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The paper introduces a framework to analyze food system resilience to climate change, moving from the household as the locus of food security up to community and national scales. It proposes two 'spinwheel' tools: one for food security analysis and one for resilience analysis, integrating system, agent, and institutional criteria. The framework is applied through the CREFSCA project in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, utilizing the CRiSTAL tool for community-level assessments.

The document examines how six annual conferences on community-based adaptation (CBA) have fostered a 'community of practice' characterized by 'high creativity collaboration'. It details the growth of the network in terms of participant diversity and thematic expansion, while arguing that future evaluations must move beyond simple inputs and outputs toward a 'realist' approach to understand how, why, and when such communities improve climate adaptation practices.

The report evaluates Cambodia's efforts to mainstream climate resilience into development planning. It highlights strong political will, evidenced by the establishment of the National Climate Change Committee (NCCC) and the development of the Cambodia Climate Change Strategic Plan (CCCSP). However, it identifies significant gaps in information services, noting that hydrometeorological networks are fragmented and vulnerability assessments often produce contradictory results. Financially, climate-related expenditure is heavily dependent on external sources, with 86% of funding coming from outside the country between 2009 and 2011. While numerous projects have been implemented under the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), the report notes a recent shift toward programme-based approaches and community-level interventions.

The document details CDKN's support for Bangladesh in leading the global debate on loss and damage and its research into climate-induced displacement. It highlights the 'Adaptation Policy Options' project, which collects data on migration in five districts to inform policy, and the 'Action Research on Community Adaptation in Bangladesh' (ARCAB) programme, which focuses on long-term community-based adaptation and monitoring.

The document details CDKN's support for the Government of Bangladesh in mainstreaming climate resilience through a three-block framework (enabling environment, policies/planning, and projects/programmes) and developing evidence-based policies on loss and damage and climate-induced migration. It highlights specific impacts in Sathkira District, where salinity intrusion caused total rice crop failure in 2009, and notes the existence of national funding mechanisms like the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund.

The CRiSTAL Forests User's Manual describes a desktop application used to identify and prioritize climate risks to forests, ecosystem services, and livelihoods. The tool employs a participatory approach, combining community consultations with scientific data to help project managers revise existing activities or design new ones that support climate adaptation. It specifically focuses on the role of forest ecosystem services—provisioning, regulating, and cultural—in creating vulnerabilities and supporting adaptive capacity. The manual outlines a structured process involving two main modules: understanding the local livelihoods and climate context, and evaluating the implications for project design, including optional assessments for greenhouse gas mitigation and REDD+ participation.

The manual describes the CRiSTAL tool, which integrates climate risk assessment with a sustainable livelihoods framework to help project planners design adaptation strategies. It outlines a three-phase process: understanding the livelihood and climate context, evaluating project implications, and facilitating monitoring and evaluation. The tool emphasizes participatory methods, such as community consultations and focus groups, to identify vulnerable resources and prioritize adaptation activities based on specific evaluation criteria.

The document details CDKN's support for Bangladesh in advancing the 'Loss and Damage' agenda within the UNFCCC, including the creation of case studies and training for officials. It also highlights the development of a participatory monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tool for community-based adaptation (CBA) by the ARCAB partnership, which has been scaled up to Somalia and Ethiopia. Additionally, it mentions research on climate-induced displacement in Bangladesh conducted by the University of Sussex and the University of Bangladesh.

The Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) project, running from January 2011 to January 2013 with a value of £184,250, aims to enhance the adaptive capacity of poor communities in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Uganda. The project has influenced national policies, produced 27 publications, and facilitated capacity building for government officials through field visits and training. Phase 2 of the project focuses on 'flexible and forward looking decision-making' and the evaluation of a tailored ACCRA game for district government contexts.

The paper explores the synergies between community based natural resource management (CBNRM) and community based adaptation (CBA), arguing that poverty reduction, governance, and ecosystems are the primary overlapping drivers for both approaches. It highlights that while local incentives drive initial CBNRM action, the scaling of these efforts to national and regional levels depends on an enabling environment consisting of policies, institutions, capacity, and collaboration.

The authors argue that current 'upscaling' models for mainstreaming climate adaptation often fail to explain how national policies can effectively learn from highly contextual local experiences. By comparing research projects in Sweden, Canada, and Indonesia, the paper introduces a framework to analyze the interface between regulatory policy and self-organized stakeholder adaptation. The authors suggest that case study research should serve as a platform to leverage stakeholder competencies to both implement and reinvent political institutions, provided there is high transparency regarding the research community's goals.

