A Capability Approach

There is complexity in defining effective ACE implementation and its enabling environment as it is affected both by legal/regulatory frameworks and socioeconomic factors. In an attempt to strike a balance between comprehensiveness and relevance for policy action, this framework defines this enabling environment as “a set of conditions that impact the capacity of civil society to participate and engage in climate-planning in a sustained and voluntary manner for advancing national people-centered climate action.”

The capability approach conceived in 1980 as an alternative approach to welfare economics, has been used to evaluate and assess individual wellbeing and social arrangements, the design of policies, and proposals for societal change. Currently, it has guided the creation of the Human Development Index (HDI) and Gender Inequality Index (GDI). Overall, it emphasizes the underlying conditions that make individuals ‘capable’ of fulfilling context-specific goals. Here we use this approach to outline the conditions that make individual, collective, and government capable of delivering people-centered climate action. Focusing on the underlying conditions, rather than outputs, presents a non-prescriptive recipe for comparative assessment in a country-driven agenda, such as ACE, as it can take many different forms. However, where appropriate we offer specific suggestions provided as best practices by the experts.