Abrar S. Chaudhury

Power and influence mapping in Ghana's agricultural adaptation policy regime

Debates around the design and content of climate change adaptation policies are shaped, in part, by the power and influence of actors within an adaptation regime. This paper applies a power-mapping technique, Multilevel Stakeholder Influence Mapping (MSIM), to stakeholders in Ghanas agricultural adaptation policy regime. The method provides a quantitative influence score and visual map for actor groups active-in or affected-by the policy process, from the differentiated perspectives of national, regional, and local-level respondents. MSIM, as applied here, seeks to determine the underlying power structure of the adaptation regime and provides insight in to two key power-laden themes: stakeholder participation and multilevel institutional design. Results indicate that when taken collectively (the views of national, regional and local respondents combined) Ghanas adaptation regime is considered bipolar and elite-centred in its power distribution. A distinguishable ‘adaptation establishment’ or dominant group of power holders made up of technical government and international agencies can be identified. Meanwhile, political groups, the private sector, civil society, and universities are considered to wield substantially less power in the regime. Differentiated perspectives (i.e. national, regional or local respondents alone) reveal that several potential cross-level bridging institutions are not considered influential at all operational levels. Farmers, traditional authorities, and the District Assembly, for example, are all considered highly influential from the perspective of local-level respondents, but their counterpart agencies at the national level are not considered influential by policymakers there. Contrary to the hyper-politicized nature of climate change adaptation at international levels, Ghanas policy regime would benefit from increased participation from political agents, as well as from traditional authorities and farmers. These actor groups can help reverse the a-political nature of the adaptation regime, improve power pluralism across actor groups and levels, and facilitate cross-level cooperation between formal and informal institutions crucial to adaptation success.

Applying the robust adaptation planning (RAP) framework to Ghana’s agricultural climate change adaptation regime

This paper introduces a five-step framework, namely the Robust Adaptation Planning (RAP) framework, to plan and respond to the ‘grand challenge’ of climate change. RAP combines, under a unified framework, elements from robust action, participatory planning and network theory to capture the different motives, perception, and roles of actors that are important for climate change adaptation. RAP leverages existing structures and networks and involves diverse actors to plan, sequence and time strategies across multiple levels (i.e. from local to national). Actors identify adaptation interventions and important actor relations to develop wide networks, highlighting potential pathways for connecting action from central policy to local implementation (and vice versa). Comparing these proposed participatory structures with existing structures reveals actors deemed important for delivering adaptation, as well as gaps and overlaps in their relations. The end result is a robust plan covering many perspectives and local realities for both relieving immediate and adapting to longer-term consequences of climate change. We applied the RAP framework in Ghana’s agricultural climate change adaptation regime to demonstrate its usefulness as a means of planning adaptation interventions in a climate-vulnerable, multi-actor and multi-level setting. The application of the RAP framework in this paper highlights how it can: (1) visualise the adaptation space (and its different components), and reduce the complexity of implementing adaptation responses; (2) offer a shared space to actors from all administrative levels to think and create collective narratives for adaptation without demanding explicit consensus and; (3) identify key actors and actions through a collaborative planning process, and allocate responsibility for the smooth delivery of adaptation interventions.

Deconstructing Local Adaptation Plans for Action (LAPAs): Analysis of Nepal and Pakistan LAPA Initiatives

This paper analyses the organizational and implementation design strategies of two ongoing Local Adaptation Plan for Action (LAPA) initiatives in Nepal and Pakistan. LAPA is considered an answer for institutionalized local-level adaptation planning that aims to capture local needs and direct resources to where, when and by whom these are most needed. While both Nepal and Pakistan LAPAs have similar objectives of bottom-up planning, the operational and structural designs of the two LAPAs are very distinct, leading to different outcomes. Different internal and external factors such as age and size of LAPA, technology, local institutional arrangements, core process and environment also exert significant structural tensions on the planned organizational design of LAPAs that may inhibit delivery of their objectives.This paper explores what factors make certain organizational designs appropriate in certain circumstances and inappropriate in others. The paper comes at an important junction when the LAPA process in the two countries is at an incipient stage. It will provide useful contribution to LAPA managers, designers, implementers, funders, communities and policy makers alike looking at successful creation and deployment of robust LAPA frameworks in their countries. The paper may also ultimately serve to motivate south-south learning exchanges between implementing countries.