Mainstreaming adaptation in India – the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and climate change

Summary

Climate change adaptation has become increasingly recognized as a development policy imperative for the twenty-first century. Still, actionable policy that meets ambitious goals of equitable, efficient and efficacious action has fallen woefully short of requirements. Mainstreaming of climate policy into existing development planning has been suggested as a way out of this impasse. India's central anti-poverty scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has become part of the 'mainstreamed' policy agenda. It is the largest Public Works Programme in the world today but has not been subjected to sufficient research scrutiny for its climate role. The paper attempts to fill this knowledge gap. It locates the climate-development role of the MGNREGA before subjecting it to a critical evaluation. It argues that conceptually, the MGNREGA meets basic normative requirements for mainstreamed adaptation action but that functional and methodological limitations prevent it from taking on a more purposeful role. Though the scheme is not transformative in nature, it can become part of a multi-pronged strategy to reduce vulnerability to climate change in India and possibly other developing countries.