44891 Authorized Disclosure Public THE SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE No. 113 / July 2008 Local Institutions and Climate Change Adaptation Authorized This note examines the relationships between climate-related vulnerabilities, adaptation practices, institutions, and external interventions to show the role and importance of local institutions in climate change. It proposes an analytical framework to classify adaptation practices based on their relationship to different forms of environmental risks. It examines past adaptation responses to climate change, their Disclosure impacts on the livelihoods of the rural poor, and the role of institutions in facilitating external support for adaptation. The discussion uses evidence from two sets of cases ­ those in the UNFCCC coping strategies Public database, and in the National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs) ­ to comparatively assess the role of local rural institutions in facilitating adaptation. Focusing on three types of institutions - public, private, and civic, a review of case studies indicates that local institutions play a crucial role in shaping adaptation to climate change: they connect households to local resources and collective action; determine flows of external support to different social groups, and link local populations to national interventions. The lessons from this review are finally used to make recommendations about the operational significance of local institutions and institutional analysis in the context of climate change. Authorized Why is it important to understand the role of Three types of local institutions relevant to local institutions in adaptation? adaptation can be defined: civic, public, and Disclosure Poor, natural resource-dependent rural households private in their formal and informal forms. They will bear a disproportionate burden of adverse shape the livelihoods impacts of climate hazards impacts of climate change1. Local institutions through a range of indispensable functions they Public have shaped how rural residents responded to perform in rural contexts: information gathering environmental challenges in the past. They are and dissemination, resource mobilization and also the mechanisms that will translate the impact allocation, skills development and capacity of future external interventions to facilitate building, providing leadership, and networking adaptation to climate change. Because adaptation with other decision makers and institutions. to climate change is local, it is critically important · Local public institutions: local governments, to understand better the role of local institutions local agencies (eg extension services and in shaping adaptation and improving capacities of other arms of higher levels of government Authorized the most vulnerable social groups. operating at local levels). · Civil society institutions: rural producer What do we mean by local institutions? organizations, cooperatives, savings and loan Disclosure groups etc. 1 Kates, R. 2000. Cautionary tales: Adaptation and the global poor, · Private institutions: service organizations Climatic Change 45 (2000) (1), pp. 5­17. Mendelsohn, R., A. Basist, such as NGOs and charities, private Public P. Kurukulasuriya, and A. Dinar. 2007. Climate and rural income. Climatic Change 81(1): 101-18. Thomas, David S. G. and Chasca businesses that provide insurance or loans. Twyman. 2006. Adaptation and equity in resource dependent societies. In Fairness in Adaptation to Climate Change. W. Neil Informal institutions Adger, Jouni Paavola, Saleemul Huq, and M. J. Mace (eds). Pp. 223- · 37. Cambridge: The MIT Press. A review of 118 cases of adaptation in 46 countries in infrastructure for seeds and harvested crops, the UNFCCC database on adaptation shows that most and have developed time-tested procedures local civil society institutions involved in climate for drying fruits and meats for storage. adaptation tend to be informal institutions. Examples · Diversification can occur in relation to on and off of informal institutions are those around labor farm employment opportunities, productive and sharing, indigenous information exchanges, savings non-productive assets and consumption societies, commons institutions, and indigenous strategies. Scattering of fields in areas where knowledge institutions around migration and storage. rainfall is unreliable, diversification into different Figure 1: Formal vs Informal Institutions in Adaptation farm management practices and crop cultivars, and using a combination of occupations such as 120 wage labor, animal rearing, and farming are common diversification responses in risky 100 environments. 80 61 · Communal pooling refers to adaptation 60 responses involving joint ownership and formal sharing of wealth, labor, or incomes across 40 Informal households, or mobilization of resources held 20 41 40 collectively during times of scarcity. 