1. Community-based
Adaptation
core principles, practices and relation to EbA
Charles Ehrhart
CARE Internationalʼs Poverty, Environment and Climate Change Network
Presentation during 5th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation
Dhaka, Bangladesh
28th March, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 1
Adapting to the unavoidable impacts of climate change is now widely recognized as vital to a coherent, global response to climate change. As a result, recent
years have seen a marked rise in adaptation funding – with even steeper increases expected in the near term. During the last decade and a half, adaptation
funding flows prioritised awareness raising amongst policymakers, strengthening government capacity, and support to government planning processes. Though
these activities will remain important recipients of adaptation funding, demand and support for action on the ground is growing.
Significant resources are already being allocated to large-scale infrastructure projects, such as damns and dykes that can make an important contribution to
reducing people’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. However, evidence from more than sixty years of development experience shows that these
interventions can only provide a partial solution – at best – to meeting the needs of especially vulnerable people. As a result, there is mounting interest amongst
donors, multi-lateral organisations and civil society in “community-based” approaches to adaptation. This presentation explores emerging core principles and
practices around CBA, as well as its relationship to EBA.

2. Community-based Adaptation
CBA aims to reduce negative impacts of
CC on vulnerable populations - both in
the short and long term - from the ground
up
it is “targeted” and “focused,” and
addresses both the “software” and
“hardware” of adaptation
it is a “community-led,” or “community-
driven” approach to adaptation that
complements top-down planning and
programmes
it operates at multiple levels and can be
large scale - so long as communities
remain at the centre of planning and
action
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 2
Community-based Adaptation (CBA) refers to an evolving yet distinct set of principles and practices that aims to reduce the negative impacts of climate
change on individuals, households and communities - both in the short and long term. It targets the most vulnerable populations in northern and southern
countries, in either rural or urban contexts; and it focuses on activities with the greatest bang for the buck. This targeting and focusing, embedded in participatory
situational analysis and action-planning processes, distinguishes it from development business-as-usual.
CBA values the “software” as well as “hardware” of adaptation. Put another way, some CBA investments – like irrigation canals or mangrove saplings planted as a
hedge against storm-surge – can be carried and counted. However, these tangibles are usually linked with complementary investments in community-based
disaster risk management, community-based natural resource management, or farmer-to-farmer field schools.These investments often extend to women’s
empowerment, which many professionals believe essential to building long-term adaptive capacity.
In the 1980s and ’90s, many governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America transferred key responsibilities to lower administrative levels. As decentralisation
progressed, local plans and policies became increasingly important to development – both in terms of focusing government resources and establishing a
conducive environment for “bottom-up” efforts. Community-based planning (i.e. “planning by communities, for … communities, which is not isolated from but links
into … local and national government planning systems”) rapidly evolved within this space as a core development strategy.
In many countries, government adaptation efforts are being mainstreamed and bundled together with pre-existing, decentralised development and/or disaster risk
management planning processes. This provides CBA projects with ready-made platforms for bottom-up adaptation planning and action, as well as structured
articulation within large-scale government systems. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that so many CBA projects (whose staff frequently have decades of
development or disaster risk reduction experience) routinely include community-based planning and capitalise on pre-existing relationships with government
authorities/processes to pursue new objectives. Indeed, like community-based development, CBA projects often aim to make government planning and resources
allocation systems – at all levels – more responsive to people’s needs by increasing participation, transparency, and accountability. Towards this end, CBA projects
employ a range of tactics, including community mobilisation, advocacy to increase direct participation in government planning processes, and participatory
research to inform national and sectoral adaptation policies.
As an example of CBA operating at multiple levels: CARE’s Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change (RVCC) project in Bangladesh worked in communities but
ALSO helped 14 Union Parishads develop adaptation plans and undertook national level advocacy on growing salinity and decreasing access to potable water

3. characteristic practices
CBA projects typically entail a combination
of the following intervention types:
Promotion of climate-resilient
livelihoods
Disaster risk reduction/management,
Capacity strengthening of local civil
society & government institutions (to
more effectively support local
adaptation efforts)
Advocacy & social mobilisation to
address the underlying causes of
vulnerability (e.g. poor governance,
limited access to basic services
discrimination & other social injustices)
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 3
CBA projects characteristically entail a combination of the following intervention types:
• Promotion of climate-resilient livelihoods (including, for example, income diversification, technology transfer and/or behavioural change);
• Disaster risk reduction/management;
• Capacity strengthening of local civil society and government institutions so that they can more effectively support community, household and individual
adaptation efforts; and
• Advocacy and social mobilisation to address the underlying causes of vulnerability, including poor governance, lack of control over resources, limited access to
basic services, discrimination and other social injustices.

