Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change – A Scoping Review of Success Factors, Challenges & Lessons Learnt

Abstract: There has been growing recognition that local communities possess adequate knowledge, skills, experience and understandings of vulnerabilities and risks associated with their lives and livelihoods, and that this should be included in climate change adaptation (CCA). As a result, community-based adaptation (CBA) is being increasingly implemented as means to adapt to climate change (CC). However, despite the existence of a growing pool of literature on CBA, the overwhelming consensus is that further evidence is required for establishing its efficacy, best practices and lessons learnt. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the existing pool of literature by examining CBA’s success factors, challenges and lessons learnt. To this end, a scoping review of scientific literature published between 2016-2022 was conducted, complemented by five semi-structured interviews with practitioners. Among others, factors such as local ownership, inclusive participation, enabling governance and institutional collaboration were identified as enhancing the success of CBA, whilst a lack of community cohesiveness, limited funding, and donor restrictions constitute few of the many challenges. The overall findings are in line with previous systematic reviews on CBA and emphasize a requirement for a holistic approach to CC adaptation, enabling and collaborative governance systems, as well as the need for integrated assessment of the roles of social capital.