Community Based Adaptation - Key components for success

Climate change impacts disproportionately affect the poor. Impacts will intensify yet poor communities already struggle to cope with current climate shocks. Helping them adapt to climate change is vital but daunting.

Some international funding is available, but giving poor country governments money does not mean that it will reach the most vulnerable. One approach to the problem that deserves greater support is community-based adaptation (CBA).
This begins by identifying the communities most vulnerable to climate change. These communities are generally very poor, depend on natural resources and occupy areas already prone to shocks such as floods or droughts. CBA fieldwork to date reveals that outsiders must then gain the trust of the communities they want to help. This can mean spending time with the community, or working through trusted local intermediary organizations. Identifying
appropriate adaptation options should then follow, building on information about existing community capacity, knowledge and practices used to cope with climate hazards.
Climate change is initially a confusing concept to many. Communicating climate change requires translating scientific texts into local languages and, importantly, using art, theatre and video.

Once established, an adaptation project is like any standard development project. The difference lies not in what the intervention is but in the inputs to the intervention. The adaptation element introduces the community to climate risk and factors this into activities.

Lessons from CBA so far reveal that it is impossible to learn the theory of CBA in a university
or training workshop and then apply it in the field; learning comes from practice itself. Whilst CBA theory and practice are in their infancy, both are likely to grow. The Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme already supports several CBA activities. Practical Action also has several projects working with local communities to help them adapt to climate change.
Sharing experience and knowledge from pilot activities amongst practitioners, policy makers, researchers, funders and the communities at risk is essential.