Barriers and enablers to adaptation need to be viewed as dynamic and intersecting rather than individual and static

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ASSAR’s overall concern was to generate knowledge that can support adaptation for the poorer and often politically-marginalised people facing livelihood and wellbeing stresses in semi-arid regions. To this end, ASSAR’s primary research question and research framework placed high emphasis on understanding the barriers and enablers to adaptation in this context.

We were by no means the first project to try to understand how different factors constrain or promote the chances of achieving success in adaptation initiatives and actions. However, one thing we did do distinctively is explicitly frame our view of barriers and enablers in a normative sense – that is, in relation to explicit goals of how adaptation should proceed. We were not just interested in what makes any form of adaptation work; we were interested in what encourages or prevents effective, widespread and sustained adaptation that aligns with the aspirations of local communities.

The attention to barriers and enablers in this sense was imbued in all of the strands of our work (governance, social differentiation, ecosystem services, gender and knowledge systems). This helped to define not just what we studied and how, but how we approached the challenges of working with stakeholders, encouraging more participatory and transformative modes of engagement. Research on barriers and enablers was therefore an overarching rather than specific theme in ASSAR. Nevertheless, by comparing the insights drawn from our empirical cases with the existing body of literature on barriers and enablers, we think it is important to highlight two key points:

First, many discussions of barriers and enablers in adaptation focus on matters relating to finance, technology, skills, institutional capacity, and governance. But from our people-centred work in ASSAR we emphasise a strong, and in some case central role, that cultural factors may play in shaping development, uptake, and effectiveness of adaptation actions. By culture we refer to shared traits such as worldviews, values, norms, taboos, behaviours, and tastes that are often institutionalised within cultural structures related, for example, to social status, caste and gender. The importance of recognising cultural dynamics in this context is key, especially in semi-arid regions where deep-rooted traditions tend now to be confronted by rapid environmental and social change.

Second, we draw attention not just to the existence of multiple forms of barriers and enablers, but to their interaction in shaping adaptation outcomes. Just as different forms of enablers could combine to increase the chances of progress, so multiple interacting barriers can be mutually reinforcing to severely constrain progress. Equally, different factors can, in effect, counteract one another, with some acting to strengthen while others act to undermine the uptake and success of adaptation actions. Furthermore, barriers can be dynamic and change over time, with barriers in one adaptation context morphing into enablers at certain times or in certain situations. These interactions can often be highly complex and context-specific; but attempts to understand how a web of interacting factors is likely to play out in terms of shaping the conditions for successful development, uptake and effectiveness of adaptation actions is a key consideration for all those promoting effective adaptation.

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