Evaluating the Suitability of Community-Based Adaptation: A Case Study of Bangladesh

Abstract

Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) is increasingly recognised as a promising approach for the most vulnerable people to adapt to climate change impacts. However, CBA has conceptual and procedural challenges, e.g., lacking of an established theory. Under this context evaluating the suitability of CBA merits a closer look. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the suitability of CBA to determine the positive and negative factors of it so that the application of CBA can contribute more to build community’s adaptive capacity. A hybrid method Analytical Hierarchy Process in SWOT was applied to derive the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) around CBA, drawing a case study in flood-affected, drought-affected and coastal areas of Bangladesh. Results overwhelmingly explain the presence of strengths and opportunities of CBA to climate impacts, and the low importance of threats and weaknesses around CBA. The study indicates CBA has a lot of potential for building climate resilience and/or adaptive capacity—by building social assets—and fostering transformational adaptation, which requires a meticulous CBA planning for addressing diverse social contexts, the dynamics of vulnerability, and their linkages with socioeconomic processes. Yet, practitioners must find ways to overcoming the challenges through placing communities at the heart of CBA’s planning and implementation, and complementary actions across levels. Concrete policy implications are outlined to enhance the effectiveness of CBA.