Assets and Adaptation: An Emerging Debate

Prowse, Martin; Scott, Lucy

doi:10.1111/j.1759-5436.2008.tb00475.x

Cited by 61 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Institutional arrangements such as collective marketing of produce and cushioning members from losses were identified. This corroborates with other studies which have suggested that assets play a necessary role in pro-poor adaptation to climate change (Mude et al, 2007;Prowse & Scott, 2008). Assets offer a safety net especially where external support from governments or private entities is limited (Place et al, 2004).…”

Section: Skills and Knowledge Sharingsupporting

confidence: 90%

Enhancing adaptation to climate variability in the East African highlands: a case for fostering collective action among smallholder farmers in Kenya and Uganda

Ombogoh

Tanui

McMullin

et al. 2016

Climate and Development

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There is an increasing recognition of the role of climate change adaptation among smallholder farmers in rain-fed agriculture in Africa. Collective action among smallholder farmers has been suggested as influencing local adaptation processes hence the need to evaluate its impact in different contexts. This paper provides evidence of collective action in enhancing local adaptation to climate variability. It determines the importance of different forms of collective action for enhancing adaptation. Through simple random sampling, a survey of 240 households in Embu County in Kenya and 200 households from Kapchorwa district of Uganda was undertaken. Focus-group discussions involving farmer groups and local government representatives were performed to triangulate information collected through the surveys. The results show a positive relationship between membership in farmer groups and adaptation to climate variability in both sites. Four main components of collective action were identified in Embu and these included the development of internal group capacities, assets mobilization and management, collective marketing, and management of human and natural capital. In Kapchorwa, the development of internal group capacities, risk spreading, and financial resources were significant. We argue that locallevel governance and institutional arrangements for collective action are critical for successful adaptation to climate variability.

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Section: Skills and Knowledge Sharingsupporting

confidence: 90%

Enhancing adaptation to climate variability in the East African highlands: a case for fostering collective action among smallholder farmers in Kenya and Uganda

Ombogoh

Tanui

McMullin

et al. 2016

Climate and Development

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“…4 and 19). Although costly relative to more focused programs (65), such initiatives also will enhance subsistence security and decrease the risk of losing years of development effort to a single catastrophic event.…”

Section: Latent Adaptive Capacity In Rural Communities Can Lie In Soumentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate-related disaster opens a window of opportunity for rural poor in northeastern Honduras

McSweeney

Coomes

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Two distinct views are evident in research on how rural communities in developing countries cope with extreme weather events brought by climate change: ( i ) that the resource-reliant poor are acutely vulnerable and need external assistance to prepare for such events, and ( ii ) that climate-related shocks can offer windows of opportunity in which latent local adaptive capacities are triggered, leading to systemic improvement. Results from a longitudinal study in a Tawahka community in Honduras before and after Hurricane Mitch (1994–2002) indicate that residents were highly vulnerable to the hurricane—due in part to previous development assistance—and that the poorest households were the hardest hit. Surprisingly, however, the disaster enabled the poor to initiate an institutional change that led to more equitable land distribution, slowed primary forest conversion, and positioned the community well to cope with comparable flooding occurring 10 y later. The study provides compelling evidence that communities can seize on the window of opportunity created by climate-induced shocks to generate sustained social-ecological improvement, and suggests that future interventions should foster local capacities for endogenous institutional change to enhance community resilience to climate shocks.

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“…Autonomous adaptation refers to actions taken by individuals in the face of changing climatic conditions, such as a shift in rainfall, and can be contrasted with nationallevel planned measures that invest in technology and infrastructure across sectors (Prowse and Scott, 2008;Pelling, 2010). It involves ex-ante risk management, which in the livelihoods literature is distinguished from ex-post coping strategies.…”

Section: Autonomous Adaptation To Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate‐Change Adaptation in Ethiopia: To What Extent Does Social Protection Influence Livelihood Diversification?

Weldegebriel

Prowse

2013

Development Policy Review

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Social‐protection programmes like the Productive Safety‐Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia can play a positive role in promoting livelihoods and enhancing risk management. This article uses propensity score matching to estimate its effect on income diversification. The results suggest that receiving transfers from the PSNP, on average, did not increase farm or non‐farm income but significantly increases natural‐resource extraction (one component of off‐farm income). While these results should be treated with caution, they suggest that the PSNP may not be helping smallholders diversify income sources in a positive manner for climate adaptation. The article concludes by arguing for the promotion of positive forms of income diversification and the further investigation of the PSNP's influence on autonomous adaptation strategies.

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Assets and Adaptation: An Emerging Debate

Cited by 61 publications

References 24 publications

Enhancing adaptation to climate variability in the East African highlands: a case for fostering collective action among smallholder farmers in Kenya and Uganda

Enhancing adaptation to climate variability in the East African highlands: a case for fostering collective action among smallholder farmers in Kenya and Uganda

Climate-related disaster opens a window of opportunity for rural poor in northeastern Honduras

Climate‐Change Adaptation in Ethiopia: To What Extent Does Social Protection Influence Livelihood Diversification?

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