Participatory adaptation planning and costing. Applications in agricultural adaptation in western Kenya

Author

Abrar S. Chaudhury (abrarchaudhury@gmail.com), Ariella Helfgott, Thomas F. Thornton and Chase Sova
Additional contact information

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2016, vol. 21, issue 3, pages 301-322

Abstract: Abstract Adaptation to climate change is an important theme in the strategy and policy of institutions around the world. Billions of dollars are allocated every year, based on cost estimates of actions to cope with, or benefit from the impacts of climate change. Costing adaptation, however, is complex, involving multiple actors with differing values and a spectrum of possible adaptation strategies and pathways. Currently, expert driven, top-down approaches dominate adaptation costing in practice. These approaches are subject to misallocation, with global funds not always reaching vulnerable communities in most need. This paper introduces an analytical framework called Participatory Social Return on Investment (PSROI), which provides a structured framework for multi-stakeholder planning, selection and valuation of appropriate methods of adaptation. The broader economic, social and environmental impacts of these adaptation actions are explored and valued through a participatory process. PSROI is strength-based, building local capacity and generating stakeholder buy-in. The financial valuation generated provides an additional tool for examining and prioritizing adaptation actions based on their impact. Results from a pilot of the PSROI framework in a smallholder farming community in Western Kenya provide empirical evidence for the difference between expert driven desk-based and ground-based cost estimates that involve local communities. There was an approximate 70 % reduction in the valuation of an agroforestry intervention, selected by the local community, when compared between the desk-based valuation and that of the local community, using primary field data. This reduced expectation of the desk-based PSROI is justified by coherent explanations such as lack of knowledge about the intervention, misconception about the potential costs and benefits, and the risk-averse nature of the farmers. These and other important insights are fundamental for planning and decision-making, as well as appropriate targeting and delivery of funding for adaptation.

Keywords: Adaptation; Climate change; Costing; Cost benefit analysis; Decision-making; Multi-stakeholder; Participatory planning; Smallholder agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11027-014-9600-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:21:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s11027-014-9600-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11027

Access Statistics for this article

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change is currently edited by Robert Dixon

More articles in Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change from Springer
Series data maintained by Sonal Shukla (sonal.shukla@springer.com).

For further details log on website :
http://econpapers.repec.org/article/sprmasfgc/v_3a21_3ay_3a2016_3ai_3a3_3ad_3a10.1007_5fs11027-014-9600-5.htm