Improving Adaptation Programming Through Links to Disaster Risk Reduction and Population Data This section reviews two key measures to improve adaptation programming based on the arguments presented above: creating better links between development, adaptation and disaster risk reduction and incorporating population data into assessments and programming. This chapter began by suggesting that “impact-first” responses, which include many disaster risk reduction approaches, fall short of the broader adaptation needed and that this type of broader adaptation must be at least partially situated in the development arena. It reviewed a series of linkages between population dynamics, development and components of vulnerability and adaptation, including exposure and adaptive capacity, which may help to create that kind of broader adaptation linked to development. The remainder of this chapter explores ways in which large groups might change their mindsets and behaviour, a process that necessitates changes in livelihoods and lifestyles that go beyond hazardspecific preparations and instead sets the foundation for preparation for climate change.
Bringing together disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation There are obviously close synergies between adaptation to climate change, disaster risk reduction and development. Of course, there is no single definition of ‘development’ that can be linked with population issues and climate change, and the risks from climate change must be seen alongside the other risks that people face (and which they often identify as being far more important in their lives). Indirect adaptation measures share three key characteristics that underscore their importance for adaptation and complementarities with impact-first responses (O’Neill et al., 2008, pp. 198-199): 1. Rather than being specific responses to the impacts of climate change, these measures generate prerequisites for reduced risk or help people take care of basic needs, like food, water and shelter. 2. They can be effective in the short term because they more accurately reflect the immediate needs as expressed by poor people and communities (as also suggested by Cannon and Müller-Mahn, 2010). Schipper and Pelling (2006) suggest that climate change affects disaster risk in two ways: Short-term climate variability and its extremes influence the range and frequency of shocks affecting social systems; and longer-term variability can affect the productive base of society. In particular, the impacts of climate change will affect the ability to achieve broader development goals—both by the ways in which these are experienced by different groups within society and through the longer-term effects on productive assets (in both agricultural and non-agricultural systems). There are also a range of linkages between the disaster risk reduction and the climate change adaptation agendas. Most obviously, institutional structures and tools for disaster risk reduction can reduce the exposure of populations to the types of extreme weather Po pul at i ng Adap tat i o n I nco rp o rat i ng P o p ul at i o n Dy nam i c s i n C li m at e Ch ange Adap tat i o n P o li c y an d P ract i c e
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