4. core principles
amongst the core principles identified in the
UN’s Statement of Common Understanding
on HRBA, the following exert an especially
strong influence over the discourse and
design of CBA:
non-discrimination, equality and the
special needs of marginalized social
groups;
active, free and meaningful
participation;
empowerment; and
accountability.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 4
While the term “Community-based Adaptation” is still young, it has rapidly matured on the basis of principles and best practices gleaned from the last half-century
of development and disaster-risk reduction/management experience. This heritage has many implications for how CBA is currently understood and applied. One
of the most significant legacies shaping CBA is the widespread adoption of a Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA, or RBA) to development and even wider
acceptance of its participatory, process-oriented principles.
HRBA provides a conceptual framework for development based on human rights standards as stipulated in international treaties and declarations. It aims to
promote and protect human rights by integrating the norms, standards and principles of the international human rights system into the plans, policies and
processes of development. Guiding principles of the Human Rights-Based Approach, as set out in the UN Statement of Common Understanding, embody
decades of lessons learnt and shift away from a “needs based approach.” They clarify the ultimate objective of development as “greater realization of rights,” and
they promote strategies that strengthen both the capacity of rights-holders to claim their rights and duty-bearers to fulfil their obligations. Accordingly, human
rights inform both the ends and means of development.

5. 1. non-discrimination and the right of marginalised people
identify especially vulnerable
individuals and marginalised social
groups
fully include them in all levels of
adaptation planning and
implementation
understand and address their unique
needs through targeted interventions
ensure that adaptation activities do not
inadvertently worsen their vulnerability
redress power imbalances and other
structural causes of differential
vulnerability
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 5
The principle of non-discrimination, equality and special attention to the needs of marginalized social groups is central to the international human rights
framework. Increasingly applied to development policy and practice during the past twenty years, it has fundamentally shaped how many development actors see
the challenge of adaptation – and their role in meeting it. Integrating this principle into adaptation efforts entails explicit steps to:
• Identify especially vulnerable individuals and marginalised social groups;
• Fully include them in all levels of adaptation planning, as well as implementation processes (by providing, for example, information in minority languages);
• Understand and address their unique needs through targeted interventions (reaching poor women, the elderly, geographically isolated communities, and
politically marginalised Indigenous Peoples);
• Ensure that adaptation activities do not inadvertently worsen their vulnerability;
• Redress power imbalances and other structural causes of differential vulnerability within and between households.
The influence of a rights-based approach explains why many development and humanitarian actors, including CARE, Oxfam, the International Federation of Red
Cross/Crescent Societies, and DfID, place so much importance on differentiating between social groups in their climate change vulnerability assessments. It also
explains their commitment to targeting especially vulnerable social groups (e.g. poor women) and concern with structured injustices.

6. 2. active, free and meaningful participation
participation is a fundamental right
it is also a solid operational principle
this principle is often interpreted as
meaning people have the right to
influence adaptation plans, policies and
practices – at all levels.
it has resulted in projects to facilitate
information flows and aid women to
assume leadership roles
this principle helps explain why CBA
proponents so often emphasize
“empowerment” over charitable support
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 6
Active, free and meaningful participation in development decision-making is a fundamental right. Participation is also a solid operational principle, since leaving
intended beneficiaries out of decision-making increases the risk that interventions will not match people’s priority needs; be culturally or ecologically inappropriate;
or services will prove too costly.
In the context of adaptation, this principle is commonly interpreted as meaning people have the right to influence adaptation plans, policies and practices – at all
levels. It has resulted in projects facilitating timely, transparent information flows about climate change; aiding women (through training and mentoring) to take on
leadership roles in community and local government organisations. This principle also helps explains the emphasis that CBA proponents typically place on
empowerment versus charitable support.

7. 3. empowerment
empowerment is about treating people
as the rightful directors of their own
development.
this principle is commonly interpreted
as a mandate to help people gain the
power, capacities, capabilities and
access necessary to adapt their
households, communities and societies
to the impacts of climate change
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 7
Empowerment is about treating people as the rightful directors of their own development. This principle is interpreted as a mandate to help people gain the power,
capacities, capabilities and access (political, economic, etc.) necessary to adapt their households, communities and societies to the impacts of climate change.

8. 4. accountability
aims to increase people’s capacity
to claim their rights, as well as
state capacity to be held
accountable (through more
accessible and responsive public
officials/ institutions, etc.).
In the context of climate change, this
principle is frequently evoked to
justify downward accountability for
the flow and allocation of adaptation
funding.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 8
Accountability is another core HRBA principle affecting how development actors view the adaptation challenge. It aims to increase people’s capacity to claim their
rights, as well as state capacity to be held accountable (through more accessible and responsive public officials/ institutions, etc.). In the context of climate change,
this principle is frequently evoked to justify downward accountability for the flow and allocation of adaptation funding.

9. ecosystems in the context of CBA
CBA frequently deals with natural
resources (and often prioritises
improved NRM-related activities)
CBA is frequently concerned with the
continuing flow of environmental goods
and services
CBA rarely takes a holistic approach to
working with complex ecosystems...
CBA rarely accounts for “secondary”
ecosystem goods & services (e.g.
pollination)
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 9

10. towards a complementary set of “ecosystem principles”
we need to develop and internalize a
complementary set of “ecosystem
principles” for community-led adaptation
such as:
fully integrate ecosystem goods and
services (e.g. living storm barriers) into
people-centred adaptation strategies/
plans
strive for long-term solutions and avoid
“maladaptation”
build the resilience of key ecosystems
so that essential goods (e.g. forest
foods) and services (e.g. flood
mitigation) aren’t lost
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 10