This document outlines a methodology for conducting community-based social return on investment (SROI) analyses to assess the costs and benefits of adaptation projects. It notes that current top-down cost estimates of climate adaptation have wide ranges. The methodology was tested in communities in Kenya and Senegal to evaluate adaptation interventions like agroforestry, medical centers, and water storage. The analyses provide insights into factors like external stakeholder influence, development linkages, and gender-based approaches. Further work is needed to scale up the approach and ensure the results inform higher-level policy and decision-making.

1. Social Return on Investment
for Community-Based
Adaptation Planning
Ariella Helfgott
Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
Land Dynamics, University of Wageningen
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide
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2. picture of abrar
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3. In 2010 a single flood in Pakistan ...
COST
$50 billion?
OR
$9.6 billion?
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4. Current estimates of global cost of adaptation
Most costing methods use top-down
approaches based on econometric models
Range from $4 billion (Stern 2006) to over
$100 billion (UNFCCC 2007)
Latest - $72-98 billion (World Bank 2009)
How can one flood cost $50 billion when the
total cost is only between $4 and $100
billion (at most 2 of those floods)
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5. Abrar decided...
To develop a methodology for
community-based adaptation costing to
supplement top-down methods and help
provide the information that high level
institutions responsible for top-down
allocation need to ensure the money goes
where it is most needed!
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10. SROI a form of cost benefit analysis
SROI = NPV benefits/PV costs
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11. Planning for the future involves knowing...
where you want to go (visions of the
future)
the context you will have to navigate
within (including challenges you must
face)
what you have to work with
(comprehensive asset mapping)
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12. Adaptation planning involves specifying...
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16. Interrelatedness
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17. Systems Thinking
problem of holism: system boundary judgements
are inevitable (Churchman 1968; Ulrich 1983;
Midgley 2000);
system boundary judgments are normative and
not an objective representation of the structure
of reality (ibid).
what belongs to the “whole system” is entirely
dependent on and relative to the inquirers choice
of conceptual boundary (Ulrich 1983).
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19. Development Theory
Whereas problem based approaches ask
“Why have you failed?” strength-based
approaches ask “What makes success?”
Asset-Based Community Development
Appreciative Inquiry: Define, Discover,
Dream, Design, Do.
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20. Systemic Adaptation Planning
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35. Backcasting Kochiel Kenya
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36. Valuation Approaches
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39. East and West African Case
Studies
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40. Kochiel Village – Kenya
Selected Intervention: Agroforestry
Insight - influence of external
stakeholders
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41. Othidhe Village – Kenya
Intervention selected - Medical Centre
Insight - Linkages between development
and adaptation
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42. Dodji - Senegal
Intervention selected - water storage and
distribution
Insight - gender based interventions
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43. Future work
“scaling out” through replication, mixing media
and hand-over of data collection and of approach
appropriate information formats and pathways for
the results to be channelled to higher levels of
governance and decision-making
policy which is flexible enough to be locally
interpreted without being too abstract to be
meaningless
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44. “I AM A CAR FULL OF PETROL...”
• ...JUST LOOKING FOR THE KEYS”
• MAURICE KWANGA 2011 KENYA
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45. Thank you. Any questions?
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