Lessons from Jamaica: Promoting resilience through institutional arrangements, social networks and community empowerment

This policy brief outlines the vulnerabilities of Jamaica's coastal-marine systems to climate change and discusses the GIVRAPD project's efforts to enhance resilience through institutional arrangements, social networks, and community empowerment.

• Jamaica is highly vulnerable to climate change, with significant risks to its coastal-marine systems, including marine biodiversity, coral reefs, fisheries, food production, and coastal tourism, the latter of which accounts for 25% of the GDP. Extreme events in the mid to late 2000s caused losses and damages exceeding one billion dollars.
• The GIVRAPD project aimed to improve local adaptive capacity and community resilience by focusing on participatory planning, vulnerability assessments, social networks between institutions, and governance arrangements to bridge multi-scale jurisdictional gaps. The project utilized tools such as Net-Map, social network analysis, and community-based vulnerability assessments.
• While national government agencies are central to climate change adaptation planning in Jamaica, the document emphasizes that collaboration with nonstate actors is a critical component for achieving success.

APA

Climate and Development Knowledge Network (2017). Lessons from Jamaica: Promoting resilience through institutional arrangements, social networks and community empowerment. https://cdkn.org/resource/policy-brief-lessons-jamaica-promoting-resilience-institutional-arrangements-social-networks-community-empowerment

Chicago

Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Lessons from Jamaica: Promoting resilience through institutional arrangements, social networks and community empowerment. 2017. https://cdkn.org/resource/policy-brief-lessons-jamaica-promoting-resilience-institutional-arrangements-social-networks-community-empowerment.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |title=Lessons from Jamaica: Promoting resilience through institutional arrangements, social networks and community empowerment |date=3 February 2017 |url=https://cdkn.org/resource/policy-brief-lessons-jamaica-promoting-resilience-institutional-arrangements-social-networks-community-empowerment |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climateanddevelopmentknowledgenetwork2017lessons, author = {{Climate and Development Knowledge Network}}, title = {{Lessons from Jamaica: Promoting resilience through institutional arrangements, social networks and community empowerment}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2017}, month = feb, url = {https://cdkn.org/resource/policy-brief-lessons-jamaica-promoting-resilience-institutional-arrangements-social-networks-community-empowerment}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }