Climate Change and Resilience

A study in the peer review journal Science out this week claims to show evidence of the links between a warming climate and increased violence. But case study research from International Alert on community resilience in fragile contexts in South Asia guards against such generalisations and shows that local dynamics and nuances are critical.

This article first appeared on the Thomson Reuters Foundation website.

Resilience, as a concept, has re-emerged after a few decades of hibernation as the development term du jour.  While not without its challenges, the approach certainly has merits.

International Alert convenes an expert roundtable, Building resilience – building peace, in Kathmandu on Monday 8 July. It’s the culmination of two and half years of research on the impact of climate change on local communities in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. I can’t be there, so we recorded four minutes to camera as my contribution to the day's events.

On 15 May, International Alert partnered with the International Peace Institute (IPI) to present findings on environmental change and security at a roundtable event at IPI in New York.

This paper is a collection of reflections from a field visit to three districts in the middle hills and Terai belt of eastern Nepal (Sunsari, Dhankuta and Morang) which set out to explore the various dimensions of the resilience of climate-affected communities. By sharing the perceptions and insights of community members from these districts, this paper aims to shed light on the complexities of these particular local contexts and flag some of the specific challenges of responding to climate change in fragile and conflict-affected contexts such as Nepal.

Full report

This report explores the complexities of responding to climate change in fragile and conflict affected contexts. It highlights the interaction between the impact of climate change and the social and political realities in which people live and stresses that it is this that will determine their capacity to adapt. To be effective, the goal of policy responses must be to address the political dimension of adapting to climate change, and the underlying causes of vulnerability where the state is unable to carry out its core functions.

Full report