6 5 6 Communities in dryland areas, for example, 0 0 0 1 0 0 Public Civic Private Public+Civic Private+civicPublic+private increase water rationing and/or often prohibit the consumption of certain foods and forest Households and communities have developed products except during times of famine or strategies to adapt to climate variability. Rural long-term rainfall failure. communities in different parts of the world have · Market exchange is perhaps the most already experienced many forms of extreme climate events2. Over time, they have developed a range of versatile mechanism for adaptation. To be fair and effective, it requires well development adaptive responses to cope with environmental risks markets, exchange instruments, and to livelihoods. Such responses by women, widespread access, weather-related insurance indigenous, and local peoples typically help schemes for agricultural or pastoralist safeguard livelihoods, and thus have a strong populations (although very scarce) is an economic character. Local adaptation responses to example of market-based adaptation to climate variability can be classified into five climate change. categories: · Mobility denotes movements of various types in All adaptation practices discussed above response to risks and scarcities. It is a common depend for their success on specific adaptation strategy used by households and institutional arrangements -- adaptation never communities, particularly in drier parts of the occurs in an institutional vacuum. Institutional world. Niamir-Fuller describes many different and social factors also play a key role in shaping examples of mobility, agropastoralists in Sub- the extent to which rural households and Saharan Africa3. communities are vulnerable to different · Storage of past surpluses an effective environmental risks. This highlights the measure against future livelihood failures. importance of mainstreaming adaptation at and Agricultural households, especially in dry across institutional levels. areas, have created indigenous storage How do local institutions affect livelihoods 2 Mortimore, M. and W. M. Adams. 2001. Farmer adaptation, impacts of climate change? change, and crisis in the Sahel. Global Environmental Change 11: 49-57. Scoones, Ian. (ed). 2001. Dynamics and Diversity: Soil Broadly speaking, local institutions shape the Fertility and Farming Livelihoods in Africa. London: Earthscan. effects of climate hazards in three important 3 Niamir, M. 1995. Indigenous systems of natural resource ways: they influence how households are affected management among pastoralists of arid and semi-arid Africa. London: Intermediate Technology Publications Ltd. by climate impacts; they shape the ability of households to respond to climate impacts and 2 pursue different adaptation practices; and they iii.) Local institutions are the intermediaries for mediate the flow of external interventions in the external support to adaptation. context of adaptation. Institutions are the media through which external interventions reinforce or undermine existing i.) Local institutions shape the impact of climate adaptation practices, as described in Box 1 below. change on communities. Indeed, all external interventions, to be effective, Institutional and social factors play a key role in need local institutional collaborations to leverage shaping vulnerability: the same climate phenomenon the impact of interventions. Willing involvement will have very different effects on the livelihoods of of local institutional partners greatly strengthens residents in the region, depending on the nature of the effectiveness of external interventions. local governance and local institutional arrangements. For example, reduced precipitation in a region by 20 Despite the central role of local informal percent in a given year will have a less negative institutions in rural communities' adaptation, they impact on farmers who have access to irrigation are rarely supported by government and external versus those who rely on rainfed agriculture. The interventions. When external support is provided, negative effect of crop failure is likely to be reduced it is channeled through formal institutions. When if farmers have more equitable access to livelihoods- external public institutions get involved in related institutions governing distribution of benefits adaptation practices, their relationships are more from communal forests or pastures coupled with often with formal local civic institutions. transparent communication, as opposed to where institutional access is stratified and information is monopolized by a small group. In large areas of Box 1: The mediating role of institutions in the western India, for example, lower caste households context of climate impacts - NGOs in the Philippines have limited access to communal pastures, and richer, Local institutions play a key role in recovery after upper caste households appropriate much of the disasters by shaping the direction, effectiveness, and allocation of external assistance. An example of their available forage from the grazing commons.4 critical role can be found among the work of NGOs in the Philippines. Between 1995 and 2000, more than 75 ii.) Local institutions shape the way communities percent of the disasters and 95 percent of disaster-related respond to climate change. deaths in the Philippines were because of climate hazards: typhoons and tornadoes, flooding, and Institutions link individuals with collectives and landslides being the most prominent hazards. provide the framework within which households After the Marcos regime, many development NGOs in and collectives choose adaptation practices. For the Philippines integrated relief