How to Make Local Context Matter in National Advice: Towards Adaptive Comanagement in Norwegian Climate Adaptation

Abstract Drawing on case studies in 12 Norwegian municipalities, this paper investigates how local context matters for developing national climate adaptation policies that are applicable at the municipal level. Moreover, it explicates which factors constitute this context and how these factors vary across the case municipalities. National climate adaptation policy in Norway can currently be characterized as top down, providing standardized requirements and advice to municipalities. However, Norwegian municipalities vary greatly with respect to physical conditions, organizational resources, and societal needs. They are autonomous to a great extent and are almost solely responsible for developing climate policy and planning within their own territories. Therefore, municipalities adapt national policies to their own context, reflecting local physiographic, organizational, and resource challenges, but these local translations are not fully recognized by national and sectoral actors. This paper underscores that the significant variation in contextual factors between municipalities is not sufficiently addressed and understood by national and sectoral governmental authorities. With the identified variation of the contextual factors across the case municipalities, an adaptive comanagement strategy within a multilevel governance system is suggested as a suitable framework to ensure a proactive approach to local adaptation, that is, mutual understanding and better cooperation between the national and local levels.

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Confronting Climate-Related Disasters in Asia and the Pacific

Review of Economics ◽

10.1515/roe-2014-0202 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 65 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Vinod Thomas

Keyword(s):

Natural Disasters ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Heat Waves ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Population Exposure ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

The Pacific ◽

Precipitation Anomalies ◽

Population Vulnerability ◽

Policy And Planning

AbstractThe frequency of intense natural disasters has been on the rise worldwide over the past 40 years. Meanwhile, temperatures have risen on average, while both temperatures and precipitation have become more variable and more extreme. Their impacts are clearly visible in Asia and the Pacific region, which has seen some of the most damaging natural disasters.Recent scientific evidence points to the link between rising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and climate variables such as temperature and precipitation that underlie floods, storms, droughts and heatwaves. Rising population exposure, greater population vulnerability, and increasing climate-related hazards are three main disaster risk factors behind the increased frequency of intense natural disasters. A study underlying this paper finds an association between more frequent climatological disasters (relating to droughts and heat waves) and rising temperatures; and between hydrometeorological disasters (relating to floods and storms) and people locating in harm’s way and precipitation anomalies.These findings underpin the necessity of greater prevention of natural disasters, and of integrating climate adaptation and mitigation in reducing disaster risks. With no let-up in the increasing costs of disasters to lives and livelihood, homes and infrastructure - such preventive measures must be part of policy and planning.

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Structural Barriers to Health-provider Training Programmes for Ethnic Minorities: The Case of the Katu and Diabetes Management in Vietnam

Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences ◽

10.9734/arjass/2020/v12i130182 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 30-42

Author(s):

Caroline Bec ◽

Geoff J. Wells ◽

Joshua J. Solomon

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Ethnic Minorities ◽

Diabetes Management ◽

Medical Training ◽

Qualitative Case Study ◽

Contextual Factors ◽

Minority Group ◽

World Health ◽

Local Context

Background: Training of primary care practitioners is one of the most implemented interventions in medical international development programmes targeting non-communicable diseases (NCD). Yet in many cases their effectiveness is below expectations. One potential cause of this is that they struggle to account for local context, especially when working with ethnic minorities. Here we begin to address this gap through a qualitative case-study of how local contextual factors have impacted the success of a World Health Organization (WHO) healthcare training programme on Type 2 diabetes with an ethnic minority group in rural central Vietnam. Design: A qualitative case-study collected data during 2018. We conducted 25 semi-structured interviews, two focus groups, and participant observation with patients, healthcare professionals, and members of a local non-governmental organisation involved in the programme. We used thematic coding to identify important contextual factors and how they helped or hindered programme delivery. Next, we synthesised each of these themes in a narrative style, drawing on the rich detail provided by respondents. Results: We found that, despite using a notionally decentralised approach, the effectiveness of the training was hindered by social, political, and economic determinants of health which influenced the inhabitants’ relations to healthcare and diabetes. Particular barriers were the political perceptions of minorities, their economic access to services, the healthcare prejudices toward ethnic rural populations and the rigidity of medical training. Conclusions: Given the similarity of our case with other WHO NCD programmes, we view that our findings are of wider relevance to global public health policy and practice. We suggest that better recognising and addressing local contextual factors would make such programmes more polyvocal, grounded, and resilient, as well as enabling them to better support long-term transformative change in public health systems. We conclude by discussing methods for implementing this in practice.

