Browsing by Author "Christoplos, Ian"

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    Towards 'good enough' climate and disaster risk governance: Emerging lessons from Zambia, Nepal, Viet Nam and Uganda
    (Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), 2014) Christoplos, Ian; Aben, Charles; Bashaasha, Bernard; Dhungana, Hari; Friis-Hansen, Esbern
    This report compares and contrasts how disaster risk management is being conceptualised in relation to emerging climate change adaptation efforts and how these two agendas are influenced by different governance systems, accountabilities and social contracts in Zambia, Uganda, Viet Nam and Nepal. Particular attention is paid to how this relates to different forms of state legitimacy and the changing role of local government in connection with a range of decentralisation processes, increasing political attention and the lure of new but little understood climate change funding. Findings highlight how concerns about disaster risk are influencing how new and uncertain forms of combined disaster/climate governance are perceived and implemented. Increasing attention from the media is also noted as a key factor determining which aspects of disaster risk management gain prominence, and which are ignored in public demands and in responses by politicians and local government.
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    Understanding Sub-National Climate Governance: Findings from Nepal, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia
    (DIIS Report, 2016) Christoplos, Ian; Aben, Charles; Bashaasha, Bernard; Dhungana, Hari; Friis-Hansen, Esbern; Funder, Mikkel; Thi Thanh Huong, Nguyen
    Understanding the sub-national dynamics of climate governance is critical if individual nations and the global community are to move forward in implementing the COP21 agreement and make effective use of associated global climate funds. One important aspect of this is to understand the institutional conditions and dynamics that influence how sub-national organisations respond to climate change. This includes organisations such as local governments and deconcentrated state agencies that operate at the ‘meso-level’ between the central state and communities, in the administrative spaces encompassing districts, municipalities and provinces. From a strategic point of view, such meso-level organisations are by no means insignificant, and ideally they can play a strong role in supporting households in climate adaptation: They are often responsible for implementing national climate change policies and interventions in practice, while at the same time being accountable to the local population. At the same time, their decisions about how to interpret and implement climate policies in practice have direct and often substantial impacts on livelihoods and the risks faced by climate-vulnerable people. Meso-level organisations inhabit an often opaque ‘twilight’ area between the central state and the community (Lund 2006), where mandates and everyday actions are often open to interpretation and where public authority and ‘reach’ are sometimes fragmented, ambiguous and contested.