Module 5.1. Key Concepts

Successful LLACPS programme implementation will involve iterative attention to analysis, design and management.

Module 5.1 addresses :

This module will help users:

• identify and redress gaps in knowledge related to project management
• recognise adaptive governance as a framework for operating in conditions of uncertainty
• consider the role of Communities of Practice (CoPs) in supporting responses to the climate, peace and security nexus

There are any number of online resources to support facilitators in developing confidence and gaining insight into best practices. LinkedIn Learning provides several courses on the subject, including this Project Management Foundations course.

‘The only certainty is uncertainty.’ This maxim is especially true when dealing with climate change and conflict. Both forces may produce sudden, dramatic impacts and make it challenging (if not impossible) to accurately forecast what the future will look like. We know long-term investment is critical for sustainable peace, but climate change and conflict make long-term planning difficult.

Adaptive governance is a framework that enables management and planning amidst uncertainty and information gaps. In adaptive governance, learning (and changing management strategies in response to such learning) is both an outcome and a tool. Adaptive governance processes are built with flexibility in mind, ensuring the capacity to quickly respond to unanticipated opportunities and unforeseen challenges.

Robust monitoring and assessment of a project and the broader socioenvironmental system in which it takes place can reduce uncertainty over time. Adaptive governance allows a project to constantly learn about the system it is managing and use that information to adapt.

As with any approach, adaptive governance involves trade-offs. It is important to discuss how to balance a focus on understanding and tracking the system with implementing projects based on what is currently known.

Groups of people engaged in collaborative knowledge development and communal resource sharing are nothing new, but scholars and practitioners have been developing strategies to do this more intentionally and efficiently. Communities of practice are one such strategy. A “community of practice” (CoP) refers to a group of people who share a thematic interest and, through their interactions, learn from and equip each other. Purposefully cultivated communities of practice can expand knowledge, develop capabilities, and strengthen relationships.

Communities of practice may be intentional or inadvertent, and more or less formal. But productive CoPs will have a defined area of interest, such as the Climate-Peace-Security nexus, which establishes common purpose and motivation for its membership. A healthy CoP is self-starting — individuals are motivated to participate due to the organic value they find in the connections and outcomes that the CoP facilitates. However, a facilitator can greatly enhance the capacity of the community of practice to pursue collective interests. Practical support (e.g., meeting scheduling, event hosting, note-taking, introduction-making, etc.) can help a group of people evolve from a loosely connected group of relative strangers into a tightly-knit collective that regularly seeks out ways to collaborate. Forging such relationships can spark any number of new initiatives and accomplishments.

Developing a CoP is not a mandatory step for Locally Led Action on Climate, Peace and Security, but project leaders should evaluate whether establishing a CoP comprising LLACPS participants would support project implementation. Project leaders may also benefit from joining an external CoP to share their experiences and learn from others.