Climate resilience building in Semi-Arid Lands (SALs): institutional weaknesses and strengths in subnational governments in Brazil

Abstract

Well established institutions are an essential factor for the successful realization of sustainable socio-economic and environmental potential in Semi-Arid Lands (SALs). SALs receive limited attention in international climate research and policies; thus, the institutional relationship between governance, policy, and implementation continues to suffer from inconsistencies across governance levels. This research carried out an analysis combining mixed-research methods to collect, record, and analyze data and information regarding institutional and organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and local level policy implementation challenges and scope to assess the effectiveness of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and implementation of adaptation policies at State and local levels in SALs. The inefficiencies observed in the DRM/CCA adaptation processes are concentrated in areas of high governance of state and municipal governments and stem from local communities' reduced organizational and technical capacity. It results in the negligent application of measures and resources to address climate risks. Therefore, this paper contributes to the increasing understanding of the institutional framework's role in the facilitation of local adaptation, revealing what seems to be working well, what is not, how things could improve in Brazilian SALs.

Evolution of the institutional capacity of the São Paulo Metropolitan Region in relation to climate change

“…In the scientific debate about climate change, some authors (Dacin, Goodstein, and Scott, 2002;Scott et al, 2000;Gupta et al, 2010) show that the adaptive capacity of institutions to face climate change can be measured using indicators focused on their governance. Although there are qualitative scientific studies on the subject -based on semi-structured interviews (Mundim et al, 2019;Costa, 2020) and literature review (Fernandes, 2016) -and also research using disaggregated data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, in the Portuguese acronym) -the Municipal Basic Information Survey (Munic, in the Portuguese acronym) (Leme, 2016) -, there is a gap regarding the institutional capacities to cope with climate change, expressed in the lack of studies regarding systematization methodologies that measure institutional capacities, at the municipal and metropolitan level, through quantitative and synthetic indicators.…”

Evolução da capacidade institucional da RMSP em relação às mudanças climáticas

“…No debate científico sobre as mudanças climáticas em específico, alguns autores (Dacin, Goodstein e Scott, 2002;Scott et al, 2000;Gupta et al, 2010) mostram que a capacidade adaptativa das instituições à mudança climática pode ser mensurada por meio de indicadores voltados à governança delas. Embora existam, na literatura acadêmica sobre o tema, abordagens qualitativas baseadas em entrevistas semiestruturadas (Mundim, Artuso e Ferreira, 2019;Costa, 2020) e em revisão de literatura (Fernandes, 2016), além de pesquisas sobre dados específicos da Pesquisa de Informações Básicas Municipais (Munic) do IBGE (Leme, 2016), há uma lacuna do conhecimento científico em relação ao tema, expressa na inexistência de estudos em relação a metodologias de sistematização que mensurem as capacidades institucionais, em âmbito municipal e metropolitano, por meio de indicadores quantitativos.…”