Piloting people's climate adaptation

This practice-oriented booklet presents the AdaptCap project, implemented by GIZ in association with four local and international partners (Adelphi, ICLEI South Asia, AVVAI - The Village Welfare Society and the Academy for Gandhian Studies) to strengthen the adaptation capacities of vulnerable coastal communities in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and minimize their climate change-related risks. It illustrates how the project’s four main components – development of adaptation concepts and approaches for the target communities, pilot projects, capacity building and public awareness and visibility – were implemented in six selected cities with three cluster villages each. It gives an insight into the project development and management, the financial aspects as well as the participatory methods and tools that were used for implementing vulnerability and needs assessments and developing adaptation measures.

Local partnerships made it possible to find and install technical adaptation measures in a short time span and co-create long-term Local Adaptation and Mitigation Guides (LAMGs). The integrated, multi-level and multi-stakeholder approach provides a strong base for sustainability. The project focused on and involved the communities as they are the best decision-makers knowing what they need to climate-proof their future. Other communities and municipal institutions have already decided to replicate some of the ideas and practical measures applied in the pilot projects – without financial support by AdaptCap.