Bridging the divide in community development:

Abstract

Since smallholder farmers in the Global South are among the people most vulnerable to the impact of current and future climate change, numerous external actors focus on building their capacity in climate change adaptation and mitigation practices. Previous experience however shows that the success, efficiency and sustainability of these projects depends on appropriate models and tools being implemented in order to take relevant climate-smart practices to scale. After the successful completion of a four-year asset-based community-development (ABCD) climate change adaptation and mitigation pilot (2010-2014), and more than three years into the four-year (2015-2019) proof of concept phase, I propose to formulate sixteen key messages about the importance of process. These lessons focus on how external actors can meaningfully support community-driven scaling of land-based development activities that are both context specific and responsive to local identities, interests and preferences (IIP). These IIP can be understood as the quintessence of people's complex life aspirations that are composed of and influenced by their socio-cultural background (identities), their rational calculations (interests) and their personal taste (preferences). Scaling, here, is furthermore understood as more quickly, equitably and sustainably reaching more people over a wider geographical area