Climate Change and Sustainable Livelihoods

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Climate Change and Sustainable Livelihoods

• Koos Neefjes
• Policy Advisor Climate Change
• UNDP Viet Nam

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Outline

• Climate change (CC) challenges of Viet Nam
• Climate change adaptation sustaining development
• Sustaining livelihoods in the context of CC
  scenarios
• Conclusions climate change and rural livelihood
  zones

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1. Climate change (CC) challenges of Viet Nam
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1.1 Climate change impacts

• CC effects include sea level rise, river floods,
  drought, agriculture, typhoons and storm surges,
  water supply problems, heat waves, disease
  vectors
• CC impacts on many resources, including natural
  resources on which livelihoods of many poor
  people depend
• CC threatens the achievement of Millennium
  Development Goals

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1.2 Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions
(NAMAs) include

• Improved energy efficiency including energy
  efficient stoves and biogas
• Enhanced renewable energy generation
• Strengthened forest protection and development,
  incl. mangrove (REDD reduced emissions from
  deforestation and degradation)
• Develop financial instruments to control
  emissions and reduce vulnerabilities, including
  crop insurance, tax, subsidies, credit

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2. Climate change adaptation sustaining
development
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2.1 Sustainable Development and natural disasters

• CC effects are now and in the long term future
• Sustainable development development that meets
  the needs of the present without compromising the
  ability of future generations to meet their own
  needs
• CC disasters can cause downward spirals and
  impoverishment. Local capacities to cope should
  be strengthened, and outside investment is needed
  too
• Gradual changes from CC do not prompt much local
  action, so awareness should be raised and central
  research, policy formulation and investment is
  needed

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2.2 Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF)
Climate Change

• Livelihoods can be sustainable, vulnerabilities
  for CC shocks and trends low, and resilience
  high, if .
• Women, men, communities have high quality
  livelihood capitals (human, social, financial,
  physical and natural)
• Policies, processes and structures ( governance)
  enables equitable access to capitals/assets and
  multiple livelihood strategies, including
  migration
• The causes of hazards are addressed (CC related,
  or e.g. market related) through major policy
  initiatives
• Vulnerability is specific to shocks, and to
  social groups
• Natural Resources are under threat from CC
• But win-win is possible, with better access to
  land, water and biotic resources so that people
  manage them sustainably get protection from
  climate hazards and improve livelihood resilience

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2.3 Participatory analysis and empowerment for
resilience

• HVCA hazard, vulnerability, and capacity
  assessment, for with women, men, old, young
• SLF and HVCA to help ask questions and analyse
• Must include analysis of power, social relations
• Take participatory research approach and develop
  actions for empowerment, local action, resource
  mobilisation, and also mobilise expertise and
  leadership at higher level

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2.4 Vulnerability Adaptation (VA)

• Research should support plans that are targeted
  on the most vulnerable people, social groups
• The future CC scenarios for assessing adaptation
  options should show how livelihoods could look
  like
• VA is often heavy on hydro-meteorology, so a big
  challenge is how to connect to social-economic
  datasets and to participatory assessments?
• Apart from bottom-up approach for adaptation to
  the short term CC effects, need a more top-down
  research, planning and investment approach for
  long term decisions and actions

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3. Sustaining livelihoods in the context of CC
scenarios
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3.1 Lessons on methodologies and data

• Social economic statistical data available
  (VHLSS) but not yet analysed for CC effects
• Administrative data offer good overviews of the
  situation in localities, and can be accessed
• Participatory poverty assessments combine
  administrative data with qualitative data from
  communities, with challenges of scale and
  representativeness, quality and comparability
• Environmental data (GIS etc) are rarely used in
  local qualitative studies connections between
  researchers and datasets should be reinforced

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3.2 Climate change vulnerabilities in rural Viet
Nam some experience

• Strong correlation between poverty and
  vulnerability for climate related shocks, causing
  livelihood capitals to deteriorate and unequal
  access to these capitals
• The poorest and most vulnerable people are in the
  coastal lowlands and the uplands, and include
  ethnic minorities, women headed households, the
  elderly
• Women have lower capacity to cope and suffer
  with male or female migration. Shocks may cause
  lasting change in social relations at household
  and community level
• The main impacts of CC on livelihoods of poor
  people are in agriculture fisheries and
  aquaculture forestry and upland farming, where
  livelihood capitals and income opportunities are
  sometimes limited by dams. There are major
  threats to health and education.

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3.3 Climate change adaptation options in Viet Nam

• Invest in Research Development for sustainable
  agriculture, aquaculture
• Protect, invest in forestry including mangroves
• CC should be mainstreamed in national and local
  plans and link to social protection and basic
  services (health, education)
• Strengthen Early Warning Systems
• Strengthen popular consultation, and public
  debates about major investment plans
• Prioritise climate proofing of infrastructure and
  design new infrastructure within spatial plans
• Develop financial instruments for vulnerability
  reduction

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4. Conclusions climate change and rural
livelihood zones
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4. Conclusions (a)

• None of the adaptation actions is new to VN, and
  CC adaptation should be mainstreamed
• However, extra investments in adaptation is
  needed at un-paralleled scale, in EWS, RD,
  infrastructure, financial instruments, etc.
• HVCA and local planning requires d too
• The focus should be on protecting and creating
  rural livelihood opportunities, but links to
  urban areas are important for livelihood security
  and protection
• Research, planning, and investment should
  consider the near future as well as future
  generations

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4. Conclusions (b)

• Additional, geographically focused and
  thematically prioritised research should be based
  on existing publications and administrative data,
  and combine research methodologies and data
  including modelling of social economic and
  hydro-meteorological long-term future scenarios
• Priority learning, planning, and action is needed
  in livelihood zones along the Mekong river
  (coastal, delta, uplands in VN) drought prone
  livelihood zones coastal livelihood strategies
• Focal studies are proposed on gender relations
  migration and finance and insurance systems in
  the context of reinforced social security

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Thank you!!