Climate change adaptation in Turkana´s political economy of aid

Abstract

This qualitative master thesis research analyses how global questions of climate change adaptation manifest in Turkana´s local political economy of aid and how that affects vulnerability reduction. Growing awareness of the unequal distribution of adverse climate change impacts generated an increase in climate change adaptation interventions which aimed to reduce vulnerability in the Global South (S. Eriksen, Inderberg, O’Brien, & Sygna, 2014; Nightingale et al., 2019). However, global questions arose when research and evaluations repetitively demonstrated the lack of many adaptation interventions to rise above the technical solutions, questioning if and how adaptation can decrease vulnerability (Jordan, 2019; Nightingale et al., 2019). This research conducts a case study of adaptation interventions in Turkana, drawing on qualitative data collected in Kambi Lore and Nangorchoto and county level government and NGO staff in 2019. Analysis of interviews with local people of Kambi Lore and Nangorchoto demonstrated how the convergence of poverty, exacerbated by drought, and increasing humanitarian aid forced pastoralists to diversify their livelihoods. However, alternative livelihoods remain marginal and exacerbate vulnerability. In addition, the analysis of the interventions demonstrated that adaptation is emerged in the discourses of the political economy of aid that blocks transformation of the vulnerabilities. To conclude, this study identified that Turkana´s political economy of aid shapes the co-productive knowledge processes, undermining vulnerability reduction (Nightingale et al., 2019).