Adaptation of water resources management to climate change

The strengthening of social capital can be achieved through various methods. Improving healthcare,schools, or communal water supplies will provide essential services and can be a meetingpoint for joint action. The establishment of production, manufacturing and trading cooperativescan also contribute to social capital by creating solidarity among stakeholders and enablingcollaborative action in communities that may have little experience with such approaches.Community-managed village banks are another mechanism to strengthen social capital; they haveproven to be very effective in providing people with access to credit and in building a sense ofsolidarity. So far, social capital has remained an aspect of adaptation that has received very littleattention. However, maintaining and strengthening such capital is essential if adaptation is tosucceed.4.3 An Adaptive Management Style and Social LearningThe adaptation process will need to be driven by a genuine willingness to change and innovate,particularly in terms of priority setting and decision making. It is likely that it will only develop ina significant way if changes are viewed not as a threat that paralyses, but as a stimulus forinnovation. As such it is more likely to be an iterative process than a series of simple choices abouttechnical interventions.An adaptive style of management will need to be taken up by water users and managers ifwater management is to adapt to climate change. Adaptive management can be defined as asystematic process for continually improving management policies and practices by learning fromthe outcome of operational programmes. 26 When applied to water resources, adaptive managementcan build on the acknowledgement that water resources and benefits that accrue from them arederived from complex natural (or semi-natural) ecosystems. As ecosystems are complex systems,their functioning and role in providing water resources is partly unknown. Dealing with suchuncertainty therefore needs to be incorporated into management.WORLD BANK SUPPORTS SOCIAL LEARNING AND INNOVATIONInnovation rarely works with “blueprint projects”. In the 1990s, the World Bank established theLearning and Innovation Loan (LIL). These loans are a cost-effective instrument for testing and pilotinginnovative development ideas. With loans of up to US$5 million, the World Bank gives special emphasisto small, risky and/or time-sensitive projects. LIL focuses on experimentation, learning and pilotingto identify possible development solutions, prior to potential large-scale operations. The loans alsofocus on promoting ownership and broad political commitment among stakeholders. The loanprogramme enables the World Bank to work in partnership with donors and NGOs in a more flexiblemanner. To qualify for the loans, project proposals need to clearly state a testable hypothesis andincorporate intensive monitoring and evaluation. They must also include indications of how theproject results will aid the borrower in making decisions about replicating and scaling-up the project.More flexible financing will be essential to stimulate innovation for dealing with climate variabilityand change and reducing vulnerability. 3333