Adaptation Knowledge Day III

1. Adaptation Knowledge Day III Effective Adaptation – from Principles to Practice- integrating community and ecosystem approaches Enhancing adaptive capacity through integrated community and ecosystem adaptation: Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation, Reflection & Learning (MERL) Kit Vaughan Global Climate Change Advocacy and Policy Coordinator kvaughan@careclimatechange.org CARE International May 18 2012 http://www.careclimatechange.org/

2. Why is CARE focusing on climate change adaptation? • 207.6 million people affected by natural disasters in 2008 -- 30.5 million were displaced or forced to migrate. In comparison, just 4.6 million were displaced or forced to migrate as a result of war and conflict. • Worldwide, 75 million children – including 41 million girls – do not attend school. Key reason: girls responsible for collecting water & firewood. Drought/ disforestation increase burden. • Estimated 87% unmarried women & almost 100% of married women lost livelihoods when a cyclone hit the Ayeyerwaddy Delta in Myanmar in 2008. • Additional cost of climate change adaptation in developing countries has been estimated around US$100 billion. uupwards Because climate change threatens Development: CARE seeks a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. WWW.CARECLIMATECHANGE.ORG

3. CARE’s approach to Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) • The goal of CBA is to build the resilience of vulnerable individuals, households, communities and societies from the ground up • Action is based on local priorities (taking into account social heterogeneity) – but not in a vacuum! • It starts with local knowledge but also seeks to integrate scientific knowledgeinto decision making processes • Operates at multiple levels and can be large scale, so long as communities remain at the centre of planning and action

4. CARE’s approach to Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) • CARE sees CBA as a process involving five interrelated components: • Climate-resilient livelihood strategies, including capacity building for planning and improved risk management • Disaster risk reduction and Management • Capacity strengthening of local civil society and government institutions so that they can provide better support to communities, households and individuals in their adaptation efforts • Social mobilization to address underlying causes of vulnerability, eg: gender-based inequality, poor governance • Influencing the enabling policy environment through advocacy

5. Why measure adaptation effectiveness locally? • The biggest burden of climate change is borne by poor and vulnerable communities, especially women. • The impacts of climate risk are manifesting themselves overwhelmingly at the local, community-level, and will affect sex and ages groups differentially. • Many rural communities depend directly on natural resources, and on the goods and services provided by healthy ecosystems, for their livelihoods. • These ecosystems on which livelihoods depend will also undergo rapid changes, and their resilience in the face of climate change will hinge on the capacities of communities to understand and manage these changes. • This is why an integrated approach to adaptation, which combines community-based and ecosystem-based approaches, is needed.

6. DEFINITION OF AN INTEGRATED APPROACH:“Adaptation planning and action that adheres both to human rights-based principles and principles of environmental sustainability, recognizing their inter-dependent roles in building resilience of both human communities and ecosystems to climate variability and long-term change”

7. Accounting for ecological and social complexities

8. SustainEcosystem Services CLIMATE CHANGE

9. A challenge remains: How to measure resilience? • Buffering capacity: Are the natural systems that mitigate damage from natural disturbances present (e.g., wetlands that store floodwater, vegetative cover that protects against landslides during heavy rains)? • Replication and redundancy: Are critical assets (natural and/or human) present in multiple places? For example, a region that depends on a single water source for irrigation or potable water is more vulnerable to disturbance than one with backup or alternative sources • Excess capacity: Have humans fully utilized the landscape’s natural resources? If so, a drought, fire, or other disturbance that destroys necessary resources will have devastating results. If not, alternative sources of water, food, and land can be utilized while the system is recovering. • Susceptibility: Have humans created communities, infrastructure, and production systems in places where they are likely to be damaged or destroyed by disturbances? And how can land use planning approaches reduce the exposure of these assets to future climate impacts?

10. CARE and IIED partnership - in collaboration with and with inputs from: ACCRA IDRC CCA IDS IISD Indigo Practical Action Mercy Corps Oxfam Red Cross/Red Crescent WRI

11. Why Participatory M&E for Community-Based Adaptation ? • Overarching goals with new PM&E: • Provide a platform for local stakeholders to articulate their own needs – fundamental part of building adaptive capacity • Measure changes in adaptive capacity • Support the ‘adaptive management’ of CBA strategies and plans so that local stakeholders can continue adapting to the impacts of climate change beyond the scope of a specific CBA intervention/project • Facilitate continuous and joint learning and reflection – particularly important for CBA due to high degree of uncertainty

12. What do you need to measure to verify whether local-level adaptation interventions are effective? Process and Practice

13. The MERL process: What’s different? • A more positive way of tracking change under uncertainty • ‘Risks’ are understood as part of the process • Learning is actively encouraged • Allows greater room for responding • Informs iterative and flexible planning • And more active and postive reporting Process and Practice

14. Thank you! • For more information: • 1. CARE-IIED P-MERL Manual • Tine Rossing (CARE) • rossing@careclimatechange.org • Jessica Ayers (IIED) • Jessica.Ayers@iied.org • 2. ELAN Integrated Approach paper • Pascal Girot (CARE) • pgirot@careclimatechange.org Process and Practice