Authors: Lily Salloum Lindegaard & Francis Jarawura
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Globally, climate change is rapidly intensifying but understanding of its social impacts remains limited. This report – part of a groundbreaking study on climaterelated losses and damages to social relations and social cohesion – sheds new light on social impacts in climate vulnerable areas. It provides critical insights for policy and programming and sets the stage for further research and policy engagement.
The report analyses trends in international engagement with social cohesion and novel empirical data on losses to social cohesion on the ground, with particular focus on situations of climate change and forced mobility. It includes a literature review, a policy and programming review, empirical data collection in the Upper West Region of Ghana and Tillabéri Region of Niger, and interviews with practitioners.
In Ghana and Niger, we identify the following key findings on current dynamics between social cohesion, climate change and forced mobility; what implications these have for those affected; and what perceived avenues there are for addressing cohesion losses. These are discussed in depth in the report.
Empirical findings on social cohesion, climate change and forced mobility:
■ Considerable losses and damages, including to social cohesion.
■ Complex mobility dynamics, with a high degree of forced mobility.
■ Centrality of broader environmental, sociocultural and temporal factors in impacts to social cohesion.
■ Declining quality of mutual support, linked to growing individualism and monetisation of support.
■ Trade-offs in social cohesion, especially for marginal groups.
■ Context dependence of relevant authorities and organisations for cohesion.
■ Some hope for improvement and unexpected ideas for solutions
To link to policy and practice, we analyse current approaches and programming of major actors engaging with social cohesion, complementing this with insights from practitioners. This yields the following key insights, elucidated in the report.
Insights from policy and practice:
■ Current social cohesion efforts are driven by major donors and international organisations.
■ Social cohesion programming focuses on settings with conflict and displacement.
■ Other vulnerable areas also experiencing social cohesion losses are overlooked.
■ Social cohesion approaches may not be clearly defined, be contextually relevant or have a clear theory of change.
■ Social cohesion approaches may be overly optimistic or fail to recognise trade-offs in cohesion.
■ Protracted insecurity and interlinked crises will increasingly require integrated approaches.