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Rural Development and the Construction of New Markets (Routledge ISS Studies in Rural Livelihoods)
by Jan Douwe van der Ploeg Paul Hebinck Sergio SchneiderThis book focuses on empirical experiences related to market development, and specifically new markets with structurally different characteristics than mainstream markets. Europe, Brazil, China and the rather robust and complex African experiences are covered to provide a rich multidisciplinary and multi-level analysis of the dynamics of newly emerging markets. Rural Development and the Construction of New Markets analyses newly constructed markets as nested markets. Although they are specific market segments that are nested in the wider commodity markets for food, they have a different nature, different dynamics, a different redistribution of value added, different prices and different relations between producers and consumers. Nested markets embody distinction viz-a-viz the general markets in which they are embedded. A key aspect of nested markets is that these are constructed in and through social struggles, which in turn positions this book in relation to classic and new institutional economic analyses of markets. These markets emerge as steadily growing parts of the farmer populations are dedicating their time, energy and resources to the design and production of new goods and services that differ from conventional agricultural outputs. The speed and intensity with which this is taking place, and the products and services involved, vary considerably across the world. In large parts of the South, notably Africa, farmers are ‘structurally’ combining farming with other activities. By contrast, in Europe and large parts of Latin America farmers have taken steps to generate new products and services which exist alongside ongoing agricultural production. This book not only discusses the economic rationales and dynamics for these markets, but also their likely futures and the threats and opportunities they face.
Rural Development and Urban-Bound Migration in Mexico (Routledge Revivals)
by Arthur Silvers Pierre CrossonRapid growth of urban populations is a major characteristic of economic development and demographic change in developing countries leading to industrialisation and modernisation of major cities. Originally published in 1980, this study focusses on these issues using Mexico as a case study as well as analysing the risk of over-urbanisation and what the effects will be on cities such as Mexico City. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental studies and Economics.
Rural Development for Sustainable Social-ecological Systems: Putting Communities First (Palgrave Studies in Environmental Sustainability)
by Claudia Baldwin Séverine Van BommelThis book provides an overview of interdisciplinary approaches that have applied social science to research focused on issues around food, agriculture and natural resource management. The book demonstrates that those who work in rural sociology either as researchers or practitioners apply community development and participatory techniques to socio-environmental interaction. The book discusses how the evolving concept of interconnected social and ecological systems (SES) emerged, recognizing the inherent complexity, adaptive nature, and resilience of such systems. This book engages with contemporary theory, as well as new cutting-edge transdisciplinary research evidenced in case studies from three continents.
Rural Development in the Third World (Routledge Revivals)
by Chris DixonThe rural landscape of the Third World is generally seen as one worked by the impoverished. Chris Dixon shows that this is an increasingly inaccurate picture. Wealth does exist, with the landed often maintaining lifestyles comparable to their richest urban neighbours. And while land remains the basis of real wealth, the rural workforce is diversifying its activities away from agriculture becoming involved in a range of manufacturing, processing, trading and service industries. Yet still rural poverty persists, and the book illustrates just how difficult it is to assess the success of development initiatives adopted to eliminate it. This book, first published in 1990, provides a general introduction to the approaches, policies, and problems associated with Third World rural development. Rural Development in the Third World is relevant to students of geography, the environment and developmental issues.
Rural Development Theory and Practice (Routledge Studies in Development and Society)
by Ruth McAreaveyRural development is inherently viewed as a positive thing; it is seen as something that brings together groups of individuals with automatic positive implications and outcomes. Policy rhetoric frequently uses popular terms such as involvement, participation and power sharing to describe rural development activities. However, the reality of experience on the ground does not necessarily concur with these ideals. It is not always clear who ultimately benefits from rural development: the State, the community or rural development practitioners. This book critically analyses key concepts associated with rural development policy and practice, and using the concepts of power and micro-politics to analyze rhetoric and reality, reveals the intricacies of rural development. Challenging popular ideals associated with rural development, this book presents the notion of rural development less as a spontaneous, all-inclusive affair and more as a limited, controlled and exclusive process. Ultimately it contends that within structures of rural governance, a regeneration power elite predominates development and regeneration activities.
Rural Electrification: Strategies for Distributed Generation
by Hisham ZerriffiFor those in developed nations, suddenly being without electricity is a disaster: power cuts have us fretting over the food stored in the freezer, and even a few hours without lights, televisions, or air conditioning is an ordeal. However, for an estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide, the absence of electricity is their daily experience. An untold number of others live with electricity that is erratic and of poor quality. How can electric power be brought into their lives when the centralized utility models that have evolved in developed nations are not an economically viable option? Poor, rural communities in developing nations cannot simply be 'plugged in' to a grid. Small-scale Distributed Generation (DG), ranging from individual solar home systems to village level grids run off diesel generators, could provide the answer, and this book compares around 20 DG enterprises and projects in Brazil, Cambodia and China, each of which is considered to be a "business model" for distributed rural electrification. While large, centralized power projects often rely on big subsidies, this study shows that privately run and localized solutions can be both self-sustaining and replicable. Its three sections provide a general introduction to the issue of electrification and rural development, set out the details of the case studies and compare the models involved, and discuss the important thematic issues of equity, access to capital and cost-recovery. Hisham Zerriffi shows that in each case, it is not simply a matter of matching a particular technology to a particular need. Numerous institutional factors come into play including the regulatory regime, access to financial services, and government/utility support or opposition to the DG alternative. Despite this, in many countries, the question is not whether DG has a role to play. Rather it is a question of how it will play a role.
Rural Environmental Planning for Sustainable Communities
by Frederic O. Sargent Jose Rivera Paul Lusk Maria VarelaRural Environmental Planning for Sustainable Communities offers an explanation of the concept of Rural Environmental Planning (REP) along with case studies that show how to apply REP to specific issues such as preserving agricultural lands, planning river and lake basins, and preserving historical sites.
Rural Europe: Identity And Change (Perspectives On Rural Policy And Planning Ser.)
by Keith Hoggart Richard Black Henry BullerExamines the interaction of the economic, political and social change processes within Europe which are bringing about fundamental transformations in rural areas. The authors expand on this view of rural Europe, and place its significance within the broader field of rural studies.
Rural Geographies: People, Place and the Countryside
by Richard YarwoodRural Geographies provides a critical, contemporary and accessible introduction to rural change by using geographical ideas to understand current issues affecting the countryside. The book discusses how the countryside has been studied by geographers across a range of different scales, from village community to the global countryside. Each chapter provides a concise and well-illustrated introduction to a key theme in rural geography, using current literature and contemporary examples. The book is divided into four sections that cover rural contexts, changes, contests and cultures. The volume takes a global perspective but is largely centred on the Global North, reflecting the tradition of scholarship in rural geography. Rural Geographies is driven by thinking in human geography. It reflects how major paradigmatic changes in the discipline have impacted, and have been informed by, the sub-discipline of rural geography. The aim is to introduce key ideas and concepts that will teach students the critical skills necessary to analyse rural issues themselves. The text will be a valuable resource for undergraduate students studying rural geography and rural studies.
Rural Geography: Processes, Responses and Experiences in Rural Restructuring (Key Ideas In Geography Ser.)
by Michael Woods"Michael Woods has taken on the formidable task of giving an overview of rural places and society in advanced economies as a single author and has presented a book that rightly deserves to be called state-of-the-art." - Geographische Rundschau "With Rural Geography Michael Woods remedies the often underestimated dynamism of rural places and rural society by providing the much-needed synthesis of the European and North American literature on rural restructuring and globalization processes." - Patrick H Mooney, University of Kentucky Rural Geography is an introduction to contemporary rural societies and economies in the developed world. It examines the social and economic processes at work in the contemporary countryside - including the more traditional: like agriculture; land use; and population; as well as wider themes like: rural health, crime, exclusion, commodification; and alternative lifestyles. With a contextualising section defining the rural, the text is organised systematically in three principal sections: Processes of Rural Restructuring Responses to Rural Restructuring Experiences of Rural Restructuring Using the most recent empirical material , statistical data and research, the text is global in perspective using comparative examples throughout. Rural Geography is a systematic introduction to the processes, responses, and experiences of rural restructuring.
Rural Gerontology: Towards Critical Perspectives on Rural Ageing (Perspectives on Rural Policy and Planning)
by Mark Skinner Rachel Winterton Kieran WalshThis book provides the first foundation of knowledge about the intellectual traditions, contemporary scope and future prospects for the interdisciplinary field of rural gerontology. With a focus on rural regions, small towns and villages, which have the highest rates of population ageing worldwide, Rural Gerontology is aimed at understanding what it means for rural people, communities and institutions to be at the forefront of twenty-first-century demographic change. The book offers important insights from rural ageing studies into today’s most pressing gerontological problems. With chapters from more than 65 established and emerging rural ageing researchers, it is the first synthesis of knowledge about rural gerontology, harnessing a burgeoning interdisciplinary scholarship on the rural dimensions of ageing, old age and older populations. With a view to advancing a critical understanding of rural ageing populations, this book will have an overreaching impact across the social sciences by drawing on advancements in understandings of rural ageing from social, environmental, geographical and critical gerontology to facilitate a comprehensive exploration of the diversity, complexity and implications of the ageing process in rural settings. Bringing together valuable international perspectives, this book makes a timely contribution to gerontology, rural studies and the social sciences, and will appeal to scholars and researchers across USA and Canada, UK and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, China and countries in Africa, South America and South-East Asia.
Rural Governance: International Perspectives (Routledge Studies in Human Geography #Vol. 12)
by Geoffrey Lawrence Vaughan Higgins Lynda CheshireRecent decades have witnessed the transition from the government of rural areas towards processes of governance in which the boundaries between the state and civil society are blurred. As a result, governance is commonly linked to ‘bottom-up’ or community-based approaches to planning and development, which are said to ‘empower’ rural citizens and liberate them from the disabling structures of top-down government control. At the same time, however, a range of other actors beyond the local level have also become increasingly influential in determining the future of rural spaces, thereby embedding rural citizens within new configurations of power relations. This book critically explores the social causes and consequences of these emerging governance arrangements. In particular, the book seeks to move beyond questions of empowerment in governance debates and to consider how new kinds of power relations arise between the various actors involved. The book addresses questions concerning the nature of power relations in contemporary forms of rural governance, including: how community participation is negotiated and achieved; the effects of such participation upon the formulation and delivery of rural policies; the kinds of conflicts that arise between various stakeholder groups and the capacity of each group to promote its interests; and the prospects of this new approach for enhanced democratic governance in rural areas.
Rural Governance in the UK: Towards a Sustainable and Equitable Society (Routledge Studies in Sustainability)
by Sean Heron Ruth McAreavey Adrienne AttorpThis book provides a multidisciplinary analysis of rural society in a post-Brexit UK by examining the emergence of new environmental and rural policies and the implications of this transition for rural communities. Through the Common Agricultural Policy, Common Fisheries Policy, the Birds and Habitats Directives, the Water Framework Directive and a myriad of other legislations and institutions, the EU has had a deciding role in how the UK’s rural environment is governed. Disentangling this policy legacy is a complex process and offers both opportunities and challenges for policy makers, institutions, organisations and stakeholders across the UK as they strive to create appropriate new governance structures. With the Agriculture Bill, the 25-Year Environment Plan and the founding of the Office of Environmental Protection, the UK government has provided at least a degree of clarity on the future direction of environmental governance, but much remains uncertain, not least how this is engaged with by different stakeholders. While Brexit is the lens through which rural policy and sustainability are interrogated, this collection demonstrates the underpinning features of rural policy and society, identifying opportunities for addressing deep-seated policy weaknesses thereby creating a more sustainable and equitable rural society. This book brings together academics, established and early career, to discuss the impact of Brexit on rural environmental governance and on the wider sustainability of rural society, relating to three overall themes: rural governance, sustainable land use, and sustainable rural communities. In doing so, it considers sectors beyond agriculture, paying attention to social relations, community infrastructure, the environment, rural development and broader issues of land use. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of rural development, rural entrepreneurship, rural digital inclusion, environmental policy, sustainable development, land use, agrarian studies and environmental geography.
The Rural Landscape
by John Fraser HartFrom the acclaimed landscape historian and geographer, a comprehensive handbook to understanding the elements that make up the rural landscape.Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic TitleIn this book, John Fraser Hart offers a comprehensive handbook to understanding the elements that make up the rural landscape—those regions that lie at or beyond the fringes of modern metropolitan life. Though the last two centuries have seen an inversion in the portion of people living on farms to those in cities, the land still beckons, whether traversed in a car or train, scanned from far above, or as the locus of our food supply or leisure. The Rural Landscape provides a deceptively simple method for approaching the often complex and variegated shape of the land. Hart divides it into its mineral, vegetable, and animal components and shows how each are interdependent, using examples from across Europe and America. Looking at the land forms of southern England, for instance, he comments on the use of hedgerows to divide fields, the mineral or geomorphological features of the land determining where hedgerows will grow in service of the human animal's needs. Hart reveals the impact on the land of human culture and the basic imperative of making a living as well as the evolution of technical skills toward that end (as seen in the advance of barbed wire as a function of modern transportation).Hart describes with equal clarity the erosion of land to form river basins and the workings of a coal mine. He charts shifting patterns of crop rotation, from the medieval rota of food (wheat or rye), feed (barley or oats), and fallow (to restore the land) to modern two-crop cycle of corn and soybeans, made possible by fertilizers and pesticides. He comments on traditions of land division (it is almost impossible to find a straight line on a map of Europe) and inventories a variety of farm structures (from hop yards and oast houses to the use of dikes for irrigation). He identifies the relict features of the landscape—from low earthen terraces once used in the southern United States to prevent erosion to old bank buildings that have become taverns and barns turned into human homes. Carrying the story of the rural landscape into our frantic era, he describes the "bow wave"where city life meets rural agriculture and plots the effect of recreation and its structures on the look of the land.
Rural Landscapes and Agricultural Policies in Europe
by Annette Piorr Klaus MüllerThe reform of the European agricultural policy aims at stimulating the development of European towards more sustainability and more competitiveness in global markets, by ensuring environmental soundness, supporting rural viability and better meeting consumers demands. Parallel to this farming in the ever growing EU is undergoing major changes. The conditions for production are occurring faster than ever, including developments such as climate change, new markets (bioenenergy), structural changes and ageing rural societies. Agriculture in an ever changing Europe has to develop multifunctional regional strategies. About 40 scientists from 11 European research institutions compiled this joint publication to provide an overview of concepts and approaches for multi functionality impact assessment, which includes surveys on societal demands in different parts of Europe. A central part presents research results on the impact of current agricultural policies and future scenarios, assessed by micro-economic and environmental modeling procedures (agent based, linear programming, trade-offs). They provide information on the issues of how and why farmers in varying structural and geophysical frameworks respond to the new CAP (Common Agricultural Policies) reform. One large chapter specifies the developments in 7 case study regions in Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Slovakia.
Rural Livelihoods in China: Political economy in transition (Routledge Explorations in Development Studies)
by Heather Xiaoquan ZhangIn recent decades, China has undergone rapid economic growth, industrialisation and urbanisation concomitant with deep and extensive structural and social change, profoundly reshaping the country’s development landscape and urban-rural relationships. This book applies livelihoods approaches to deepen our understanding of the changes and continuities related to rural livelihoods within the wider context of political economy of development in post-socialist China, bridging the urban and rural scenarios and probing the local, national and global dynamics that have impacted on livelihood, in particular its mobility, security and sustainability. Presenting theoretically informed and empirically grounded research by leading scholars from across the world, this book offers multidisciplinary perspectives on issues central to rural livelihoods, development, welfare and well-being. It documents and analyses the processes and consequences of change, focusing on social protection of mobile livelihoods, particularly rural migrants’ citizenship rights in the city, and the environmental, social and political aspects of sustainability in the countryside. This book contributes to the current scholarly and policy debates, and is among the first attempts to critically reflect on China’s market transition and the associated pathways to change. It will be of interest to students in international development studies, China studies, social policy, public health, political science, and environmental studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as academics, policy makers and practitioners who are concerned with China’s human and social development in general, and agriculture and rural livelihoods in particular.
Rural Policing and Policing the Rural: A Constable Countryside? (Perspectives On Rural Policy And Planning Ser.)
by Rob I. MawbyPolicing reveals much about rural society. It refers to the way that the police, the public and other agencies regulate themselves and each other according to the dominant ideals of society. This can be formally, through the ever-growing spectrum of policing partnerships in neo-liberal countries, or informally, through the performance and enforcement of moral codes and values. This book draws on international inter-disciplinary perspectives to examine the range and consequences of policing across different rural localities. Rural Policing and Policing the Rural is organised into two sections: the first examines who is policing rural areas, while the second examines the nature of rural policing by considering, on the one hand, the policing of rural space and, on the other, how ideas of rurality are regulated. In doing so this book provides a survey of rural policing that will be valuable to academics, students, policy makers and those policing rural places.
Rural Politics: Policies for Agriculture, Forestry and the Environment
by Michael WinterThe rural areas of Britain, Europe and the developed world are undergoing massive changes, with increasing concern about productivity, agricultural methods and environmental policy. Rural Politics examines the issues affecting rural areas, such as water pollution, forestry, and the greening of agricultural policy. It looks in particular at the political parameters to these issues and how concern for the countryside is essentially a part of a wider set of political processes. Rural Politics provides a much needed examination of the evolution and content of policies affecting today's countryside, both in terms of major land uses and economic and social development.
Rural Politics in Contemporary China (Critical Agrarian Studies)
by Emily T. Yeh, Kevin J. O’Brien and Jingzhong YeThis collection provides an overview of China’s rural politics, bringing scholarship on agrarian politics from various social science disciplines together in one place. The twelve contributions, spanning history, anthropology, sociology, environmental studies, political science, and geography, address enduring questions in peasant studies, including the relationship between states and peasants, taxation, social movements, rural-urban linkages, land rights and struggles, gender relations, and environmental politics. Taking rural politics as the power-inflected processes and struggles that shape access and control over resources in the countryside, as well as the values, ideologies and discourses that shape those processes, the volume brings research on China into conversation with the traditions and concerns of peasant studies scholarship. It provides both an introduction to those unfamiliar with Chinese politics, as well as in-depth, new research for experts in the field.This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.
Rural Poverty: Marginalisation and Exclusion in Britain and the United States (Routledge Studies in Human Geography #Vol. 7)
by Paul MilbourneMoving beyond the highly visual forms of poverty characteristic of the city, Rural Poverty explores the nature of poverty in rural spaces in Britain and America. Setting out key features, it highlights the important processes that hide key components of rural poverty. The book seeks to challenge dominant assumptions about the spatialities of poverty and the nature of rural spaces in Britain and America. Drawing on a broad range of new research material, the book challenges dominant assumptions. It provides a comprehensive and critical review of the nature of poverty in rural spaces, giving particular attention to: the scale, profile and causes of poverty in rural areas the spatial unevenness and local geographies of rural poverty the experiences of different forms of poverty in rural spaces the shifting governance of rural welfare at central and local spatial scales. Demonstrating that poverty represents a significant but neglected feature of rural life in Britain and America, this insightful book highlights the processes through which rural poverty remains hidden from the dominant gazes of poverty researchers and policy-makers, the statistical significance and spatial unevenness of poverty in rural areas, the ways in which poverty is experienced in local rural spaces, and the complex governance of welfare in rural spaces. Case study material is drawn from a wide range of locations, including Wiltshire, Northumberland and Hampshire in the UK and New England in the US.
Rural Poverty and Income Dynamics in Asia and Africa (Routledge Studies in Development Economics)
by Keijiro Otsuka Jonna P. Estudillo Yasuyuki SawadaAlthough there is much interest in poverty reduction, there are few agreed upon strategies to effectively reduce poverty. In this new book, the editors have gathered together various evidences on poverty dynamics, based on panel data from the last few decades in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and Tamil Nadu in India, compared with more recent data from sub-Saharan Africa. The major finding of this research project is that rural households in sub-Saharan African are beginning to experience the same pattern of structural change in income composition and poverty reduction that Asian households have experienced in the past 20-25 years. The chapters in the book explore how the spread of Green Revolution has triggered the subsequent transformation of rural economies. Many rural households in Asia have been able to move out of poverty in the presence of increasing scarcity of farmland initially by increasing rice income through the adoption of modern rice technology and gradually diversifying their income sources away from farm to non-farm activities. Increased participation in non-farm employment has been more pronounced among the more educated children, whose education is facilitated by an increase in farm income brought about by the Green Revolution. This book identifies the importance of Green Revolution and non-farm employment for poverty reduction in Asia, which provides valuable lessons for sub-Saharan Africa.
Rural Road Development in Developing Countries (SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology)
by Jagat ShresthaThis book provides guidelines for the planning, design and construction of rural roads in hilly regions. It is a useful resource for researchers and practitioners working in the field as it presents different rural road network concepts for new construction and upgrades of existing infrastructure. the book introduces the covering-based rural road network method that discovers nodal points to cover settlements and public facilities within a given region by developing a basic rural network. It also explores different mathematical models including a multi-objective approach for solving a rural road network upgrading problem for typical rural road network structures for hilly regions. It also presents case studies to help readers grasp the basic principles presented in the text. This book can also additionally be utilised as a reference resource for graduate and undergraduate students interested in rural transportation.
Rural Second Homes in Europe: Examining Housing Supply and Planning Control (Routledge Revivals)
by Nick Gallent Mark Tewdwr-JonesThis title was first published in 2000: Improved communication links between urban and rural areas and an increase in property prices in urban regions have made commuting an attractive option for European town and city dwellers eager to 'escape' urban living. This has lead to a proliferation of second homes in certain remote or deep rural areas, and this trend is compounding problems that are already affecting the indigenous populations in these areas - such as socio-economic decline, agricultural depression, a lack of services, and unaffordable house prices. Consequently, many politicians in European Member States are calling for the introduction of housing and planning laws to control the proliferation of second home ownership. This book addresses the origins of second home growth, the nature of ownership and demand, the economic costs and benefits and the environmental and social impacts of second homes. It also considers policy and practical responses at European, UK and local levels. The book will be invaluable reading for students and policy analysts in the fields of rural geography, planning, politics, housing studies and cultural studies.
Rural Second Homes in Europe: Examining Housing Supply and Planning Control (Routledge Revivals Ser.)
by Nick Gallent Mark Tewdwr-JonesThis title was first published in 2000: Improved communication links between urban and rural areas and an increase in property prices in urban regions have made commuting an attractive option for European town and city dwellers eager to 'escape' urban living. This has lead to a proliferation of second homes in certain remote or deep rural areas, and this trend is compounding problems that are already affecting the indigenous populations in these areas - such as socio-economic decline, agricultural depression, a lack of services, and unaffordable house prices. Consequently, many politicians in European Member States are calling for the introduction of housing and planning laws to control the proliferation of second home ownership. This book addresses the origins of second home growth, the nature of ownership and demand, the economic costs and benefits and the environmental and social impacts of second homes. It also considers policy and practical responses at European, UK and local levels. The book will be invaluable reading for students and policy analysts in the fields of rural geography, planning, politics, housing studies and cultural studies.
Rural Sustainability
by Qing TianThis volume applies the science of complexity to study coupled human-environment systems (CHES) and integrates ideas from the social sciences of climate change into a study of rural development amid flooding and urbanization in the Poyang Lake Region (PLR) of China. Author Qing Tian operationalizes the concept of sustainability and provides useful scientific analyses for sustainable development in less developed rural areas that are vulnerable to climatic hazards. The book uses a new sustainability framework that is centered on the concept of well-being to study rural development in PLR. The PLR study includes three major analyses: (1) a regional assessment of human well-being; (2) an empirical analysis of rural livelihoods; and (3) an agent-based computer model used to explore future rural development. These analyses provide a meaningful view of human development in the Poyang Lake Region and illustrate some of the complex local- and macro-level processes that shape the livelihoods of rural households in the dynamic process of urbanization. They generate useful insights about how government policy might effectively improve the well-being of rural households and promote sustainable development amid social, economic, and environmental changes. This case study has broader implications. Rural populations in the developing world are disproportionally affected by extreme climate events and climate change. Furthermore, the livelihoods of rural households in the developing world are increasingly under the influences of macro-level forces amid urbanization and globalization. This case study demonstrates that rural development policies must consider broader development dynamics at the national (and even global) level, as well as specific local social and environmental contexts. By treating climate as one of many factors that affect development in such places, we can provide policy recommendations that synergistically promote development and reduce climatic impacts and therefore facilitate mainstreaming climate adaptation into development.