Attachments
ODI Working Papers 319, August 2010
The inevitability of changes occurring
to the climate at both global and local scales is now a well-established
reality. Confidence is currently higher than in previous assessments with
regard to projected patterns of warming and other features of a regional
scale, including changes in wind patterns, precipitation and some aspects
of extremes and sea ice. For poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America,
climate change adds another layer of complexity to already existing development
challenges, such as high levels of poverty and inequality, rapid population
growth, underdeveloped financial markets and weak governance systems.
Given its wide array of impacts on and
interactions with wider development, climate change will inevitably have
considerable implications for humanitarian and development interventions.
Accordingly, there is a need to consider how humanitarian and development
approaches can, in many instances, help enhance communities' capacity
to adapt to a changing climate or, at the very least, prevent actions that
undermine adaptive capacity.
This paper reviews how aspects of disaster
risk reduction, social protection and livelihoods approaches may act in
contributing to the various features of adaptive capacity. It provides
part of the theoretical basis for a project led by Oxfam and supported
by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI): the Africa Climate Change
Resilience Alliance (ACCRA), which also includes Save the Children UK,
World Vision International and CARE. The paper does not seek to expand
on the conceptual underpinnings of adaptive capacity; rather, it aims to
find out what aspects of disaster risk reduction, social protection and
livelihoods approaches can contribute to adaptive capacity, as well as
to understand how such approaches can better respond to climate change
and facilitate adaptation.