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Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems: Adaptation Strategies for the Most Vulnerable Communities

Journal of Science Policy & Governance ◽

10.38126/jspg180201 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (02) ◽

Author(s):

Jessica Bhardwaj ◽

Atifa Asghari ◽

Isabella Aitkenhead ◽

Madeleine Jackson ◽

Yuriy Kuleshov

Keyword(s):

Early Warning ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Early Warning Systems ◽

Adaptation Strategies ◽

Climate Risk ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Natural Environments ◽

Warning Systems ◽

Vulnerable Communities ◽

Policy And Planning

Climate risk and resultant natural disasters have significant impacts on human and natural environments. It is common for disaster responses to be reactive rather than proactive due to inadequate policy and planning mechanisms—such reactive management responses exacerbate human and economic losses in times of disaster. Proactive disaster responses maximize disaster resilience and preparation efforts in non-disaster periods. This report focuses on proactive, localized, and inclusive adaptation strategies for addressing impacts of three natural hazards: drought, floods, and tropical cyclones. Four key synergistic climate adaptation strategies are discussed—Post Disaster Reviews, Risk Assessments, Early Warning Systems and Forecast-based Financing. These strategies are further supported with a number of case studies and recommendations that will be of assistance for policymakers in developing evidence-based adaptation strategies that support the most vulnerable communities in the transition towards regarding disaster as a risk as opposed to a crisis.

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Steering in Governance: Evolutionary Perspectives

Politics and Governance ◽

10.17645/pag.v9i2.4489 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 365-368

Author(s):

Raoul Beunen ◽

Kristof Van Assche

Keyword(s):

Thematic Issue ◽

Self Organization ◽

Sustainability Transitions ◽

Governance System ◽

Mode Of Reproduction ◽

Governance Systems ◽

Governance Tools ◽

Policy And Planning ◽

Blue Print ◽

Evolutionary Perspectives

Steering has negative connotations nowadays in many discussions on governance, policy, politics and planning. The associations with the modernist state project linger on. At the same time, a rethinking of what is possible by means of policy and planning, what is possible through governance, which forms of change and which pursuits of common goods still make sense, in an era of cynicism about steering yet also high steering expectations, seems eminently useful. Between laissez faire and blue-print planning are many paths which can be walked. In this thematic issue, we highlight the value of evolutionary understandings of governance and of governance in society, in order to grasp which self-transformations of governance systems are more likely than others and which governance tools and ideas stand a better chance than others in a particular context. We pay particular attention to Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT) as a perspective on governance which delineates steering options as stemming from a set of co-evolutions in governance. Understanding steering options requires, for EGT, path mapping of unique governance paths, as well as context mapping, the external contexts relevant for the mode of reproduction of the governance system in case. A rethinking of steering in governance, through the lens of EGT, can shed a light on governance for innovation, sustainability transitions, new forms of participation and self-organization. For EGT, co-evolutions and dependencies, not only limit but also shape possibilities of steering, per path and per domain of governance and policy.

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The Determination of Relevant Contextual Factors for the Interpretation of Intervention Studies: a Stepwise Approach with Online Information (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.18833 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Van der Elst ◽

Birgitte Schoenmakers ◽

Eva Dierckx ◽

Liesbeth De Donder ◽

Ellen De Roeck ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Intervention Studies ◽

