Building adaptive Capacity in the informal settlements of maputo - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 34

Moreover, it remains for external, cross-scale, actors to supply information
on climate change. Building knowledge will require relating this information
to the lives of those at risk, as well as identifying local thresholds and securing
the opportunity to observe or participate in adaptation experiments or tests of
alternative livelihood or infrastructure approaches. If adaptations are to be viable
in context, local knowledge and localized information will need to feed into
power-sharing relationships, emerging as collaborative actions (experiments and
tests) that apply new understandings and produce learning that is relevant to those
living and governing in Maputo. Experimentation and testing exists in different
forms, such as disaster-risk reduction experiments in informal settlements and the
establishment of water providers or waste management systems; however, while
it appears that local communities are often consulted and informed, there is less
evidence of serious engagement between state and local urban settlers. This may
be attributed to the absence of 'a culture of participation', lack of familiarity with
participatory action research methodologies, and, more broadly, a gap between
this level of experimentation, building knowledge and power sharing.
In conclusion, we remain optimistic about adaptation planning in Maputo.
Our work has identified opportunities to link experiments with community
approaches to adaptation planning into legislation currently being discussed
within the municipality. We hold that adaptation planning processes can and
must build adaptive capacity from a resilience perspective. In this way, current
and future challenges can be met in ways that shift communities away from
thresholds and build the potential for deliberate transformation. This we see
as a real possibility. However, for this possibility to be realized, the resilience
perspective needs to be unpacked and, in particular, linked to accumulated
experience of power, knowledge and experiments within the development and
social science community, thereby drawing in the human dimensions of change.
The analysis in this chapter has indicated that local politics must be taken
seriously when considering adaptation. It is important not only to find ways to work
through and with existing channels of power and influence, but also to forge new
ways of sharing power, generating knowledge and experimenting with alternatives
in order to create large-scale shifts in communities. Moreover, supporting
adaptive capacity in communities presents new challenges to development actors.
Attention must shift to the processes linking knowledge and experiments, so that
the social, political and economic landscape can be navigated towards new, shared
ways of understanding the complex challenges of climate change.
acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Climate Development Knowledge Network,
CDKN, a project funded by the UK Department for International Development
and the Netherlands Directorate-General for International Cooperation
(DGIS), led and administered by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Management
of the delivery of CDKN is undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and