and rehabilitation example, strong institutional norms around labor strategies into their action program. These strategies sharing will reduce the ability of households to include socio-economic projects to reduce local vulnerability, mediation of the flow of government and adapt by migrating or diversifying. Social groups international assistance, community-based disaster that do not have secure rights to land will find it management, small scale infrastructure development, and more difficult to diversify asset portfolios or training for capacity building. In one interesting case, engage in exchange. Closely knit social networks NGOs staff focused on vulnerable communities to identify local leaders, conducted hazard and vulnerability make it easier to undertake communal pooling of analysis, initiated training related to disaster resources. Communities that lack access to capital management, and established village level committees to and infrastructure may be unable to use storage or foster effective disaster responses. Other NGOs have exchange to cope with environmental risks. provided financial and technical assistance to help in Without access to markets, communities may be community-based disaster management activities. These examples show the critical role of local institutions in forced to adopt storage of harvests as an any area-based effort to undertake adaptation measures. adaptation response and invest resources into (Source: Luna, E. 2001 Disaster mitigation and preparedness: storage infrastructure. the case of NGOs in the Philippines. Disasters 2001, 25 (3) 216- 226). Mainstreaming adaptation and enhancing adaptive capacity could be increased by encouraging 4 Agrawal, A. 1999. Greener Pastures. Durham: Duke University partnerships between informal processes and Press. formal interventions to facilitate adaptation. An 3 example of the interaction between formal and Many of the local institutions that promote informal institutions can be seen in the Shinyanga adaptation and help improve livelihoods do so region in northern Tanzania (see Box 2 below). The through better and more sustainable governance formation of an informal collective group and of local resources. Box 3 draws on the literature initiation of small acts of joint action led to a more on common property and decentralization of thoroughgoing effort for the adaptation process. environmental governance to identify some of the major factors promoting better institutional Different forms of adaptation and the role of performance for adaptation institutions in facilitating adaptation can formally be examined through the Adaptation, Institutions Role of institutional linkages and networks in and Livelihoods (AIL) Framework (see Figure 2 adaptive capacity below). The AIL framework shows the central The capacity of particular institutions is important role of institutions in thinking about climate change and adaptation. Box 3: Factors promoting better local institutional performance for adaptation i.) Characteristics of Institutions · Organizational rules are simple and easy to understand · Broad local involvement in organization and its rules · Fairness in resource allocation · Clear mechanisms for enforcing rules · Clear, broadly acceptable mechanisms for sanctioning rule infractions · Availability of low cost adjudication · Accountability of decision makers and other officials ii.) Characteristics of the Context of Institutions · Mechanisms for dissemination of new technologies and training in their use Box 2: Role of informal local institutions in · Favorable returns for products sold in markets adaptation in Tanzania · Central governments facilitate the functioning of The Shinyanga region in northern Tanzania is occupied local institutions by mainly by the agropastoral Sukuma people. The region used o Creating effective support for sanctions to be extensively forested, but relocation schemes, drought, used by local institutions over-grazing, cash crop cultivation, destruction of forests to o Provide necessary support in terms of wipe out tsetse fly and increased demand for firewood have information, finances, and skill reduced productivity and increased soil erosion. development Using indigenous knowledge, the Sukuma people practice a o Develop indicators of performance against natural resource management system called ngitili - a which institutions can be assessed over Sukuma word meaning enclosure. Working closely with time traditional institutions at the local level, a project under the · The network of institutions present in a context and Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism has revived the their links with different social groups Sukuma people's traditional conservation practices. The iii.) Characteristics of groups served by the Shinyanga landscape is now changing. Working through Institutions local institutions, farmers are engaging in agroforestry using · Clearly defined boundaries of the group degraded croplands and rangelands, employing traditional · History of successful shared experiences; existence village guards, and conserving vegetation by closing off of social capital\ ngitilis for regeneration. Through planting activities and · Appropriate leadership that changes periodically­ community involvement, ngitili today provides livelihoods