How to scale out community-based adaptation to climate change

The document argues that scaling out community-based adaptation (CBA) requires moving beyond isolated pilots to a systemic approach that integrates adaptive capacity, strategic partnerships, and documented evidence. It identifies four key enabling factors: building comprehensive adaptive capacity (assets, institutions, knowledge, innovation, and decision-making), leveraging diverse networks including the private sector, producing rigorous cost-benefit evidence, and utilizing flexible institutional and finance mechanisms. Case studies from Niger, Colombia, Zambia, and Bangladesh illustrate different pathways to scale, ranging from informal farmer networks and municipal government planning to commercial contract farming and international research platforms.

• The Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) found that adaptation interventions focusing on a single characteristic, such as assets, are unlikely to support the full spectrum of processes needed for adaptive capacity.
• In Cartagena, Colombia, a partnership between the municipal government, business leaders, and the Colombian Institute of Marine and Coastal Research (INVEMAR) successfully integrated a participatory vulnerability assessment into the 'Cartagena Development Plan 2012-2016'.
• In Bangladesh, the 'Action Research on CBA in Bangladesh' (ARCAB) program and online forums like weADAPT and the Community-Based Adaptation Exchange serve as 'communities of practice' to amplify and share CBA experiences.
• Private sector actors can be effective agents for scaling out; for example, Dunavant Zambia used its contract farming system to scale a 'Trees on Farms' program to over 15,000 farmers by 2013, promoting the use of musangu (Faidherbia albida) trees to improve soil fertility.
• Farmer-managed natural regeneration in Niger demonstrates a successful informal scaling-out process where centuries-old methods of managing re-sprouting tree species spread via 'word of mouth and informal farmers
  networks', eventually covering almost half of all cultivated land.

APA

Gogoi, E., Dupar, M., Jones, L., Martinez, C., & McNamara, L. (2014). How to scale out community-based adaptation to climate change. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CDKN_Working_Paper_community_adaption_Final_web-res.pdf

Chicago

Gogoi, Elizabeth, Mairi Dupar, Lindsey Jones, Claudia Martinez, and Lisa McNamara. How to scale out community-based adaptation to climate change. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2014. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CDKN_Working_Paper_community_adaption_Final_web-res.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gogoi |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Dupar |first2=Mairi |last3=Jones |first3=Lindsey |last4=Martinez |first4=Claudia |last5=McNamara |first5=Lisa |title=How to scale out community-based adaptation to climate change |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=April 2014 |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CDKN_Working_Paper_community_adaption_Final_web-res.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gogoi2014how, author = {Gogoi, Elizabeth and Dupar, Mairi and Jones, Lindsey and Martinez, Claudia and McNamara, Lisa}, title = {{How to scale out community-based adaptation to climate change}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2014}, month = apr, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CDKN_Working_Paper_community_adaption_Final_web-res.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }