Jump to: Contact | News stories | Outputs

Using a wellbeing approach in climate adaptation efforts helps to humanise adaptation debates, making them less technocratic and scientific. The approach focuses on the links between human needs and aspirations; the different resources and capacities people have; and how these shape livelihood choices, satisfaction with life, and resilience. It recognises that people’s capacity to engage in adaptation action, and the types of action they can engage in, varies within communities and households. All these factors coalesce to have implications for equity and inclusion. A wellbeing approach is critical for designing policies that respond to the many ways in which social dynamics lead to different levels of vulnerability.

Infographic describing the wellbeing approach
Infographic detailing the importance of valuing people's changing aspirations in adaptation work

Image removed.Contact

Jennifer Leavy (J.Leavy@uea.ac.uk), University of East Anglia

Laura Camfield (L.Camfield@uea.ac.uk), University of East Anglia

Related news stories

Adaptation is about people: a new ASSAR video

With a strong focus on understanding the factors that enhance or diminish people's vulnerability and wellbeing, and the responses they take to deal with both climatic and non-climatic stressors, ASSAR focused on the most marginalised.

Livestock as wealth for rural Namibians

The final episode of ASSAR's climate change radio show in Namibia focused on livestock ownership, drought-resistant cattle, and ways farmers can shift to climate-smart agricultural practices. By Ndamonako Anna Iita.

Mazing through peri-urban Bangalore

Maitreyi Koduganti from the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) gives an account of a game that she developed, with the support of an ASSAR Small Opportunities Grant, to help people gain better insight into the complexities...

An overview of the ‘Wellbeing Approach’

The Wellbeing approach considers more than what a person has (their material wellbeing); it considers what they do (their agency), and what they feel and think about what they have and are able to do ...

Related outputs

Type

Author(s)

Year

Title

Details

Links

Infographic ASSAR 2018 Dreaming of a better life: Let’s recognise and value people’s changing aspirations.    
Information brief ASSAR 2019 A focus on wellbeing can link adaptation to outcomes that matter to people.    
Journal article Solomon, D. S. and Rao, N. 2018 Wells and wellbeing in South India. Economic & Political Weekly, 53(17). Infographic; Information brief
Photo essay Leavy, J. 2018 Changing aspirations and the realities of climate change adaptation for the young people in Ethiopia and Kenya.    
Photo essay Singh, C. and Gautam, M. 2015 Summary; Presentation    
Publication in progress Solomon, D. and Badiger, S. _ Agrarian transformations: Impacts on wellbeing and adaptation outcomes in Western Tamil Nadu.    
Spotlight ASSAR 2016 Spotlight on wellbeing.    
Video ATREE 2019 Wells and a lack of wellbeing.    
Webinar ASSAR 2015 ASSAR webinar on wellbeing and adaptation.    
Video ASSAR 2019 Adaptation is about people.