Vulnerability, adaptation and climate disasters: a conceptual overview

IDS Bulletin volume 36, no 4, October 2005

The articles in this IDS Bulletin present insights from the Linking Climate Adaptation (LCA) Project that aimed to ensure that poor people benefit from adaptation processes, rather than bearing greater burdens by, for example, having the risks caused by climate change shifted in their direction. The key research aim of the LCA Project was to determine what kind of procedural and institutional frameworks are needed to ensure that locally determined adaptation needs are linked 'upwards' to national and international policy and institutional structures. The overview brings together policy relevant insights on this question whilst also explaining the conceptual underpinnings of the project, focusing on the nature of vulnerability and adaptation and policy processes to support community-led adaptation.

The key conclusions are that climate change is a serious, ongoing threat to development and will add burdens to those who are already poor and vulnerable, and that climate vulnerability analysis should be incorporated systematically into the three main policy and institutional frameworks relevant for adaptation: development, disaster relief and climate change. Ways of fostering conceptual, operational and institutional linkages between these three domains are described, focusing on how these can help communities take centre stage in conducting vulnerability analysis and implementation to enhance their long-term capacities for adaptation.