Climate Change and Sustainable LivelihoodsClimate Change and Sustainable Livelihoods

Strategies for Building Community Resilience

Session Overview

Conceptual OverviewWhat can the sustainable livelihoods approach do?

Example from IndiaExample from Sudan

Sketch of Sudan Project (AIACC AF14)Group Discussion: Defining a Research Strategy

What does “Sustainable Livelihoods” mean? What does “Sustainable Livelihoods” mean?

SL refers to a livelihood that:can cope with and recover from stresses and

shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets

both now and in the future, while not undermining the resource base.

The Sustainable Livelihoods ConnectionThe Sustainable Livelihoods Connection

Poverty

Vulnerability to Shocks

Vulnerability to Climate

Extremes and Climate Change

Sustainable Livelihoods

Resilience to shocks

Climate Change Adaptation

What can the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach do? What can the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach do? Enhance a community’s portfolio of “social capital”:

composite of natural, physical, financial, technical and human capital

Increase livelihood security Enhance capacity to cope with climate-related shocks Build capacity to adapt to climate change

Why make the connection to Adaptation?Why make the connection to Adaptation?The SL approach helps users to: Focus on most vulnerable people Assess their vulnerabilities and strengths Tap existing knowledge, ongoing efforts to determine

what works Enable community-driven strategies and action;

ensure buy-in and longevity Ultimately… fortify against climate-related shocks

Urgent adaptation needs of most vulnerable groups Existence of local coping strategies Hard-won lessons from other (non-climate) disciplines (e.g.,

sustainable livelihoods, disaster mitigation, natural resource management); potential for integration?

No-regrets options and co-benefits Disconnect between community needs and the policy

process

Why make the connection to Adaptation?Why make the connection to Adaptation?

An Example from India:An Example from India:

Context: Poor rural villages in the drought-prone state of Maharashtra

Approach: Micro-catchment Restoration and Community Development Actors: Local Communities and the Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR)

Image source: http://www.wotr.org/

India: What happened?India: What happened? Individual villages undertook a package of SL measures,

designed to regenerate and conserve the micro-catchments upon which their community depends:

Community OrganizationSoil, Land and Water Management (e.g., trench building)Crop ManagementAfforestation; Rural Energy Management (e.g,. tree-felling ban)Livestock Management; Pasture/Fodder Development (e.g, grazing restrictions)Micro-lending for supplemental income generation Human Resource Development

India: How did it happen?India: How did it happen? Community commitment, investment and control

– “Village Self-Help Groups”– Participatory planning, implementation, management, self-assessment– Targeted role for women

Opportunities for livelihood security– Micro-lending; Supplemental income generation– Community self-help groups

Consistency with local land ownership Support of local NGO (WOTR) Training and extension services Blending of “external” and traditional knowledge

India: What was the result?India: What was the result?

Satellite imagery of Shenit Watershed

Standard FCC Using IRS 1C LISS III band 2,3,4 data. Date of scan: 19th January 1996. Source: http://www.wotr.org

January 1996Prior to project implementation

December 1999During project implementation

India: What was the result?The key outcome has been reduced vulnerability to drought of participating communities

India: What was the result?The key outcome has been reduced vulnerability to drought of participating communities

As of 2001: Number of Projects 128 Total Area Covered (ha.) 135,812 No.of Villages 176 No.of NGOs involved 77 No.of Districts 22 Total Population engaged 210,000 (approx.)

Image source: http://www.wotr.org/

An Example from Sudan:An Example from Sudan: Context: Villages in the drought-prone Bara Province,

Western Sudan Approach: Community-Based Rangeland Rehabilitation Two main development objectives:

Create locally sustainable NRM system to rehabilitate overexploited lands for the purpose of carbon sequestrationReduce the risk of production failure by increasing the number of livelihood alternatives… leading to greater local stability

Key Actors: Villages within Gireigikh rural council, pilot project staff, UNDP/GEF

Sudan: What happened?Sudan: What happened?A group of villages undertook a package of SL measures. These

included: Institution Building Training Rangeland Rehabilitation

ReplantingStabilization of sand dunesCreation of windbreaks Livestock restocking and management