young, familiar with changing external resources for communities in the region when environmental environments, connected to local traditional elite conditions deteriorate. · Interdependence among group members Source: UNFCCC Coping strategies database · Heterogeneity of endowments among group members, homogeneity of identities and interests iv.) Characteristics of the Ecological Context Key factors that promote local capacity for · Match between demands on ecological system and its output adaptation · Information availability about the ecological system · Possibility of storing benefits from the system · Group dependence on resources available from the ecological system 4 in how they affect adaptation. But equally change is shaped by its connections with important are the linkages and interconnections other local and external institutions. they have with each other and rural households; Connections between local and higher level these affect flow of resources and decision- institutions allow residents of a given locality making power among social groups, and thus to leverage their membership of local their capacity to adapt. Two types of linkages institutions for gains from outside the locality. relevant to adaptation capacity and outcomes can General findings on the role local institutions be identified: play in facilitating adaptation 1) Linkages to institutions: as described in Box 4 To comparatively assess the role of local below, the degree to which different households institutions in facilitating adaptation, it is useful to are linked to various institutions in their locality look at actual cases of adaptation. A review of impacts their access to resources and decision- 118 cases of adaptation from 46 countries drawn making, and thereby their capacity to adapt. from the UNFCCC database on adaptation and Institutional connections provide households and coping strategies provides importance evidence communities greater flexibility in their choice of for analysis and shows interesting patterns about diversification and adaptation strategies. For the role of institutions. example, households who are better linked to credit groups and irrigation institutions will Local institutions are central to local adaptations benefit more from external support for to climate risks; they will continue to be so over the adaptation, if it is channeled through these next several decades as rural societies strive to adapt existing institutions. to climate change. Without local institutions, rural 2) Linkages between institutions: the poor groups will find it far costlier to pursue the effectiveness of a particular institution in adoption of effective adaptation practices relevant to coordinating and responding to climate their local needs, as well as difficult to increase their Box 4: The role of institutional linkages in information knowledge on adaptation options. The shaping local adaptation in Mexico UNFCCC data show that local institutions are Local institutions and their linkages play a crucial role necessary to enable households and social groups to in influencing the adaptive capacity of communities deploy specific adaptation practices. Institutions were and their adaptation choices. A study of three different relevant to adaptation in all the 118 cases. In 77 cases, communities in Mexico shows a range of adaptive local institutions were the primary structuring responses across the communities. These variations are in large measure the result of the differences in influence for adaptation, in all the others they institutional linkages within and outside the locality. facilitated adaptation together with external support. In one community, households engaged in a more diverse set of productive activities, intensified The most common classes of adaptation their involvement in non-farm work including public works programs, and emergency food responses are diversification and communal distribution campaigns. pooling on their own, and diversification and In a second community, household primarily exchange as a pair. There is a nearly complete engaged in wage-labor based migration within absence of mobility in the examined cases (see Mexico, and selling livestock to buy maize. table 1). In a third, extensive labor demands and high investments in irrigated agriculture led many households to accept the migration of some Table 1: Frequency Distribution of Different Classes of members to the United States. Adaptation Practices In the first community, institutions facilitated Class of Corresponding Adaptation Freque connections between officials in public works Adaptation strategies ncy* programs and local households; lacking such linkages, households in the second and third communities Mobility 1. agropastoral migration; 2. wage 2 migrated. But the character and scale of migration labor migration; 3. involuntary differed again as a result of institutional connections. migration; 4. Remittances (joint Informal relationships between households, cemented with exchange) over decades of interactions, helped migration to the Storage 1. water storage; 2. food storage 11 United States in the third community. In the second (crops, seeds, forest products); 3. community, in contrast, migration took place within animal/live storage; 4. pest control national boundaries. 