Differentiated vulnerability proposition for multi-risk adaptation planning

Adaptation actions are imperative for building societal resilience to unforeseen and unavoidable impacts. With increasing extreme events and the need for sustainable development planning, a shift from reactive to more active anticipatory planning is essential to foster resilience within communities. Since assessments of vulnerability form the initial step to develop adaptation outcomes, we argue the need for differentiated vulnerability approaches for anticipatory adaptation planning for responding to the impacts of climate change-induced risks and social risks in the global south. The dominant conceptualization of adaptation within policy circles at regional and local levels remains overly simplistic with limited attention is to the ‘spatial’ and ‘social’ causes that differentiate vulnerability and adaptive capacity. The study proposes a differential vulnerability framework, based on our empirical findings in India, Ghana, and Ethiopia. We highlight the integration of differential vulnerability perspective, corresponding adaptation planning principles, and inclusive policy approach for overcoming the ‘adaptation deficit’ in the global south. Usage of differential vulnerability approach extends the anticipatory adaptation planning to not only incorporate the anticipation of multiple risks through future scenarios but also to identify locations that will be more acutely affected as a result of existing structural vulnerabilities. We emphasize the need to explicitly address the proximate causes of vulnerability emanating from the broader social and political regimes and help in the transformation of a prevailing governance mechanism for being more equitable, effective, and anticipatory.