ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a policy-research agenda on causal structures of multiple vulnerabilities in different environmental and political-economic contexts so that causal variables can be aggregated to help develop higher-scale vulnerability-reduction policies and strategies. It focuses on causality builds on insights from successes of existing project approaches, such as social funds, social safety nets, or community-driven development and successful adaptation support based on coping and risk-pooling. A focus on causal structure adds systematic attention to root causes at multiple scales. The chapter identifies the proximate responses to risk, ordinarily conducted via projects and people's own coping arrangements, while also attending to the more distant social, political, and economic root causes of vulnerability. Vulnerability analysis and policy development are only first steps, of course, in a multi-step iterative governance process. The chapter concludes with a discussion of governance, arguing that tilting decision making in favor of the poor will require systematic representation of poor and marginal voices in climate decision-making processes.
