Towards a characterisation of adaptive capacity: a framework for analysing adaptive capacity at the local level. Background Note

This background note puts forward a ‘Local Adaptive Capacity framework’ (LAC) developed as part of the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) programme, drawing on extensive consultations with academics, policy-makers and practitioners. It is an attempt to incorporate intangible and dynamic dimensions of adaptive capacity, as well as capitals and resource-based components, into an analysis of adaptive capacity at the local level. The note states that the characteristics of a system with a high capacity to adapt to a changing climate may largely overlap with those of a system that is resilient to wider external shocks and trends. It calls for the underlying drivers of poverty and vulnerability to be addressed in order to help people and communities to respond to changing shocks and trends more generally, including climate change.