5 Table 1: Frequency Distribution of Different Classes of External support to local adaptation efforts has Adaptation Practices been typically in the form of information and Diversification 1. asset portfolio diversification; 2. 33 financial support. In the UNFCCC database, there skills and occupational training; 3. are almost no cases in which external support was occupational diversification; 4. crop provided to improve leadership or to improve local choices; 5. production technologies; 6. consumption choices; 7. animal institutional capacity for adaptation. A closer look at breeding the data explains these patterns. The vast majority of Communal 1. forestry; 2. infrastructure 29 cases of information provision and financial support pooling development; 3. information concern adaptation practices related to disaster gathering; 4. disaster preparation preparedness, early warning systems about failure of Exchange 1. improved market access; 2. 1 ­. rains, and private or public infrastructure that could insurance provision; 3. new product withstand climate hazards such as floods and storms. sales; 4. seeds, animal, and other Many more forms of support could be provided to input purchases; remittances (joint with mobility) reinforce adaptation and support institutions that are shaping, facilitating, and reinforcing local Civil society-based informal institutions are institutions-based adaptation efforts. It is reasonable central in adaptation to climate risk management to conclude that external support for adaptation ­ both on their own, and in conjunction with external focuses on a relatively small range of the adaptation interventions. A combination of civic, and public and responses used by local communities and institutions civic institutions are the ones most commonly to cope with climate change. involved in facilitating adaptation to climate change. Civil society institutions and partnerships between The figure 3 below presents the four main forms civic and public institutions seem to occur more of external interventions to reinforce adaptation frequently to promote diversification and communal practices: information and training, technological pooling. innovation, financial investment, and leadership and institutional changes that reduce costs of Private market based institutions have, until now, collective action. been relatively marginal to adaptation except in a few cases where they promote exchange-based Types of Rural Institutions adaptation strategies. Private and market institutions Public Civic Market have played a relatively small role in facilitating or reinforcing adaptation. When involved, private sector Bureaucratic Local Member- Cooperatives Service Private and market institutions (alone and in partnership with Agencies Gov. Ship Org. Org. Busines civil society) seem to focus on the promotion of diversification and exchange. This finding creates a challenge and an opportunity to identify ways to Mobility Storage Diversifi- Communal Exchange create additional incentives and partnerships cation pooling involving the private sector and market actors to facilitate the adaptation process. Types of Adaptation Practices Public sector institutions are more likely to Figure 3: Institutional Mediation of External facilitate adaptation strategies related to communal pooling and diversification, due to Given the importance of local institutions to their command over authoritative action, and their community adaptation, what role do existing ability to channel technical and financial inputs National Adaptation Plans recognize for them? into rural areas. Public institutions are only Despite the critical importance of rural infrequently associated with market exchange institutions in shaping adaptive responses to processes promoting adaptation. climate change, existing work on adaptation responses focuses primarily on technological and infrastructure options. There has been little 6 attention to local institutions. For example, the Bank projects aiming to build adaptive capacity Fourth Assessment Report of the can be classified along four dimensions, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change according to the timing of the intervention identifies a number of institutional obstacles to (reactive or proactive), and the adaptation such as social resistance to change, comprehensiveness of the intervention ­ i.e, weak governance, ineffective institutional whether it supports a specific adaptation practice arrangements and lack of information on key or one that is tied into other aspects of livelihoods vulnerability indicators. But when it comes to (targeted or comprehensive). adaptation options, despite some attention to land management issues the report focuses primarily Targeted Integrated on technology and infrastructure for future Reactive Post-disaster Disaster response and adaptation: embankments, dykes, flood proof emergency support vulnerability reduction - few Bank projects projects in the wake of buildings, new crops, sand dune replanting, fall into this climate-related disasters levees, and sea walls! category Seek to improve local and national capacity to adapt A review of the National Adaptation Plans of and manage risk through Action (NAPAs) also indicates that most of them institutional development and capacity building at do not incorporate