Community DevelopmentWater developmentRural energy managementIntroduction of revolving creditDrought contingency planning

(Image source: The Near East Foundation, http://www.neareast.org/main/nefnotes)

Sudan: How did it happen?Sudan: How did it happen?Project approach: Similarities to India case Community-based participation an essential

approach to improving rangeland management Activities not directly related to carbon sequestration

neededMgmt. plan arises from community assets/needsAddress long-term ecological goals with short-term socio-economic (survival) measures

Community institutional structure created– land-use master plans; – oversight and mobilization structures

Rangeland rehabilitation measures implemented– 5 km of sand dunes re-vegetated– 195 km of windbreaks sheltering 130 farms– Approximately 700 ha improved– Livestock restocking

Community development underway– 2 revolving funds– 5 pastoral women’s groups focused on livestock value-adding activities– 5 new irrigated gardens and wells – Grain storage and seed credit program

Sudan: What was the result?Sudan: What was the result?

High impact - Several major objectives exceeded original targets project due to perceived benefits

Positive leakage - additional villages implementing project strategies Strategies slated for expansion and replication in Province

Effectively combined participatory planning, capacity building and access to credit Diversified production system and established drought contingency measures

Sudan: What was the result?Sudan: What was the result?

Image source: The Near East Foundation (http://www.neareast.org/main/nefnotes)

AIACC Project AF14: Strategies for Increasing Community Resilience in Sudan: Lessons for Climate Change Adaptation

AIACC Project AF14: Strategies for Increasing Community Resilience in Sudan: Lessons for Climate Change Adaptation

A joint project of the Sudan Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources and SEI-Boston

Project Goal: To contribute to efforts to build the resilience of vulnerable communities to climate change.

AF14: Major Objectives AF14: Major Objectives Identify SL and environmental management

(EM) strategies that are effective at increasing the resilience of vulnerable communities to climate-related shocks

Assess these in the context of underlying conditions and of climate change

Share lessons for promoting climate change adaptation with the research, planning and policy-making communities

AF14: Project ApproachAF14: Project Approach

The project will look at: Vulnerable communities within Sudan. Vulnerability and level of adaptation to current

climatic conditions. Community-based strategies for coping with and

adapting to climate-related stressors. Underlying conditions (socioeconomic, political,

ecological) that promote or inhibit these strategies.

Want to understand: what SL/EM strategies can do for a community

What measures and strategies used? To what effect?

what factors are needed to support or enable SL/EM strategiesWhat national and local policies, conditions, etc. are behind successful strategies?

General steps:– Identify and confirm “successful” SL/EM experiences – Explore the nature of this success – use indicators to determine the way in which

the community is resilient– Ask “why?” - what factors/conditions made it possible for strategies to be

implemented, to take hold and to persist– Distill lessons on how to build community resilience to climate impacts

AF14: Project ApproachAF14: Project Approach

Developing a Research StrategyDeveloping a Research Strategy

1) Defining Research GoalsKey QuestionsSample Approach

2) Defining Methodological ApproachKey QuestionsSample Approach

3) Defining Research ScopeKey QuestionsSample Approach

Developing a Research Strategy (ctd.)Developing a Research Strategy (ctd.)

4) Defining Indicators and Data NeedsKey QuestionsSample Approach

5) Selecting Case StudiesKey QuestionsSample Approach

6) Developing a Research ProtocolKey QuestionsSample Approach

Using this as a tool in adaptation assessment can help to: Enable national planning processes to effectively consider the

most vulnerable groups; articulate unique local vulnerabilities Identify locally-relevant resilience-building options Build understanding of micro- and macro-level enabling

conditions for adaptation Build local adaptation awareness and engage local NGOs

(potential adaptation project implementers)

ConclusionsTapping the SL Approach: What can it do for adaptation?

ConclusionsTapping the SL Approach: What can it do for adaptation?

(Image Source: Global Mechanism for the UNCDD website http://www.gm-unccd.org/English/Activities/Enabling.htm).