Moving from one research project to the next can be an unexpectedly rewarding moment, revealing new connections between different subjects and places.
From 2022 until this year, I worked on the Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research programme, exploring how social assistance can be provided effectively in protracted crises being experienced in places such as Sudan and Yemen. Now I’ve joined the RELIABLE study, investigating preparedness for unpredictable climate events through in-depth research in West Bengal in India and in Sussex in the UK.
Initially I felt quite sceptical about what the connections between these two studies could be, given the very different places that they focus on. After all, what could research on social assistance during the conflict in Sudan really have in common with studying climate preparedness in the UK? But the more I thought about this, and the more I went beyond the surface descriptions to the underlying ideas and issues in the two sets of research, the more I started to see potential connections.
In this blog, I share some of these shared themes, using this as an opportunity to reflect on what my learning from BASIC Research could bring as we get underway with fieldwork for RELIABLE.
Sustaining reliable services in uncertainty
My key starting point was a realisation that both research programmes share a focus on how to respond to the growing uncertainty which has exposed the inadequacies of standard risk management playbooks. That uncertainty is shaped by conflict, climate and other shocks in the studies by BASIC Research and by increasingly extreme and unpredictable weather events for RELIABLE.
In one of the BASIC Research country studies, we explored how the vital role of mutual aid during Sudan’s ongoing conflict calls for international donors to review their approaches to managing risk. We found that this includes re-appraising the impulse in high-risk crises for increased centralised control over interventions versus supporting locally led initiatives through long-term partnerships. I’m keen to explore a similar path of enquiry for RELIABLE: how can governments enable local-level actors’ agency and adaptiveness to navigate the deep uncertainty generated by climate change while supporting a coherent and accountable response?
Rethinking capacity
Another common focus across the research is one that I think can reap huge rewards: understanding how to support and invest in vital capacities – in organisations, in individuals – which tend to be under-appreciated. In BASIC Research, our study on the role of women frontline workers in delivering cash transfers in Yemen deliberately sought to look beyond individual competencies and technical skills, to uncover the crucial relational and adaptive capacities that these workers deploy to navigate tricky conflict and cultural dynamics.
I’m excited to continue exploring these crucial capabilities in RELIABLE, which has a comparative focus on the social, relational and affective practice of mid-level policy actors working on climate preparedness. These local resilience leads and climate adaptation officers make critical decisions in real time and, often embedded within systems over many years, navigate uncertainty by drawing on tacit experience, professional relationships, and emotional intelligence. Weaving their way and sustaining programmes through network and coalition building, these types of capacities are essential for climate preparedness and reliable services, but they do not receive much attention in conventional approaches to climate emergency response and longer-term adaptation.
Experiential learning and bottom-up knowledges
One of the key messages coming out of the BASIC Research programme is that there is a body of practical experience and learning developing from the bottom-up within the social protection field, as social protection workers seek ways to adapt delivery in conflict-sensitive ways in crises – but this knowledge has been inadequately incorporated in plans, programmes, systems and operations.
I’ll be taking this finding forward as a key line of enquiry for RELIABLE, to explore how mid-level policy actors’ practice and expertise is heard, valued and incorporated within sectoral and organisational policy approaches and processes. We will be looking for insights into how strategies and organisations can learn from and enable ‘agent-centred reflexive adaptation’ that has the potential to update and improve organisational responses to climate uncertainty.
Looking forward
These reflections culminate around a question that has become increasingly important in my own research: why do organisations continue to hold on tight to their established risk management playbooks, even as the evidence mounts that these are no longer fit for purpose?
BASIC Research has highlighted the importance of prioritising understanding how to sustain reliable systems during crisis through enabling, adaptive management that supports local agency, investing in often overlooked forms of capacity, and incorporate experiential learning and local knowledge in organisational plans and processes. I look forward to exploring these pathways in RELIABLE, hoping this research will contribute to wider thinking on how our climate response can become more adaptive, more grounded in lived experience, and ultimately more reliable in the face of an increasingly unpredictable future.