local communities and local and national levels, institutions in adaptation plans: only 20 of the 173 eg Nicaragua Natural projects described in the NAPA identify local Disaster Vulnerability level institutions as partners in facilitating Reduction Project Sector-specific Integrated projects that adaptation, and around 20 percent of the projects Proactive projects to enhance support livelihoods and in the NAPA documents incorporate local resilience, production possibilities, institutions as the focus. Even for projects that are vulnerability strengthen institutional focused on agriculture, water, forest management, reduction and capacity for adaptation, fisheries, small-scale infrastructure and capacity preparedness, eg improved coordination of Sahel Integrated responses and policy building, for which local institutions are basic Lowland initiatives to support components of an adaptation strategy, minimal Ecosystem adaptation, eg Kenya attention is given to local institutions. Management Adaptation to Climate project Change in Arid Lands project (KACCAL) The graph below (see Figure 4) provides information on the extent to which selected Recommendations projects focus local level institutions. This review of adaptation from two sets of cases (those in the UNFCCC coping strategies database, and in the NAPAs) allows several conclusions and recommendations about the operational significance of institutional analysis in the context of climate change. Greater capacity to adapt locally and nationally should focus on: 1. A greater role for institutional partnerships in facilitating adaptation is needed. Institutional partnerships are crucial to local adaptation practices. Support for such partnerships can greatly enhance informal institutional processes through which adaptation occurs. Partnerships among local public and civil society institutions are associated more closely Categorising World Bank projects that with adaptation practices related to diversification support adaptation and communal pooling. Partnerships between 7 private and civil society institutions are relatively improving adaptive capacity in the context of uncommon and need encouragement. They tend development projects need to attend better to to be more closely associated with exchange and adaptation practices facilitated by different forms storage-based adaptation practices. of external support. The multiple linkages among external interventions and local adaptations can 2. Enhancing the capacity of local institutions only be understood through a focus on the is critical mediating role of different institutions in a given Although local institutions play a critical role in territory, and their influence on production and supporting adaptation, the intensity of adverse adaptation possibilities. future climate impacts is likely to increase ­ thereby also increasing current climate 6. An adaptive perspective on institutional vulnerability and reducing existing adaptive development must be adopted. Because the state capacity. External interventions in the form of of knowledge is sparse about the most effective new information and technology aimed at ways in which institutions can facilitate local improving effective coping capacities, adaptation, no blueprints can be advanced for institutional coordination for better articulation planning adaptive development. The development (connections among institutions) and improved of greater adaptive capacity will require a access (connections of institutions with social willingness to experiment, tolerate mistakes, and groups), and inflows of financial support for local promote social learning and behavioral change in leadership will be critical. terms of increasing risk management.. Adaptive development will require a greater role for local 3. Before providing resources and external institutions in both planning and implementation support, the role of local institutions and their of development projects. linkages must be understood.. Vulnerable groups in general have lower institutional access than do those who are more powerful or better This note was prepared by Arun Agrawal, Catherine off. Before external support for greater adaptive McSweeney and Nicolas Perrin (SDV). Additional copies capacity is made available, an analysis of the can also be requested via e-mail: socialdev@worldbank.org nature of institutional linkages and access for different social groups is critical. Such analysis can help target adaptation investments better. 4. Institutional coordination across scales, for better planning and implementation must be improved. National plans for adaptation need to involve local institutions more centrally in planning for and implementing adaptation policies and projects (the concept of mainstreaming at different levels is crucial). If adaptation is inevitably local, there is a great need to involve local institutions more centrally in planning for and implementing adaptation policies and projects. At the very least, there must be far greater coordination between adaptation policies and measures adopted by institutions and decision makers at the national level, and their counterparts at the local level. 5. Focus on territorial development strategies taking both vulnerabilities and capacities into account is necessary. Interventions for 8