The paper examines the challenges of scaling up community-based adaptation (CBA), noting that conventional linear communication often fails to engage citizens or account for cognitive biases like 'motivated avoidance' and 'omission bias'. The authors propose experiential learning—defined as knowledge created through the transformation of experience—as a way to help diverse stakeholders navigate complex climate risk management. The document details five case studies of participatory games used to communicate forecasts, manage risk investments, explain index-based micro-insurance, and understand the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. These games are presented as safe spaces for collaboration and 'aha!' moments that reveal the consequences of decisions. The authors conclude that while these tools are powerful, their success depends on skilled facilitators who can manage power dynamics, gender, and hierarchy within communities.

The document is a practical guide for creating biocultural community protocols—instruments that document a community's customary laws, values, and decision-making processes to manage interactions with external actors. It emphasizes an endogenous development approach, where change is initiated and controlled from within the community. The toolkit provides a wide array of participatory tools for mapping resources, analyzing power dynamics, and engaging in legal advocacy. It outlines a four-part process: understanding the community and facilitator's role, documenting the community's foundations, implementing the protocol through engagement and negotiation, and continuously reflecting on and revising the instrument.

The report examines a sample of nine climate risk screening and assessment tools used by bilateral/multilateral donors and international NGOs. It categorizes adaptation tools into process guidance, data provision, and knowledge-sharing types, noting a dichotomy between top-down, impacts-driven donor approaches and bottom-up, vulnerability-driven NGO approaches. Key findings highlight a 'usage gap' where practitioners prefer synthesis documents over complex data tools, and a difficulty in moving from risk assessment to concrete adaptation action. The authors recommend continued training, better integration between data and process tools, and the development of a common risk management framework and terminology to reduce duplication and confusion in the development community.

The policy brief examines how local climate adaptation lessons are 'upscaled' to inform higher-level decision-making. It introduces a framework based on two axes—epistemology (realism vs. constructionism) and intent of inquiry (universalism vs. contextualism)—to categorize how case studies mediate between local efforts and political goals. By analyzing projects in Sweden, Canada, and Indonesia, the brief demonstrates that methodological choices determine whether research supports planned regulatory policy or non-coercive, self-organized adaptation. It emphasizes the need to balance benefits between community stakeholders, policy makers, and researchers.

The author contends that existing reactive decision-making frameworks are insufficient for climate change adaptation, which involves both frequent climatic hazards and slow-onset risks. He advocates for a shift from disaster management to disaster preparedness, citing Bangladesh's success in reducing cyclone fatalities as a model. The paper emphasizes that adaptation will require science-oriented approaches, increased climate literacy, and a global responsibility to manage planned relocation for communities in uninhabitable areas. Finally, it suggests that rich countries can learn from the participatory and institutional experiences of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and community-based adaptation initiatives.

The document examines how participatory communication tools, specifically video and games, can bridge the information gap for the most vulnerable people affected by climate change. It highlights that treating end-users as partners in co-learning rather than target audiences improves the adoption of adaptation strategies. Case studies demonstrate that participatory video in Malawi, Nepal, and Ethiopia helped farmers and children advocate for and implement adaptation measures. Additionally, the paper discusses how games can simplify complex systems, such as probabilistic forecasts for humanitarian action in Senegal or micro-insurance concepts for farmers in Ethiopia and Malawi, to build trust and facilitate better decision-making.

The briefing emphasizes that climate adaptation is a governance challenge requiring the active participation of vulnerable populations and civil society to avoid top-down failures. It advocates for community-based adaptation, the integration of traditional and scientific knowledge, and the necessity of developed countries fulfilling their historic responsibility to support developing nations. The author highlights the need for transparent, centralized government processes that align diverse sectors—such as agriculture and environment—to build resilience and protect livelihoods.

The author contends that national adaptation plans, such as National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs), are overly state-driven and top-down, failing to engage the local communities that actually experience climate impacts. Because adaptation is inherently local, the paper argues that CSOs and NGOs are best positioned to build adaptive capacity, represent vulnerable populations, and ensure that technological interventions are socially embedded and sustainable. The author details several roles for CSOs, including resource mobilisation, vulnerability mapping, and advocating for regulatory changes to protect nature-based livelihoods. The document concludes by recommending a multi-tier institutional framework, citing India's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) as a model for coordinating efforts between government, CSOs, and local stakeholders.

The author identifies five key functions for CSOs to promote the inclusion of climate risks in policy: improving public access to climate information, advocating for vulnerable groups, promoting accountability, supporting inclusive disaster risk reduction, and participating in inter-institutional coordination. The paper highlights that in developing countries, particularly Andean nations, local-level climate data is often scarce or inaccessible, and policy tends to favor high-GDP sectors over the most vulnerable small-scale producers. It argues that CSOs can bridge the gap between research institutions and the public and use community monitoring to ensure adaptation resources are distributed equitably.