Before, we only monitored our state, now we are looking at the Northeast as a
whole and beyond. (. . .) We expanded not only the knowledge, but our vision of what
happens, because nature has no barriers, no limits. Technician at a climate institution, Ceara ´ state, participant of the DM, interview
17.6.4 Limits and Possibilities of the WBI Approach
Implementation in the Drought NLTA: Lessons to Be
Remembered
The implementation of the WBI pilot approach in the Drought NLTA program has
raised some important points of discussion, in terms of methodological conclusions
and contributions.
• Although relevant outcomes can happen in early implementation stages, programs framed as multi-stakeholder/multi-sector partnerships and strongly based
on voluntary collaboration, such as the Drought NTLA, tend to take time to
develop. The harvesting of significant outcomes will likely benefit from more
implementation time. When the first harvesting was done (i.e., November 2014–
January 2015), the program was in mid-term implementation phase. Results
influenced by the program were starting to develop but were not yet ready to be
reported as outcomes.
• The risk of having partners over-reporting positive outcomes to which the
program has not truly contributed (e.g., to please the donor) can be overcome
with rigorous methods. Triangulation of sources (combining document reviews,
interviews, and other sources of information) and probing are extremely necessary. The framework provokes the analyst to do just that, by asking for evidence
of the reported outcomes.
• Outcomes need to be interpreted taking the context into account (political
environment, staff turnover, local and organizational culture, necessary support,
etc.). Fostering partnerships needs respect for the various partners’ capacities
and their specific contexts. This principle allows the collaboration to generate
outcomes that sometimes may be more realistic and more likely to be sustainable
in the longer term than the planned, non-achieved outcomes. It is the case of the
Piquet Carneiro DPP. While this plan did not define policy and management
actions triggered as the drought progresses to higher stages, the plan was built
through a broad consultation process, including discussions and the development
of the plan proposal and intermediate validations with different stakeholders. As
a result, it includes coherent and consistent management activities related to the
preparation and risk reduction, and touches on response and disaster recovery for
extreme drought effects in the municipality. It also provides a series of recommendations for institutional strengthening, adoption of management tools,
17 Drought Preparedness Policies and Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience. . .
323
whole and beyond. (. . .) We expanded not only the knowledge, but our vision of what
happens, because nature has no barriers, no limits. Technician at a climate institution, Ceara ´ state, participant of the DM, interview
17.6.4 Limits and Possibilities of the WBI Approach
Implementation in the Drought NLTA: Lessons to Be
Remembered
The implementation of the WBI pilot approach in the Drought NLTA program has
raised some important points of discussion, in terms of methodological conclusions
and contributions.
• Although relevant outcomes can happen in early implementation stages, programs framed as multi-stakeholder/multi-sector partnerships and strongly based
on voluntary collaboration, such as the Drought NTLA, tend to take time to
develop. The harvesting of significant outcomes will likely benefit from more
implementation time. When the first harvesting was done (i.e., November 2014–
January 2015), the program was in mid-term implementation phase. Results
influenced by the program were starting to develop but were not yet ready to be
reported as outcomes.
• The risk of having partners over-reporting positive outcomes to which the
program has not truly contributed (e.g., to please the donor) can be overcome
with rigorous methods. Triangulation of sources (combining document reviews,
interviews, and other sources of information) and probing are extremely necessary. The framework provokes the analyst to do just that, by asking for evidence
of the reported outcomes.
• Outcomes need to be interpreted taking the context into account (political
environment, staff turnover, local and organizational culture, necessary support,
etc.). Fostering partnerships needs respect for the various partners’ capacities
and their specific contexts. This principle allows the collaboration to generate
outcomes that sometimes may be more realistic and more likely to be sustainable
in the longer term than the planned, non-achieved outcomes. It is the case of the
Piquet Carneiro DPP. While this plan did not define policy and management
actions triggered as the drought progresses to higher stages, the plan was built
through a broad consultation process, including discussions and the development
of the plan proposal and intermediate validations with different stakeholders. As
a result, it includes coherent and consistent management activities related to the
preparation and risk reduction, and touches on response and disaster recovery for
extreme drought effects in the municipality. It also provides a series of recommendations for institutional strengthening, adoption of management tools,
17 Drought Preparedness Policies and Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience. . .
323