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concerns about the social sustainability of these pilot measures. The fact that
certain segments of the population are systematically not reached by these
measures should also be of concern, not least as regards whether the measures
effectively support the adaptive capacity of those who need it the most - the
most marginalized and vulnerable groups. Other authors have shown that
replication of new technology and development initiatives requires more than
mere physical proximity. Citing the example of pineapple farmers in Ghana,
Maddison (2007) reports that only 7 per cent of farmers in the same village
could provide some information about others' activities. The authors argue
that information flows through social networks and does not necessarily spread
simply because of geographical proximity.
The low level of local adoption of DA measures could also be because they
were generally not linked in any meaningful way to what the community
was already doing. While some agencies reported that they would sit with
the community and discuss with them project ideas before inception, other
DA activities were externally determined. In the next section, we explore
possible reasons for the disconnect in the type of coping measures employed
by households and those employed by the agencies. We find two possible
reasons: differing views on vulnerability, and conceptual framing of coping and
adaptation.
Differing views of vulnerability, coping and adaptation
As noted, vulnerability does not refer merely to exposure to stress, but also the
context in which stressors are experienced, which in turn creates the conditions
for people's ability to cope with and adapt to the changes.
Although our study did not seek to explore local perceptions on vulnerability,
some inferences can be drawn from what the households reported as causing
climate stress in the region. There is no contention that ASAL regions have
unique biophysical characteristics that pose stress to livelihoods of communities
living in these regions. People living in drylands are aware of the climatic stress
within their borders; hence migration to regions with less physical stress is a
coping strategy that has long been employed. However, perceptions differ
between and within the local community on the one hand, and scholars as
well as development actors on the other hand on the causes of vulnerability
beyond actual physical stress. Turner (1994) attributes this to the imbalance in
the knowledge of monitoring human causes and responses to adverse events as
compared to the ability to observe the physical aspects of environmental changes.
Most participants observed that the causes of drought and its impact at
household level was not limited rainfall but the unreliability of it. A large
proportion (85 per cent) of the respondents felt that the patterns of rainfall
had changed, becoming more and more unreliable, making it difficult to cope.
The long rains which used to indicate the beginning of planting seasons were
no longer reliable, so that it became necessary to undertake the drastic shift
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