The Role of Institutions in
Livelihood Adaptation
Arun Agrawal and Nicolas Perrin
Research Questions
• What are the major classes of adaptation
practices used by the rural poor?
• How do rural institutions assist households
in adopting and pursuing these practices?
• What kinds of support can external
interventions provide to assist rural
institutions, communities, and
households?
Stocktaking of the existing
conceptual literature on adaptation
• History of thinking about adaptation
– Evolutionary biology, cultural ecology, systems
analysis (engineering and ecology)
• Definitions of adaptation
– ‘‘adjustments in a system’s behavior and
characteristics that enhance its ability to cope with
external stress’’
– ‘‘adjustments in individual groups and institutional
behavior in order to reduce society’s vulnerability
• Proactive or reactive, autonomous or planned
Adaptation in relation to climate
Stern Review, 2006
Adaptation in relation to climate
Major themes in existing writing
• Relatively high level generalizations
OR
• Highly specific empirical work and
case examples
High level generalizations
• Relationship between vulnerability =
f(exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity)
and adaptation
– Adaptive capacity and adaptation practices
• Adaptation and mitigation relationship
– Reinforcing, neutral, negative
Specific empirical work and case
examples
• examples of adaptation: local cases
• Costing of adaptation strategies at the
national to regional level
• Creation of regional or national level
adaptation plans (NAPAs, AIACC)
Gaps in existing work on climate
adaptation
• Absence of middle range theories
• comparative work at the local level even
with the recognition that all adaptation is
local
• Theoretically informed and policy relevant
• Institutions and their role in adaptation,
especially at the local level
• Historical continuities in relation to risk and
adaptation practices
Led to a focus on
• Institutions and their role in development
• Theoretical basis for empirically informed
(broadly comparative) and policy-relevant
research
• Drawing upon historical work on
adaptation at local level by rural
households and communities
Types of risks that climate change
and variability pose
•
•
•
•
•
Greater volatility and risks
Lower incomes and returns
Stress on institutions and social relations
Historical dimension to these impacts
Historical repertoire of responses and
coping strategies
Classes of coping strategies
• Five major classes
– Mobility
– Storage
– Diversification
– Communal pooling
– Exchange
– Three kinds of roles
– Other responses: Intensification, involution,
specialization,
Role of local institutions
Three roles:
--Structure risks, variability, output;
--Constitute the incentive structure for household
adaptation practices and joint action at community levels;
--Mediate external interventions unfold.
Types of external support
• Information
• Technological improvement
• Financial mechanisms (can be coupled
with risk sharing)
• Leadership/lowering of barriers to joint
action
• Institutional regulation/promotion
Links between institutions and
coping strategies
Local Coping Strategies:
Distribution (UNFCCC data)
Class of Adaptation Practice
Frequency of use
Mobility
Storage
Diversification
Communal pooling
3
10
47
24
Exchange
Storage and Diversification
Storage and Exchange
3
2
12
Diversification and Communal pooling
Diversification and Exchange
Unidentified
7
40
5
Local coping strategies
(Benefit orientation)
Individually
oriented
Benefits from
Adaptation
Practices
Collectively
oriented benefits
from adaptation
practices
Total
Local Institution
Functioning in
conjunction
with an external
intervention
12
51
63
Local institutions
without external
interventions
64
24
88
Total
76
75
151
Two new projects designed for next
year based on current work
• Investigation of relative costs of local
adaptation strategies in specific social and
ecological contexts in five countries
• Investigation of how interventions to
promote adaptive capacity can be coupled
with post disaster interventions in regions
with high exposure and for populations
with high sensitivity (