Tiempo Climate Newswatch, Designing Adaptation Projects

	Mozaharul Alam (left) and Lwandle Mqadi describe a novel way of identifying, designing, implementing and monitoring community-based adaptation projects.
Mozaharul Alam is a Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies and contact coordinator for SouthSouthNorth Bangladesh. Lwandle Mqadi is a SouthSouthNorth Adaptation team member and a member of SouthSouthNorth Africa.

It is well known that climate change impacts will be greater, both spatially and socio-economically, in poor and disadvantaged communities, especially in the Least Developed Countries. Helping poor and vulnerable communities is always a challenge, and incorporating future climate change risks into development projects poses an additional challenge. Appropriate sustainable community-based strategies and activities are needed to do this effectively.

The Adaptation Programme of the SouthSouthNorth (SSN) Project has developed a learning by doing approach for identifying, designing, implementing and monitoring community-based adaptation activities. This approach is known as the SouthSouthNorth Adaptation Project Protocol (SSNAPP).

SSNAPP is grouped into four phases: the identification phase, design phase, implementation phase, and monitoring and evaluation phase.

The identification phase

The identification phase involves both 'topdown' and 'bottom-up' activities. These include:

mapping physical vulnerabilities to climate change and climate variability of both regions/areas and also sectors. This is done using existing documentation available at national, regional and global scales, such as National Communications, regional climate change scenarios and reports from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; and,
poverty mapping at national, sub-national and local levels using existing country-level documentation and data on poverty, national development studies, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and information from household expenditure and income distribution surveys.

Information from these two top-down activities is then combined by overlaying maps of physical vulnerabilities and poverty distribution. This locates national 'hot spots' of climate change/climate variability and poverty.


Figure 1: Drought in the Rabi season

Bottom-up activities follow the identification of these national poverty/climate hot spots. Reconnaissance and verification surveys are conducted at the hot spots in order:

to gather information on who is doing what and who knows what. This includes identifying community-based institutions, institutions undertaking development in the area, and other institutional structures and processes;
to find out what information is available on local climate variability/climate change, disaster management activities, current adaptation to climate change activities and other development activities; and,
to validate and crosscheck findings from the top-down analysis with the community and local institutional structures.

Figure 2: Labour distribution (density index)

Information from these bottom-up activities informs the process whereby a range of potential community-based adaptation to climate change project activities are conceptualized. During this process, potential community-based institutions are identified as partners for the identification, design and implementation phases. Identification of these partners is based on their willingness to be involved with the process, whether they have a credible relationship with the community and local funding agencies, and their capacity to raise funds and build partnerships.

The design phase

Partnership building and fundraising takes centre stage during this phase. Activities include:

building stronger and closer relationships between all relevant stakeholders, especially the vulnerable communities. This includes the formation of Project Design Teams, which include vulnerable communities, community structures and institutions, technical intermediaries, government institutions and other relevant stakeholders;
capacity building activities for all relevant stakeholders on issues such as climate change, climate variability, vulnerability and climate risks, disaster management and mitigation;
understanding the risks and vulnerabilities faced by, and from the perspective of, vulnerable communities. This includes understanding existing institutional structures and development institutions; and,
interacting with potential funders, at local, national and international levels, who could fund implementation activities.


Figure 3: Synthesis of drought and labour distribution to produce distribution of agricultural labour vulnerability to drought (density)

The design phase begins with the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the selected partner institution. Developing a full Project Design Document for target communities is another key step in this phase.

All stakeholders compile this document. It records activities and relevant data on the partner institution, interaction with the target communities and individual households, sustainable livelihood activities that could build and enhance adaptive capacity (these are need-based activities such as capacity building through livelihood promotion), and a technological assessment of what is needed to cope with climate variability and change (such as building community-based institutions and enhancing institutional processes).

The implementation phase

The third phase of the SSNAPP methodology involves implementing the project activities that have been identified as supporting sustainable adaptation to climate change and that address the communities' need to cope with the adverse impacts of climate variability and change. It is important to note that sustainable livelihood activities are not homogeneous and vary from community to community, sector to sector and region to region. Different types of activities are, therefore, required to enhance the community’s capacity to cope with and combat the adverse impacts of climate variability and change depending on the circumstances.

Monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation is the last phase of the SSNAPP methodology. This assesses the changes and benefits achieved from different project activities compared to the pre-project baseline. The SSNAPP methodology proposes to use a participatory monitoring tool with flexible indicators that will vary according to the nature of the community and the type of project. A number of common indicators have been identified, such as how much training has occurred, how much livelihood options have diversified, the number of disaster resilient houses constructed and improvements in health services during disasters.

SSNAPP community-based adaptation projects
Country	Project
Bangladesh	Enhancing the adaptive capacity of a community vulnerable to drought in the northwest region of Bangladesh
	Enhancing the adaptive capacity of a floodplain community in south central Bangladesh to reduce their vulnerability to prolonged floods and water logging
	Community adaptation to saline water intrusion and cyclones in a southwest coastal region of Bangladesh
Brazil	Improving agricultural productivity and income generation through the use of photovoltaic water pumping in Pintadas: an initiative led by women, which addresses the key sustainability and feasibility components of a small-scale adaptation project in a semi-arid environment
	Wastewater recycling for communities and institutions: improving soil fertility, biodiversity, water conservation, disease prevention, income generation and environmental education
	Ecological recuperation of the Suruí River Basin to prevent native forest and mangrove deforestation, erosion and overfishing, to discourage occupation of river margins, chemical intensive agricultural activities (and the pollution that follows), to increase family income and to promote local culture and global citizenship
Indonesia	Management of a water catchment area to promote conservation of degraded land in central Java
	Adaptation to coral bleaching events resulting from climate change by increasing coral reef resilience in west Waigeo district
	Coastal community adaptation to the impacts of sea level rise by conserving mangroves in Ayau district
Mozambique	Water pumping in dry areas of the country to adapt to climate change impacts
	Food security and agricultural activities in dry areas of the country to adapt to climate change impacts
Tanzania	Afforestation and conservation activities in the Mount Kilimanjaro area to adapt to climate change impacts
	Freshwater conservation and water harvesting activities in coastal areas to address rising salinity resulting from climate change
South Africa	Supporting action research and community-led adaptation in urban households
	Adaptation to climate change by small-scale rooibos tea farmers in Wupperthal and the Suid Bokkeveld areas of the Western and Northern Cape

Applying the methodology

The SSNAPP methodology is currently being applied in six countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa. It aims to identify, design and implement community-based adaptation project activities in partnership with community-based institutions and other relevant stakeholders. The table above shows the current list of SSNAPP community-based adaptation projects.

Combining top-down and bottom-up analysis and ensuring the participation of different stakeholders at all stages are key strengths of the SSNAPP methodology. The identification and development phases both involve capacity development, which increases levels of understanding and awareness of climate change and development issues amongst participating organizations and project partners. Developing the Project Design Document also facilitates interaction and discussion with vulnerable communities, enhances understanding of community needs and helps disseminate climate and climate change related information. Using participatory exercises to identify different activities increases the acceptability of projects by the community and reduces the risks of failed implementation.

Further information

Mozaharul Alam, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, House No. 10 (3rd Floor), Road No. 16/A, Gulshan-1, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh. Fax: +880-2-8851417. Email: mozaharul.alam@bcas.net.

Lwandle Mqadi, 138 Waterkant Street, Cape Town 8005, South Africa. Fax: +27-21-4251463. Email: lwandle@southsouthnorth.org.