Contextual Factors ◽

Local Context ◽

Future Research ◽

Online Information ◽

Web Based ◽

Stepwise Approach ◽

Scope Project ◽

Set Up ◽

Public Datasets

BACKGROUND The role of the context within intervention studies is often ignored. To consider the context in future research, one needs to know whether enough information is available, and a uniform methodology to study the local context in a standardized way is desirable. Through the World Wide Web, a lot of information is nowadays available. OBJECTIVE The present study aims to test the feasibility of studying the local context with online information and to provide a stepwise approach how to detect these relevant contextual factors which might moderate the effect of an intervention. METHODS The present study is framed within the D-SCOPE project, where a complex intervention by means of home visits was set up to improve the access to tailored care in 3 municipalities (Ghent, Knokke-Heist and Tienen). A case study of these three municipalities was performed to determine which contextual factors could influence the D-SCOPE intervention, a five-step approach was designed and tested: (1) a theoretical/conceptual discussion of relevant contextual factor domains was held; (2) a search was done to find appropriate web-based public datasets which covered these topics with standardized information (e.g., official statistics); (3) a list of all identified contextual factors was made (inventory); (4) a concise list with the assumedly most relevant contextual factors was made by two independent reviewers to reduce the long list of contextual factors+; and (5) a Nominal Grouping Technique was applied. RESULTS Based on the aims of the D-SCOPE intervention, the research team decided that the datasets should cover sociodemographic contextual factors, socioeconomic contextual factors, contextual factors related to care supply/availability or care use and contextual factors related to the local government. The team also decided to use only standardized data. Three public web-based datasets were found resulting in an inventory of 157 contextual factors. After the selection by two independent reviewers, 41 contextual factors were left over and presented in the Nominal Grouping Technique. According to the Nominal Grouping Technique, contextual factors such as: dependency ratio (65+/20-64y), availability of a community center, percentage of people aged 65 or more living alone, and the total resources of the community social security system were considered as most decisive. CONCLUSIONS The present study shows that the five-step approach is feasible to determine relevant contextual factors that might affect the results of an intervention study. Such information may be used to correct for in the statistical analyses and for interpretation of the outcomes of intervention studies. CLINICALTRIAL none

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Improving governance in transboundary cooperation in water and climate change adaptation

Water Policy ◽

10.2166/wp.2017.156 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 19 (6) ◽

pp. 1014-1029 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jos Timmerman ◽

John Matthews ◽

Sonja Koeppel ◽

Daniel Valensuela ◽

Niels Vlaanderen

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Management ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Water Governance ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Transboundary Water ◽

Governance System ◽

Adaptation Measures ◽

Oecd Principles

Abstract Climate change adaptation in water management is a water governance issue. While neither climate change nor water respects national borders, adaptation in water management should be treated as a transboundary water governance issue. However, transboundary water management is, in essence, more complex than national water management because the water management regimes usually differ more between countries than within countries. This paper provides 63 lessons learned from almost a decade of cooperation on transboundary climate adaptation in water management under the UNECE Water Convention and puts these into the context of the OECD principles on water governance. It highlights that good water governance entails a variety of activities that are intertwined and cannot be considered stand-alone elements. The paper also shows that this wide variety of actions is needed to develop a climate change adaptation strategy in water management. Each of the lessons learned can be considered concrete actions connected to one or more of the OECD principles, where a range of actions may be needed to fulfil one principle. The paper concludes that developing climate change adaptation measures needs to improve in parallel the water governance system at transboundary scale.

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Designing online interaction to address disciplinary competencies: A cross-country comparison of faculty perspectives

The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning ◽

10.19173/irrodl.v15i2.1418 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Elena Barberà ◽

Ludmila Layne ◽

Charlotte N. Gunawardena

Keyword(s):

Collaborative Learning ◽

Online Courses ◽

Contextual Factors ◽

Individual Performance ◽

Team Work ◽

Academic Disciplines ◽

Local Context ◽

Transfer Of Knowledge ◽

Management Skills ◽

Faculty Perspectives

<p class="Cuadrculamedia1-nfasis21">This study was conducted at colleges in three countries (United States, Venezuela, and Spain) and across three academic disciplines (engineering, education, and business), to examine how experienced faculty define competencies for their discipline, and design instructional interaction for online courses. A qualitative research design employing in-depth interviews was selected. Results show that disciplinary knowledge takes precedence when faculty members select competencies to be developed in online courses for their respective professions. In all three disciplines, the design of interaction to correspond with disciplinary competencies was often influenced by contextual factors that modify faculty intention. Therefore, instructional design will vary across countries in the same discipline to address the local context, such as the needs and expectations of the learners, faculty perspectives, beliefs and values, and the needs of the institution, the community, and country. The three disciplines from the three countries agreed on the importance of the following competencies: knowledge of the field, higher order cognitive processes such as critical thinking, analysis, problem solving, transfer of knowledge, oral and written communication skills, team work, decision making, leadership and management skills, indicating far more similarities in competencies than differences between the three different applied disciplines. We found a lack of correspondence between faculty’s intent to develop collaborative learning skills and the actual development of them. Contextual factors such as faculty prior experience in design, student reluctance to engage in collaborative learning, and institutional assessment systems that focus on individual performance were some of these reasons.</p>

