Fischer, Harry
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- University of Melbourne
Research article2020Peer reviewedOpen access
Policy innovations for pro-poor climate support: social protection, small-scale infrastructure, and active citizenship under India’s MGNREGA
Fischer, Harry
Abstract
While extensive scholarship has explored principles for pro-poor climate support, there is a need for knowledge of specific strategies that can achieve these objectives on the ground. This paper examines India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and its effects on climate risk reduction. Although the MGNREGA was not designed specifically as a climate programme, it incorporates three key elements with the potential to advance pro-poor climate assistance objectives: (a) social protection through the provision of minimum wage labour; (b) the development of small-scale, natural resource-focused infrastructure; and (c) a decentralized, ‘community-based’ planning architecture. Analysis of a primary dataset comprising 1400 households and 798 projects in India's state Himachal Pradesh, interpreted through intensive qualitative fieldwork, shows that both projects and labour have helped vulnerable households confront climate and other risks, while the Act's decentralized architecture has expanded the channels for citizens to claim support for local challenges. The paper argues for the importance of building a broader ‘ecosystem’ of support to target diverse local needs, and of the need to strengthen the political architectures through which vulnerable groups access these benefits on the ground – especially in the context of decentralized approaches for climate assistance.
Keywords
Climate adaptation; social protection; community-based adaptation; vulnerability; sustainable development; MGNREGA; India
Published in
Climate and Development
2020, volume: 12, number: 8, pages: 689-702
SLU Authors
Global goals (SDG)
SDG1 No poverty
SDG10 Reduced inequalities
SDG13 Climate action
UKÄ Subject classification
Climate Research
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2019.1676690
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/102832