Sammanfattning

Decentralized, "community-based" approaches to climate adaptation are now viewed as a key strategy to assist vulnerable populations confront global climate change. While these efforts are premised on the belief that citizen participation will lead to more effective climate responses, there remains limited empirical evidence of the relationship between local democracy and climate risk reduction. This paper asks: How, and through which processes, do local institutions emerge as more substantively democratic arenas to coordinate responses to climate risk and change? And how does the character of local democratic practice, in turn, influence the effectiveness of adaptive responses? To answer these questions, the paper analyzes the implementation of India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)-a substantial devolution of development resources to rural local governments in India-and its effects on climate risk reduction in the state of Himachal Pradesh. A primary data set of 798 small-scale development projects in 35 villages shows that a majority of water-related interventions are helping to improve water access in the face of water stress, while benefits skew towards poorer and historically marginalized social groups. Drawing on intensive qualitative enquiry, the paper argues that these outcomes were made possible as the result of long-term political transformations in the region, which have paved the way for more inclusive - if often contested - participation in local decision-making processes. The analysis underscores the need to move beyond a narrow focus on institutional building to undertake longer-term investments in supporting more robust subnational democratic systems. The growing flow of resources dedicated to climate assistance has the potential to help drive such processes where the nascent conditions for democratic deepening are in place. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nyckelord

Climate change; Democratic decentralization; Community-based adaptation; MGNREGA; South Asia; India

Publicerad i

World Development
2021, Volym: 140, artikelnummer: 105335

SLU författare

• Fischer, Harry

  • Institutionen för stad och land, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    
  • La Trobe University
  • University of Melbourne

Globala målen

Verka för varaktig, inkluderande och hållbar ekonomisk tillväxt, full och produktiv sysselsättning med anständiga arbetsvillkor för alla
Vidta omedelbara åtgärder för att bekämpa klimatförändringarna och dess konsekvenser
Främja fredliga och inkluderande samhällen för hållbar utveckling, tillhandahålla tillgång till rättvisa för alla samt bygga upp effektiva, och inkluderande institutioner med ansvarsutkrävande på alla nivåer


UKÄ forskningsämne

Nationalekonomi


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105335

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/109772