Enabling Adaptation

This policy brief by the World Resources Institute argues that effective climate adaptation for the rural poor requires an 'enabling environment' characterized by fair governance and secure rights to resources. It posits that governance failures and lack of resource rights are often more significant drivers of vulnerability than climate change itself, and proposes specific national and local investment priorities to build resilience through natural resource management.

• Effective climate adaptation for the rural poor depends on an enabling environment that provides the necessary rights, resources, and access to benefit from markets, governments, and ecosystems.
• For the poor, factors such as insufficient access to finance, technology, information, markets, and resource rights are frequently more significant determinants of vulnerability than the effects of climate change.
• The document identifies three priority areas for investment to enable adaptation: strengthening the national enabling environment (via tenure and regulatory reform, decentralization, and information access), strengthening local institutions and governance (via fair resource management, community participation, and support organizations), and establishing governance metrics for adaptation.
• The brief notes that current international adaptation efforts are often incremental and tentative because there is no commonly accepted model for successful adaptation, including defined targets and goals.
• The document highlights that over 2 billion rural inhabitants live on less than $2 per day, and improving their assets and incomes is essential to bolster their adaptive capacity against ecosystem degradation and climate change.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Enabling Adaptation. https://www.wri.org/research/enabling-adaptation

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Enabling Adaptation. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/enabling-adaptation.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Enabling Adaptation |url=https://www.wri.org/research/enabling-adaptation |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendenabling, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Enabling Adaptation}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/enabling-adaptation}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }