Insights for Building Institutional Capacities for Climate Change Adaptation: Evidence from Mexico

Abstract

Institutions play a key role in planning and implementing climate change adaptation in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, absence of integration between different government levels and multiple sectors is one of the main barriers that institutions need to address to implement climate change adaptation. Local governments are the ideal arena to address the need for vertical and horizontal integration, because they are the immediate government actor interacting with vulnerable populations. Yet, local governments are usually challenged by scarce resources and capacities under differential climate change exposure. This chapter describes an analytical approach to assess the institutional capacities of local governments for climate change adaptation in Mexico. This approach comprised the development of (1) a conceptual model of institutional capacity of local governments; (2) institutional capacity indicators; (3) institutional capacity indices; and (4) institutional capacity clusters of local governments in Mexico. It was used this approach to evaluate 2454 local governments in Mexico using data from government official sources that is periodically updated on a national scale. The analytical approach follows a hybrid between top-down (national and subnational) and bottom-up (local) approaches. A hybrid approach has been recognized as the most efficient way to implement climate change adaptation, because it integrates the robustness of a top-down approach with the flexibility of a bottom-up approach. The outcomes of this study aim to inform authorities in allocating scarce resources for building local capacities to foster climate change adaptation in Mexico.