CARE’s CVCA methodology provides a framework for analyzing vulnerability and the capacity to adapt to climate change at the community level. The methodology has a number of characteristics for assessing vulnerability to climate change of communities. These include:
- a focus on climate change
- analysis of existing conditions, hazards and trends
- emphasis on multi-stakeholder analysis, collaboration and dialogue
- a focus on communities and the most vulnerable, with an emphasis on enabling environments as well.
The CVCA methodology recognizes that gender plays a critical role in how different groups of people experience climate change impacts. Women and men have differing abilities to respond to the threat that climate change . The ability to act on adaptation is shaped by access to information, such as early warning systems and seasonal forecasts. It may be determined by control over resources such as agricultural land or household assets, or by the power to influence decisions in the household or community. In each of these cases, it is often women who are at a disadvantage when it comes to adaptation.
Effective and equitable adaptation thus requires an understanding of the dynamics of vulnerability and how gender influences these dynamics. The CVCA methodology takes gender differences into account when assessing vulnerability of communities to climate change, leading to planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of adaptation that reflects the differing roles, responsibilities and power that men and women have, and that seeks to overcome gender inequality.