Can community-based adaptation increase resilience?

Abstract

A central claim of community-based adaptation (CBA) is that it increases resilience. Yet, the concept of resilience is treated inconsistently in CBA, obscuring discussion of the limitations and benefits of resilience thinking and undermining evaluation of resilience outcomes in target communities. This paper examines different participatory assessment activities carried out as part of CBA case studies in Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands. The activities and their outputs were assessed against 10 characteristics of resilience previously identified in a systematic review. The findings offer support to the claim that CBA can build resilience in target communities, revealing the inherent strengths of CBA in relation to resilience. However, it is necessary for CBA assessments to simultaneously incorporate activities that consider cultural, political, economic and ecological factors influencing resilience within and between communities. This may demand multiple staff with different skills. The findings also highlight the importance of politics and power in shaping adaptive capacity. In particular, addressing the highly context specific nature of social, cultural and political relations demands an approach that is situated in and responsive to local realities. Overall, our case studies suggest that using the 10 characteristics as an analytical framework offers support to practitioners looking to develop, implement or evaluate CBA assessment activities. Yet within this, it is critical that a focus on increasing resilience through CBA does not preclude transformation in social relations. Realising the potential to support resilience and transformation requires CBA practitioners to acknowledge the multifaceted nature of resilience, whilst also paying close attention to multiple potential barriers to equitable adaptation.

Keywords:

• community-based adaptation
• climate change
• participation
• fisheries

Acknowledgements

Thanks go to community members in Timor Leste and Solomon Islands who provided inspiration during the case studies undertaken by Park et al., (2012). Without the assistance of many colleagues and in-country partners this research could not have been undertaken and special thanks to Kirsten Abernethy, Douglas Beare, Philippa Cohen, Jennifer King, Dave Mills, Sharon Suri, Nhuong Tran, Hugh Govan, Delvene Boso, Daykin Harohau and the other members of the WorldFish Solomon Islands team, as well as representatives of the Governments and local NGOs of Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands, particular Roman Luan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was co-funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB), Global Environment Fund (GEF) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Thanks also to the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems for funding this ex-ante assessment, and to SEI’s initiative on Transforming Development and Disaster Risk (with funds provided by the Swedish government) for additional support. We would like to thank all donors who supported this work through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund. For a list of Fund donors please see: http://www.cgiar.org/who-we-are/cgiar-fund/fund-donors-2/.