Barriers and enablers to climate change adaptation in hierarchical governance systems: the case of Vietnam

Abstract

Governments fulfil important roles in increasing the adaptive capacity of local communities to respond to climate change impacts, particularly in developing countries. Existing studies on how governments enable and constrain the ways in which local level communities learn and build their adaptive capacity, however, generally adopt network or market-oriented types of governance. However, the most vulnerable regions to climate change impact in the world are generally governed through hierarchical policy systems. This research aims to understand how the hierarchical policy system in Vietnam creates enables and/or constrains the policy capacity of policy actors to contribute to effective climate change adaptation. We conducted interviews (n = 26) with key actors at multiple levels of government. Our findings show the importance of clear legal institutions, available financing for implementing policies, and the training of governmental staff, particularly at district and commune levels where the policy capacities are generally too low to deal with climate change impacts. We conclude that any efforts to support local actors (i.e. smallholder farmers) should include investments in policy capacity to ensure uptake and upscaling of adaptation actions more broadly.

Power interplay between actors: using material and ideational resources to shape local adaptation plans of action (LAPAs) in Nepal

“…Analysis of power interplay can also help in investigating climate change adaptation controversies that are marked by uncertainties and ambiguities. Currently, the literature argues that barriers to adaptation in the least developed countries are mostly because of lack of resources and capacity (Phuong, Biesbroek, & Wals, 2018). However, in this article, we show that it is also because of the power interplay between different actors.…”

From Fellegi to Fonberg: Canada’s Policy Capacity Groundhog Day?

“…Here, in this network, the abstracts address fairly broad macro‐level political‐economic topics such state, governance, institutions, and politics. For example, Phuong et al () investigated how Vietnam’s hierarchical political systems constrains the policy capacity of policy actors thereby impeding effective climate change adaptation. A smaller but still very significant network (green nodes), where much of the Canadian (and Australian) literature is found, methodological/empirical themes (e.g., methods, policy analysis, comparison, researcher, science, policy network) dominate.…”

The Three Dialectics of Adaptation Finance in Vietnam

“…Despite this variety of financing sources, it seems that funds for adaptation actions at the national level may be connected with difficulty to local adaptation needs. Moreover, projects that are labelled as adaptation may cover actions that do not have climate adaptation as their main target [6,7], that are not really tied to a specific reaction to climate changes [8], or that may contribute to adaptation for specific groups or areas but may increase vulnerability of other groups or areas now or in the future [8]. Conversely, financing mechanisms and resources mobilized for adaptation are not necessarily earmarked as such, and it is even highly possible that so-called adaptation finance represents only a portion of the actions that can be considered as adaptation action.…”