. This follows a period of backstopping the Vulnerability and Adaptation Multistakeholder Task Team and facilitating workshops that selected priority sectors, identifid the intended content and structure of the chapter, and consolidated findings through the choosing of indicators and identifying the extent of existing adaptation.
Kulima director in Windhoek for vulnerability and adaptation assessment of Namibia’s Third National Communication
Ms Tracy Cull is in Windhoek this week for the third workshop of the task team compiling the vulnerability and adaptation assessment of Namibia's Third National Communication to the UNFCCC. The purpose of the workshop is to consolidate the vulnerability assessment through choosing indicators and identify the extent of existing adaptation. This follows from previous workshops to discuss the intended content and structure of the chapter in March; and to highlight the broad nature of vulnerabilities in four priority sectors (water, health, tourism and agriculture) in July. Kulima and national partner, the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia, have been providing technical backstopping and capacity building to a multi-stakeholder task team of Namibian academics and practitioners who are leading the assessment.
Kulima directors in Bangladesh for DECCMA whole consortium kick off meeting
Dr Katharine Vincent and Ms Tracy Cull are currently in Dhaka for the whole consortium meeting of the Deltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA) project. DECCMA is one of four projects under the Collaborative Adaptation Research in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) programme and comprises a consortium of the University of Southampton, University of Ghana, National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Science (Egypt), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, and Jadavpur University in India, working in four deltas: Volta, Nile, Ganges-Meghna-Brahmaputra and Mahanadi. Kulima's role is to ensure that a gender-sensitive approach is taken to the planned research, and to facilitate the process of applying for international adaptation finance to support identified good practices in migration as adaptation.
Kulima director in Windhoek for vulnerability and adaptation assessment of Namibia’s Third National Communication
Dr Katharine Vincent is in Windhoek this week to run a brief training course on climate change, in conjunction with the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia, and then facilitate a working session of the vulnerability and assessment task team from the group compiling the Third National Communication to the UNFCCC. The process of vulnerability and adaptation assessment has been designed to build the capacity of Namibian nationals and feed into the related process of National Adaptation Plan creation. V&A task team members were identified at an inception workshop in March, whilst the training component will be attended by a variety of government staff from different departments.
IPCC Working Group 2 releases its contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report
Following plenary approval by the government members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Yokohama last week, Working Group 2 has released its contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report. The Summary for Policymakers, and the underlying scientific and technical assessment, are now available. The report shows that effects of climate change are being felt worldwide and that more needs to be done to reduce risk if we are to avoid future negative consequences. Dr Katharine Vincent was a Lead Author on the Rural Areas chapter and the Technical Summary, and a Contributing Author to the Africa chapter, and Ms Tracy Cull was a Contributing Author to the Rural Areas chapter.
(Photo: P. Tschakert)
Kulima director publishes blog on IPCC for CDKN