A field methodology to advance social equity and transformative adaptation to climate change in smallholder communities

Abstract

Global climate policies recognize the urgent need to address the inequitable impacts of climate change onsmallholder agricultural communities, but there is limited understanding of how to accomplish this in practice.We contribute to closing this gap through the design of a participatory qualitative methodology intended tonurture locally-led “transformative adaptation pathways” that strengthen social equity and sustainability. Ourconceptual framework draws upon theories of social equity and justice rooted in participatory parity—values andnorms that encourage people to interact with one another as equals and synergistically nurture recognitional,distributional, representational and intergenerational equities. Recognizing that social equity is enhanced whenpoor and vulnerable people gain decision-making power that expands their access to resources and opportunities,we question how people understand and experience social equity and its relationship to their capacity to adapt.We also ask how norms about gender, generation, and socio-economic status shape people’s understandings andexperiences of social equity and adaptation. To address these questions, we illustrate the methodologicalapproach with evidence gathered from pilot tests conducted in smallholder communities of Kenya andPhilippines. Our findings show how understandings of fairness provide a basis for learning, eliciting comparativeand contextualized findings that can inform community-based adaptation. Overall, we demonstrate that in theface of social processes that typically fuel inequities, participatory tools and learning tactics can serve toempower low-income women and men to identify, contribute to, and monitor actions that nurture their community’s progress towards strong and equitable climate adaptation capacity.