Changing focus? How to take adaptive capacity seriously

Author(s)
Ludi, E., Jones, L. and Levine, S.
Publication language
English
Pages
4pp
Date published
01 Jan 2012
Type
Lessons papers
Keywords
Development & humanitarian aid, System-wide performance
Organisations
ODI

Change is a constant in the lives of rural people in Africa. They have had to cope with both sudden shocks such as war, rain failures and food price spikes and with long-term stresses such as increasing population pressure on land, declines in their terms of trade, and the degradation of land and water. They will have to cope with these pres- sures in the future, coupled with the growing impact of climate change.
People need the ability to maintain (and even improve) their well-being in the face of change – whatever that change may be. This is what we call adaptive capacity.
Drawing on evidence from the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) project (2010-11) – a research and advocacy consor- tium in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Uganda – this Briefing Paper aims to understand better how different kinds of development interven- tions affect the characteristics of adaptive capacity. Do interventions take it seriously enough? Are they having a positive effect? How could any positive impact be maximised? Given that ultimately it is people’s adaptive capacity that determines the sustainability of all interventions, it is ACCRA’s contention that these are critical questions for all develop- ment interventions.