BLOG: Emboldening equitable climate adaptation: A handbook for field research leaders 

By Patti Petesch, Eleanor Fisher, Jon Hellin and Chona Echavez 

Our social world appears to spin in ways that reinforce social inequities and environmental degradation. These dispiriting forces are the case in so many of the world’s smallholder communities, discouraging countless local women’s and men’s initiatives to reduce the vulnerability of their agricultural livelihoods and exposure to severe heatwaves, droughts, storms and other impacts of climate change.

Can action research guided by social equity goals contribute to reversing these disempowering and unsustainable forces?  Are there opportunities for communities to take positive action to equitably strengthen adaptation to climate change?

Locally led adaptation (LLA) programs are striving to strengthen resilience and adaptation capacity in climate hotspots around the world. Yet, one review concluded that evidence for strong community-driven dynamics could be found for only six percent of 374 LLA projects screened (Tye, S. & Suarez, I. (2021). Locally Led Climate Adaptation: What Is Needed to Accelerate Action and Support? Working Paper. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC.)