Adaptation technologies as drivers oF social development - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 114

prove far costlier, since institutions have been shown to enable the capacity of
vulnerable households and groups to deploy specific adaptation technologies
(Agrawal 2010). The social organization of adaptation processes and efficient,
capable and responsive institutions are crucial for ensuring that the application
of other types of adaptation technologies (hard and soft) is both effective
and socially sustainable, also in a longer-term perspective. An important
recommendation based on the findings of this chapter would thus be to step
up efforts at including orgware as an integral part of adaptation technology
planning, recognizing that hard-, soft- and orgware technologies are not
mutually exclusive technology options.
Current proposals in TNA reports show that there is awareness that stand-
alone technologies, such as physical structures and equipment, are seldom
sufficient in themselves but need to be supported by an enabling framework
- a point also recognized in development studies in general. An overly
narrow focus on technological adaptation options may prove detrimental to
development and vulnerability reduction, particularly if there is a bias towards
hard technologies.
Lastly, this chapter has shown that work on transferring adaptation
technologies needs to be based on recognition and understanding of the
national socio-cultural, economic, political and institutional contexts in which
they are to be implemented.
note
1 More information available at: www.tech-action.org
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