Towards a Characterisation of Adaptive Capacity (Jones, Ludi, Levine, 2010)

Towards a Characterisation of Adaptive Capacity (Jones, Ludi, Levine, 2010)

Lindsey Jones, Eva Ludi, Simon Levine

http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/6353.pdf

"Based on the findings of ACCRA's consultative process, the framework identifies five distinct yet interrelated characteristics that are conducive to adaptive capacity. These are: the asset base, institutions and entitlements, knowledge and information, innovation and flexible forward-looking decision-making... These parameters influence and determine the degree to which a community is resilient and responsive to changes in the external environment."

JLJ - Why another framework? What is lacking in this approach, in my opinion, is the concept of intelligently-guided scenario development, and actual 'thinking' about the system stretching to adapt. Intelligently constructed scenarios of sustainable development can uncover and therefore highlight weak links in the system.

Think of the New Orleans Levees. If someone had done an engineering study and actually conceptualized the levees filling with water and straining to the point of breaking, the weakest of those those 'break points' could have been reinforced. Adaptive capacity depends on intelligently and realistically modeling a system under stress and watching the interactions. An assessment is made of the weak points, and strengthening can begin. Much like a professional sports coach uses the 'second team' to simulate the plays and defenses that will be used by the opponent in an upcoming game - the results point to areas that need attention. Much like an automotive company running 'crash testing' to simulate an automobile crumpling under impact. Is the vehicle strong enough to protect you, or not? The crash test results give a good indicator of your capacity to survive in a serious automobile accident. Much like a financial institution undergoing a 'stress test' to see if it can survive certain economic strains without needing a bailout from the government. Much like a hospital running a 'Health Fair' where you can get the results of certain health tests like an echocardiogram, EKG, carotid artery ultrasound, blood pressure, etc. to determine if your health is at risk. Much like the state of Virginia requiring a yearly inspection of your car to determine if the brakes or other critical systems are likely to fail and perhaps put you or others at risk.

Frameworks are useful, yes, but useful as a part of the thinking process that constructs these scenarios of change and intelligently determines that yes or no, a system is 'ready' for what will likely come.

p.1 A framework for understanding and assessing adaptive capacity at the local level is needed to begin to understand how it can be supported through wider development processes at both local and national levels. Such a framework may in time serve as a platform to monitor progress, identify the needs and allocate development resources to enhance a system's ability to adapt to change.

p.1Why another framework?

Traditional frameworks to conceptualise adaptive capacity, both at national and local levels, have focused largely on assets and capitals as indicators... While useful in helping us to understand the resources at the disposal of a system - a nation, a community or a household - to cope with and adapt to changing environments, asset-oriented approaches typically mask the role of processes and functions in supporting adaptive capacity.

Understanding adaptive capacity, therefore, entails recognising the importance of various intangible processes: decision-making and governance; the fostering of innovation, experimentation and opportunity exploitation; and the structure of institutions and entitlements, for example. Doing this requires moving away from simply looking at what a system has that enables it to adapt, to recognising what a system does to enable it to adapt (WRI, 2009).

p.1-2 The framework presented here... gives greater attention to processes... As with all frameworks, the idea is not to claim a greater truth in reflecting reality than other frameworks, but rather to be as useful as possible

p.2 This Background Note puts forward a 'Local Adaptive Capacity framework' (LAC)... It is an attempt to incorporate intangible and dynamic dimensions of adaptive capacity, as well as capitals and resource-based components, into an analysis of adaptive capacity at the local level.

p.2 The framework... It starts by recognising that it is currently not feasible to measure adaptive capacity directly... The framework lays out five distinct yet interrelated characteristics of adaptive capacity, with the underlying assumption that positive impacts on these characteristics should enhance the system's adaptive capacity.

p.2 Broadly speaking, adaptive capacity denotes the ability of a system to adjust, modify or change its characteristics or actions to moderate potential damage, take advantage of opportunities or cope with the consequences of shock or stress (Brooks, 2003)... the framework is designed to look at change generally, and may be applicable in other contexts of changing shocks and trends.

p.3 LAC... is merely a framework for looking at change, not a theory of change. It can therefore be used as a lens to look at the impact of any intervention on a system's capacity to adapt, no matter where such an intervention falls along the 'spectrum'.

p.3 As discussed above, direct assessments of adaptive capacity are not feasible, and so it becomes necessary to identify the characteristics or features that influence it.

p.3 Intangible factors, such as flexibility, innovation and redundancy, which are hard to capture in the SL framework [JLJ - Sustainable Livelihoods framework, a competing or comparable framework], are integral aspects of a community's ability to deal with internal and external shocks. For example, redundancy, and the extent to which components of a system can be substituted and interchanged to deal with failure or irrelevance, is an important precondition for adjusting and adapting to evolving circumstances (Ospina and Heeks, 2010).

p.3-4 Based on the findings of ACCRA's consultative process, the framework identifies five distinct yet interrelated characteristics that are conducive to adaptive capacity. These are: the asset base, institutions and entitlements, knowledge and information, innovation and flexible forward-looking decision-making... These parameters influence and determine the degree to which a community is resilient and responsive to changes in the external environment.

p.6 The five characteristics described under the LAC are a starting point to conceptualise adaptive capacity at the local level.. The framework has the potential to be applied in a number a contexts and for a range of purposes.

p.6-7 At the programmatic level, it may be possible to develop indicators to inform monitoring and evaluation, to guide the design of projects and to mainstream climate change adaptation considerations. It may also be used to inform or asses... policies and strategies... those which seek deliberately to build local-level adaptive capacity, or to assess other policies against their ability to do this.

p.7 While LAC does not include redundancy as a separate characteristic, it does treat it as an emergent property and the analysis of all the characteristics should include a 'redundancy lens'. [JLJ - Ok, I see. The authors are telling us that the concept of redundancy, if added directly to the framework, would in fact be redundant.]