Participatory Social Return on Investment (PSROI): Greater Mekong Basin Climate Change Adaptation Planning and Costing Project


Adaptation challenge
- Using community-based participatory methods to assess adaptation priorities incorporates site-specific locally relevant criteria—in addition to stakeholder ownership—into adaptation planning processes
- Selection of adaptation interventions as well as associated inputs and outcomes identified locally and those identified nationally may differ. These differences in perceptions should be addressed prior to implementation through engaging stakeholders about prioritization, design, and barriers to adoption.
- Interventions that appear similar at national levels can translate into different actions with highly different associated costs and benefits at community levels appropriately reflect to local contexts.
- Verifying costs and benefits of key components of adaptation interventions and outcomes with local stakeholders can increase the accuracy of nationally conducted impact assessments. The level of locally derived data needed may vary depending on such variables as community knowledge of selected interventions, prevalence of local data at higher levels, and landscape level interactions
Expected outputs
The Participatory Social Return on Investment (PSROI) framework assists in the identification of priorities and the analysis of the value of adaptation actions that build community resilience from stakeholders’ perspectives. It uses participatory techniques and builds on existing local capacity to pinpoint appropriate adaptation options given the unique context of the community, and then analyzes the costs and benefits of actions from economic, social, and environmental perspectives. PSROI can be an effective method for incorporating community-based information into adaptation planning at regional and national levels.
Timescale of project
2012-2013
Scope
Laos
Focal point
Ms. Caitlin Corner-Dolloff Researcher International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) Email: [email protected]
Partners
Caitlin Corner-Dolloff
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)