Paper short abstract:

This presentation presents research on two agricultural development interventions in Northern Ghana. Political economy at international, national, and local scales is significant in informing intervention understandings and objectives but often overlooks the local context of the farmers.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines how understandings of adaptive capacity are formed and the consequences of diverse framings of adaptive capacity. The concept of adaptive capacity is examined in the context of agricultural development interventions in semi-arid Northern Ghana. The research focuses on understandings of adaptive capacity within two case study projects: one facilitated by a non-governmental organisation and the other facilitated by an international agricultural research institute and the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Data analysis identifies a contrast between formal understandings of adaptive capacity and the practice of enhancing adaptive capacity within agricultural development interventions. Discourse analysis of policy documents shows that national policies inherit understandings of adaptive capacity from international funding and governance bodies situated in the Global North. National policies and associated agencies then enforce understandings of adaptive capacity on the local-level institutions responsible for facilitating agricultural development interventions. Thus, formal understandings of adaptive capacity are developed through a chain-reaction driven by political economy. However, within the two case studies the practice of enhancing adaptive capacity differs to formal framings because of the existence of multiple understandings. The role of farmer participation within both case study projects and the complexities of human and social agency transfer the practice of enhancing adaptive capacity to a local framing. In this local framing, the farmers' engagement with project facilitation and collaborative governance shapes the way adaptive capacity is enhanced. Through participation and social agency the two case studies are enhancing adaptive capacity in indirect and unintentional ways.