Katharine Vincent
Biographic Data
| ID | 3697557 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katharine Vincent |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katharine |
| FAMILY NAME | Vincent |
| SIGNATURE | VINCENT K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Witwatersrand |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3152-1522 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 391 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Integrating power, justice and reflexivity into transformative climate change adaptation
Provides strong normative grounding for the idea and practice of transformative adaptation. • Contends that transformative adaptation requires transformation among those who implement interventions. • Presents four vectors of transformative adaptation as a reflexive form of organisational learning. • Highlights the importance of power, knowledge, coalitions and tradeoffs within programming. • Provides a clear guide to existing literature on trans…
Large-scale sustainability programming is reshaping research excellence
The growing emphasis on the societal impact of sustainability research has implications for how we understand, measure, and support research excellence. This shift is particularly relevant for international research undertaken through partnerships between collaborators in the global North and South because the reframing of research excellence has implications for developing capacity of Southern-based researchers. Against this backdrop, this study…
Status of global coastal adaptation
Adaptation pathways to inform policy and practice in the context of development
Adaptation pathways are a decision-focused approach to account for future uncertainties and complexities in planning and implementation of adaptation actions. The pathways approach incorporates flexibility into decision making to accommodate for changing conditions over time, and to reduce undesirable path dependencies and maladaptive consequences. While the pathways approach for adaptation planning has received great interest from both climate s…
Development geography II
In this report, I review the concept of community-based adaptation, showing how it morphed from a participatory development-informed approach centred around agency and empowerment to one which is often externally driven, focusing on a spatial, rather than social, definition of community. I then highlight how locally-led adaptation is attempting to re-focus attention on agency, whilst also managing a conceptualisation of ‘local’ that is not limite…
The evolution of empirical adaptation research in the global South from 2010 to 2020
This paper applies a scoping review approach to inductively assess the evolution of empirical adaptation research in the global South over the period 2010 to 2020 using, as indicators of the literature, three leading adaptation journals covering different scales of analysis: Global Environmental Change, Regional Environmental Change and Climate and Development. The review confirms that previous calls for an increase in empirical adaptation resear…
Breaking vicious cycles? A systems perspective on Southern leadership in climate and development research programmes
South–North research collaborations are now commonly used in the field of climate and development to advance knowledge, inform decision-making and strengthen capacity in the global South. Southern leadership within these collaborations is widely seen as instrumental to their lasting impact. This study examines how Southern leadership and capacity were promoted in the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) programme, a five-year initiative that sought t…
Development geography I
Co-production of knowledge is a promising approach to promote more just and sustainable development outcomes. However, co-production covers many approaches, with a cleavage between those focusing on outcomes and the production of actionable knowledge; and those focusing on process and inclusion of multiple voices. There is not always dedicated commitment to identify and confront the embodied power relations nor the hegemonic knowledge systems amo…
Can insurance catalyse government planning on climate? Emergent evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper explores how climate risk information produced in the context of insurance-related activities can support public climate adaptation planning. The central contribution is to outline how relevant climate risk information can translate into behaviour change, and the drivers and barriers that influence this in Sub-Saharan Africa. The insurance industry has the potential to catalyse greater use of climate information, either through existin…
Understanding gender differences in availability, accessibility and use of climate information among smallholder farmers in Malawi
Smallholder farmers in the sub-Saharan Africa are vulnerable to climate variability and change, and are thus in need of adaptation. Access to climate information, such as weather forecasts, has been identified as a potential enabler for improved adaptation, but such access tends to be strongly gendered. This study uses qualitative and quantitative data to assess the availability, accessibility and use of climate information among smallholder suga…
Climate Risk in Africa
Adaptation pathways
Adaptation pathways have experienced growing popularity as a decision-focussed approach in climate adaptation research and planning. Despite the increasing and broadening use of adaptation pathways reported in the literature, there has not yet been a systematic attempt to review, compare and contrast approaches to adaptation pathways design and their application. In this paper we address this gap through a literature review of conceptual and appl…
Climate variability affects water-energy-food infrastructure performance in East Africa
The need to assess major infrastructure performance under a changing climate is widely recognized yet rarely practiced, particularly in rapidly growing African economies. Here, we consider high-stakes investments across the water, energy, and food sectors for two major river basins in a climate transition zone in Africa. We integrate detailed interpretation of observed and modeled climate-system behavior with hydrological modeling and decision-re…
