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Multi-Level Governance

Coordinating adaptation across scales and sectors

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Climate Change Doesn't Respect Boundaries

Adaptation requires coordination across administrative levels (local to global) and functional domains (water, health, transport). Fragmented governance leads to gaps, duplications, and missed synergies.

Multi-Level Governance Navigator

Explore actors, roles, and connections across governance levels

Local Government Level

Key Challenges:
  • ⚠Limited authority beyond city boundaries
  • ⚠Budget constraints
  • ⚠Short political cycles
Strategic Strengths:
  • ✓Direct contact with citizens
  • ✓Implementation capacity
  • ✓Local knowledge
Key Actors:
City Council

Decision-making

Power:
Resources:
Planning Dept

Land use regulation

Power:
Resources:
Emergency Services

Response/recovery

Power:
Resources:
Utilities

Infrastructure delivery

Power:
Resources:
Community Groups

Advocacy/implementation

Power:
Resources:

Coordination Mechanisms

Vertical Integration

Aligning actions from international commitments → national policy → regional implementation → local delivery

  • • Multi-level task forces
  • • Nested planning cycles
  • • Conditional funding mechanisms
Horizontal Coordination

Linking sectors at same level: water + agriculture + health + infrastructure

  • • Inter-ministerial committees
  • • Joint planning processes
  • • Shared data platforms

Governance Challenges & Solutions

🚧Challenge: Jurisdictional Mismatch

Climate risks cross boundaries. River floods affect upstream and downstream cities. Heat islands span municipalities. Sea-level rise impacts multiple coastal jurisdictions. But governance is territorially bounded.

Solution - River Basin Organizations:Netherlands: Regional water authorities (waterschappen) manage water at watershed scale, crossing municipal boundaries. Funded by local taxes, democratically governed, with clear mandates. Result: coordinated flood management across 21 districts.

🎭Challenge: Fragmented Responsibilities

Adaptation touches every sector. Who leads? Ministry of Environment? Agriculture? Water? Transport? Without clear coordination, actions are uncoordinated. Water ministry builds seawalls while transport builds vulnerable coastal roads.

Solution - Climate Coordination Bodies:UK: Climate Change Committee—independent statutory body advising government across all sectors. Produces National Adaptation Programme coordinating 8+ ministries. Philippines: Climate Change Commission coordinates 23 agencies. Centralized coordination, distributed implementation.

⚖️Challenge: Vertical Accountability Gaps

National governments set adaptation goals. Local governments must implement. But if national doesn't fund local capacity, implementation fails. Or local acts without considering regional/national priorities, creating conflicts.

Solution - Conditional Transfers & Mandates:California: State mandates local adaptation plans (SB 379) AND provides technical assistance + funding through Adaptation Clearinghouse. Bangladesh: National Adaptation Programme funds local projects through upazila (sub-district) councils with community oversight. Money + mandate + capacity support.

👥Challenge: Exclusion of Affected Communities

Top-down governance designs adaptation for people, not with people. Result: solutions mismatch local needs, lack community buy-in, fail to leverage local knowledge. Especially excludes marginalized groups most vulnerable to climate impacts.

Solution - Participatory Governance:Bangladesh: 33% of Cyclone Preparedness Programme volunteers are women, from affected communities. India: Panchayati Raj (village councils) allocate climate adaptation funds through participatory planning (Gram Sabha meetings). Kenya: Community-based natural resource management committees govern rangeland adaptation. Representation + decision power + accountability.

Key Governance Principles

1. Polycentric, not centralized

Multiple centers of authority at appropriate scales, with coordination mechanisms

2. Subsidiarity

Decisions at lowest appropriate level, higher levels enable rather than control

3. Clear roles & resources

Who does what, funded how, accountable to whom

4. Inclusive participation

Meaningful engagement of affected populations, especially vulnerable groups