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Collective action problems and governance barriers to sea-level rise adaptation in San Francisco Bay

Climatic Change ◽

10.1007/s10584-021-03162-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 167 (3-4) ◽

Author(s):

Mark Lubell ◽

Mark Stacey ◽

Michelle A. Hummel

Keyword(s):

Collective Action ◽

Sea Level Rise ◽

Sea Level ◽

San Francisco ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

San Francisco Bay ◽

Diagnostic Approach ◽

Governance System ◽

Collective Action Problems ◽

Sea Level Rise Adaptation

AbstractThis paper translates Ostrom’s “diagnostic approach” for social-ecological systems to identify the collective action problems and core governance barriers for sea-level rise adaptation in the San Francisco Bay Area. The diagnostic approach considers variables related to the resource system, the resource units, the users, and the governance system. Coupled ecological-infrastructure models identify two core collective action problems: vulnerability interdependency and adaptation interdependency. Qualitative social science case study methods identify the key structural governance and behavioral barriers to cooperation and ongoing activities to address them. The diagnostic approach is potentially applicable to any coastal regions that are vulnerable to sea-level rise and also other climate adaptation issues where vulnerability and adaptation interdependencies require overcoming governance challenges to collective action.

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Can Forest Management Units facilitate adaptive comanagement reform in Indonesia?

International Forestry Review ◽

10.1505/146554821832952753 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 230-243

Author(s):

R. Wahyudi ◽

K.E Pellini ◽

J.T. Haryanto ◽

F. Zamzani

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Specific Area ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Governance System ◽

Management Units ◽

Adaptive Comanagement ◽

Political Reality ◽

Macro Scale ◽

Management Approaches ◽

Iterative Adaptation

A multi-jurisdictional governance system, polycentric power regimes, and overlapping rights complicate policy responses for addressing forest governance problems in Indonesia. Confronting issues that have existed for centuries as part of Indonesia's socio-cultural and political reality cannot easily be solved at the macro-scale. However, we argue that they can be tackled at the micro-scale. Adaptive co-management could offer a means of finding collaborative solutions to these problems, and we believe this approach will be effective when the problems are defined locally in a specific area with a limited number of stakeholders. This paper examines the capacity of Forest Management Units (FMUs), as the lowest level operational structure of forest management in Indonesia, to facilitate reform for adaptive co-management approaches. We examined this through an analytical framework derived from the Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation approach. This paper identifies the importance of stakeholders' acceptance to enable FMUs to coordinate adaptive co-management.

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Using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps to Assess Liveability in Slum Upgrading Schemes: Case of Pune, India

Urban Science ◽

10.3390/urbansci5020044 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 44

Author(s):

Subhashree Nath ◽

Raphael Karutz

Keyword(s):

Public Transportation ◽

Cognitive Maps ◽

Fuzzy Cognitive Maps ◽

Local Context ◽

Base Case ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Physical Conditions ◽

Slum Upgrading ◽

Urban Settlements ◽

Basic Services

Liveability assessments of informal urban settlements are scarce. In India, a number of slum upgrading schemes have been implemented over the last decades aiming at better living conditions. However, these schemes rarely consider improvement in liveability as an explicit criterion, assuming that better physical conditions and the provision of basic services inevitably lead to better liveability. We use Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) to analyse liveability in four different informal settlements in Pune (India). We compare the liveability by conducting semi-structured interviews with residents and by analysing them in individual and aggregated FCMs. Each settlement represents an archetypical form of the upgradation process: non-upgraded (base case), in-situ upgraded, relocated, and temporary resettlement. The FCMs show that the liveability indicators availability of community space, proximity to public transportation, feeling of belonging, and good relationship with neighbours and community are central elements of these neighbourhoods’ liveability. The results suggest that upgradation may lead to an improved overall liveability but can also reduce it if not designed properly. The fostering of community agency, an integration of the neighbourhood into the formal city fabric, and the maintaining of cohesion during the shift from horizontal to vertical living emerged as critical factors. To ensure sustainable integration of liveability considerations in slum upgrading schemes, we suggest using indicators well-adapted to the local context, co-created with local experts and stakeholders, as well as periodic post-occupancy liveability evaluations.

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