Courting catastrophe? Humanitarian policy and practice in a changing climate

This IDS Bulletin examines the link between short-term crises – and the humanitarian responses that follow – and adaptation to climate change. It represents a call for increasing engagement between humanitarian aid and climate change adaptation interventions to support deliberate transformation of development pathways. Based on studies carried out as part of the ‘Courting Catastrophe’ project, it argues that humanitarian interventions offer several entry points and opportunities for a common agenda to drive transformational adaptation. Changes in political and financial frameworks are needed to facilitate longer-term actions; additionally, transformational adaptation demands moving from a mode of delivering expert advice and solutions to vulnerable populations, to taking up multiple vulnerability knowledges and making space for contestation of current development.