Adaptation technologies as drivers oF social development - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 100

technology for adaptation
What is an adaptation technology?
Historically, limited attention has been given to adaptation technologies, and
little operational experience is available from activities focusing specifically on
adaptation technologies (UNFCCC 2006). The Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) (2000), in its special report on Methodological and
Technological Issues in Technology Transfer, defines technology as 'a piece of
equipment, technique, practical knowledge or skills for performing a particular
activity'. The Handbook for Conducting Technology Needs Assessment for Climate
Change (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2010), defines
the concept of technologies for adaptation very generically as: 'All technologies
that can be applied in the process of adapting to climatic variability and climate
change'. A UNFCCC report on the development and transfer of technologies for
adaptation to climate change proposes the following definition: 'the application
of technology in order to reduce the vulnerability, or enhance the resilience, of
a natural or human system to the impacts of climate change' (UNFCCC 2010).
As noted, it has become common practice to distinguish between three
categories of technologies for adaptation: hardware, software and orgware. Hardware
includes capital goods; software refers more to the capacities and processes
involved in the use of the technology, and includes knowledge and skills,
including aspects of awareness-raising, education and training. Additionally,
adaptation methods and practices not normally considered as technologies,
such as insurance schemes or crop rotation patterns, may also be characterized
as software (UNFCCC 2006). The third distinction is equally important to
the understanding of technologies for adaptation and their implementation:
this is the concept of orgware, which relates to ownership and institutional
arrangements of the community/organization where the technology will be put
to use. This subdivision of technology shares characteristics with the concept
of 'explicit' and 'tacit' knowledge increasingly applied in fields like economic
geography and development economics to describe the complexities of
knowledge-exchange processes. 'Tacit knowledge' is here defined as knowledge
that cannot be codified but depends on learning by doing, and/or cultural and
social contexts - in other words, it is dependent on social interaction (Gertler
2003). In this chapter, we apply a practical interpretation of hardware, software
and orgware, as follows:
• Hardware: technologies that require the transfer and 'installation' of
physical material from sources outside the targeted locality.
• Software: technologies that solely involve the transfer of knowledge and/
or practice.
• Orgware: technologies that involve the re-organization or establishment of
social networks and/or institutions.