Internationally Financed Adaptation: Madagascar and Mauritius

This case study examines how informal institutions, specifically patronage in Madagascar and clientelism in Mauritius, influenced the distribution of international adaptation finance from UN Adaptation Fund projects to vulnerable communities.

• Research based on 105 interviews with civil society representatives, national level policymakers, and Adaptation Fund project actors indicates that informal institutions significantly impacted the distribution of project benefits and decision-making in both Madagascar and Mauritius. However, the two countries showed significant divergence in their ability to meet the Adaptation Fund's mandate to support "particularly vulnerable" communities.
• The authors attribute the divergent outcomes in project equity to two main factors: how informal institutions interact with formal accountability institutions, and whether formal and informal incentives for project actors are aligned to promote equity.
• The study proposes that adaptation organizations implement an "imperfect equity" approach. This strategy focuses on identifying positive outcomes and the conditions that enable them to develop strategies for navigating informal institutions and improving long-term institutional accountability and equity.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2024). Internationally Financed Adaptation: Madagascar and Mauritius. https://www.sei.org/publications/internationally-financed-adaptation-madagascar-mauritius/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Internationally Financed Adaptation: Madagascar and Mauritius. 2024. https://www.sei.org/publications/internationally-financed-adaptation-madagascar-mauritius/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Internationally Financed Adaptation: Madagascar and Mauritius |date=7 June 2024 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/internationally-financed-adaptation-madagascar-mauritius/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2024internationally, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Internationally Financed Adaptation: Madagascar and Mauritius}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2024}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/internationally-financed-adaptation-madagascar-mauritius/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }