Community Resilience to Climate Change: Theory, Research and Practice

228 Justice criterion 1: representation of vulnerable groups in adaptation planning processes The planning process for the Climate Change Agenda for Delhi 2009-2012 did not include mechanisms for vulnerable groups to participate or be represented. In 2008, the Chief Secretary of Delhi decided to work on a climate change plan for the city of Delhi beginning with an evaluation of the climate change plans of other global cities, including London. On 8 May 2012, he said: “I started, I must tell you, by searching the net on a number of American cities which have come out with climate change protocols of their own.” After drawing on these plans for the conceptual approach, he began collecting data for a plan for Delhi. His methods for collecting data largely followed the central government’s methods, “because I saw that that framework would be good for our department too.” Finally, he identified 20 government departments in Delhi that should be involved and worked with them to develop 65 action points for the city to tackle between 2009 and 2012. Updates and monitoring took place through weekly conference calls between the Chief Secretary of Delhi and the heads of the government departments. The process of developing the new state action plan for Delhi may have been more inclusive. This was, in part, because of the involvement of the UNDP who, in collaboration with the central and state governments, helped to develop a common framework for climate change planning at the subnational level in India that included stakeholder workshops. The workshops were intended to target, in part, marginalized communities, civil society, and activists (UNDP representative, 3 May 2012, personal communication). Indeed, a key tenet of the new framework is “that process is important” (UNDP representative, 3 May 2012, personal communication), and indeed partnership and coordination are listed as the first stage of the new framework. However, the framework is voluntary and because Delhi already had a climate change plan in place, it is unclear how closely it will follow the proposed common framework. The Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Combating Climate Change, a quasi-governmental strategic research institute, has been tasked with launching an educational campaign about the Delhi government’s targets for the state action plan by targeting communities, NGOs, schools, and colleges. However, there are not similar plans to involve these groups in the construction of the goals themselves. One way vulnerable groups could be better represented in adaptation planning is through an expansion of the city’s Bhagidari System, an initiative of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. According to the Chief Minister, she realized there was a need to increase citizen involvement in government beyond voting every few years because “decision making should be participatory all the way through” (Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, 18 May 2012, personal communication). Bhagidari means ‘partnership,’ and the program empowers and provides venues for residential welfare associations (RWAs) throughout the city to set priorities for their neighborhood and communicate these to the Delhi government. The Bhagidari System has received international recognition for its innovative approach to metropolitan governance, including a Public Service Award from the United Nations. As mentioned previously, the system currently favors property owners by relying on RWAs, which are themselves “groups of private property owners organized at the neighborhoods level” (Ghertner 2011:505). According to the Chief Minister’s office there are 1229 unauthorized colony RWAs that have been provisionally registered with the government (Chief Minister of Delhi, 18 May 2012, personal communication), but these need to be made official if the most vulnerable populations are to be represented. The Bhagidari System has been a conduit for greater public input in the more recent climate change planning process. The leaders of the Bhagidari System have provided input to the state action plan (Chief Minister of Delhi, 18 May 2012, personal communication), and RWAs are seen as important players in implementation (Parks and Gardens Society, 9 May 2012, personal communication). However, despite this progress, there remains no explicit mechanism through which the most vulnerable populations in Delhi can participate specifically in the city’s adaptation planning. Previous research, focused on the procedural or means-based dimensions of justice, has shown that meeting justice criterion 1 requires vulnerable groups to be represented in adaptation planning processes. Based on the evidence presented here, Delhi’s process does not meet this criterion: decision making about the climate change agenda was highly centralized and lacked transparency, and the current configuration of the Bhagidari System is not inclusive of the city’s vulnerable groups. The workshop-based process proposed for the state level action plan and the outreach programs of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Combating Climate Change have greater potential to meet this criterion. Justice criterion 2: priority setting and framing that recognize the adaptation needs of the vulnerable groups in the city Evaluating the Climate Change Agenda for Delhi 2009-2012 and the programs and priorities it lays out, i.e., the policy outputs and outcomes, revealed that there were two passages that recognized the needs of vulnerable groups. In the introduction, the agenda reads: “climate change is a global challenge and needs a positive development policy response to ensure that the objectives of growth with equity are achieved while at the same time to ensure long term sustainability of the environment” (GNCTD 2009). However, the agenda does not specify how this is to be achieved, except in the case of water supply, which is the second place where the needs of vulnerable groups are recognized. Overall, the agenda places an emphasis on the need to improve public services and specific objectives are developed for water. The agenda motivates changes in water management by recognizing that current service patterns are inequitable: “Today whether it is the rich or poor all pay the same cost and while the distribution system in rich areas is better and hence the availability, the same is not true of poorer areas of the city” (GNCTD 2009). One way the agenda proposes to remedy this is by providing sewage connections to all villages and unauthorized colonies, a responsibility given to the Delhi Jal Board. This board is using the climate change agenda as a starting point for their own strategic planning and priority setting with a plan set to be released in 2012 (senior official at the Delhi Jal Board, 25 May 2012, personal communication).