Introduction - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 13

strengthen adaptive capacity. Adaptation approaches would benefit from paying
specific attention to such spinoffs from development.
Adaptation as a political process
Adaptation involves changes, whether in technologies, infrastructure, social
structures or policies, and these changes involve decisions and choices that may
have widespread consequences. Adaptation is a political process where different
interests and agendas (not always transparent) are involved and affected. The
needs, values and interests of some actors are often prioritized, while those of
others are ignored. Adaptation is not a neutral process that benefits all, therefore;
it is a matter of politics that involves addressing the social and power relations
through which resources, costs and benefits are distributed in society.
In Chapter 10 , Siri Eriksen and Andrei Marin argue that supporting
adaptation as a social process that contributes towards sustainable development
pathways entails transforming negotiation processes between the diverse actors
through which decisions are reached and actions formed. Such transformation
includes empowering people not only in the adaptation process, but in the
development process more widely, since development discourses and goals
often drive adaptation choices. The case of Afar, Ethiopia, illustrates how a
modernization-influenced development model, pressuring people to shift
from pastoralism to settled cultivation, has played a central role in driving
both the vulnerability context and adaptation pathways. Reduced ability to face
droughts and climatic changes is an unintended consequence of development
interventions. Supporting the adaptation process towards more sustainable
pathways will mean making more explicit the development goals and values of
diverse actors, and how they affect different adaptation interests.
Clearly, some interests are heard and prioritized while others are ignored
in the various decisions that underpin the adaptation process. In Chapter 11 ,
Sigrid Nagoda and Siri Eriksen show how vulnerability reduction framed by
'development as usual' ignore differing values, interests and power structures,
thereby serving to reinforce inequities and inequalities in rural Humla, Nepal.
When faced with stressors like climate change, the dependency and inequality
between households with access to power and those excluded is often deepened,
exacerbating vulnerability patterns. Adaptation is highly political: it is critical to
understand, and if necessary challenge, local power relations, if humanitarian
and development communities are to succeed in reducing the vulnerability of
the poor and contribute to an adaptation process towards greater equity and
social sustainability. Such interventions that support adaptation as a social
process can empower the vulnerable and counteract power imbalances and
processes of marginalization.
In Chapter 12 , Andrea Nightingale suggests that formal adaptation
programmes specifically need to address the political context through which
adaptation takes place. Examining the case of Nepal, she argues that adaptation