Advancing climate resilient development pathways since the IPCC’s fifth assessment report
Development processes and action on climate change are closely interlinked. This is recognised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its fifth assessment report, which reports on climate-resilient pathways, understood as development trajectories towards sustainable development which include adaptation and mitigation. The upcoming sixth assessment report dedicates a chapter to climate resilient development pathways. In this co…
Toward a climate mobilities research agenda
Mobility is a key livelihood and risk management strategy, including in the context of climate change. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced long standing concerns that migrant populations remain largely overlooked in economic development, adaptation to climate change, and spatial planning. We synthesize evidence across multiple studies that confirms the overwhelming preponderance of in-country and short distance rather than international migratio…
Adaptation interventions and their effect on vulnerability in developing countries
This paper critically reviews the outcomes of internationally-funded interventions aimed at climate change adaptation and vulnerability reduction. It highlights how some interventions inadvertently reinforce, redistribute or create new sources of vulnerability. Four mechanisms drive these maladaptive outcomes: (i) shallow understanding of the vulnerability context; (ii) inequitable stakeholder participation in both design and implementation; (iii…
Addressing power imbalances in co-production
A framework to analyse the implications of coastal transformation on inclusive development
Documenting the state of adaptation for the global stocktake of the Paris Agreement
Article 7, paragraph 14 of the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change commits Parties to create a five yearly assessment of observed adaptation to track progress and enable appropriate future commitments through the Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans. No large‐scale study exists that shows the types of adaptation, the spatial distribution of types of adaptation, and the numbers …
How do staff motivation and workplace environment affect capacity of governments to adapt to climate change in developing countries
Government ministries are increasingly mainstreaming climate change adaptation within policies and plans. However, government staff in key implementing ministries need to be empowered to ensure effective delivery of policy goals. Motivation to act on climate change, combined with the capacity to make decisions and apply resources to programmes, is crucial. Informed by theories of motivation and workplace environments from social psychology and or…
Using Indicators to Assess Climate Change Vulnerabilities
Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is committed to supporting adaptation in developing countries but identifying priority needs depends on an assessment of vulnerability. Indicators and indices are one common method for vulnerability assessments. A variety of vulnerability indicators and indices have been created for global level, cross-country comparison within regi…
Cell phones, electronic delivery systems and social cash transfers
Electronic delivery systems for social cash transfer programmes offer advantages to programme implementers and benefit recipients in terms of enhanced cost efficiency and flexibility. The rapid penetration of cell phone infrastructure, combined with a growing interest from banks to extend financial services, is likely to make the electronic delivery of cash transfers an increasingly viable option. Taking into account the broader benefits for cash…
Using technology to deliver social protection
Providing cash transfers to vulnerable groups reduces vulnerability and chronic poverty; but delivering cash to remote, rural locations can be expensive and insecure. Alternative delivery systems using technology are thus being piloted. This article uses examples from southern Africa to highlight the opportunities and risks involved in using technology to deliver social protection, with particular focus on two schemes in Malawi. It concludes that…
Uncertainty in adaptive capacity and the importance of scale
Does tomorrow ever come? Disaster narrative and public perceptions of climate change
The film The Day After Tomorrow depicts the abrupt and catastrophic transformation of the Earth’s climate into a new ice age, playing upon the uncertainty surrounding a possible North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (Gulf Stream) shutdown. This paper investigates the impact of the film on people’s perception of climate change through a survey of filmgoers in the UK. Analysis focuses on four issues: the likelihood of extreme impacts; concern ove…
Adaptation interventions and their effect on vulnerability in developing countries
This paper critically reviews the outcomes of internationally-funded interventions aimed at climate change adaptation and vulnerability reduction. It highlights how some interventions inadvertently reinforce, redistribute or create new sources of vulnerability. Four mechanisms drive these maladaptive outcomes: (i) shallow understanding of the vulnerability context; (ii) inequitable stakeholder participation in both design and implementation; (iii…
Uncertainty in adaptive capacity and the importance of scale
Toward a climate mobilities research agenda
Mobility is a key livelihood and risk management strategy, including in the context of climate change. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced long standing concerns that migrant populations remain largely overlooked in economic development, adaptation to climate change, and spatial planning. We synthesize evidence across multiple studies that confirms the overwhelming preponderance of in-country and short distance rather than international migratio…
Development geography II
In this report, I review the concept of community-based adaptation, showing how it morphed from a participatory development-informed approach centred around agency and empowerment to one which is often externally driven, focusing on a spatial, rather than social, definition of community. I then highlight how locally-led adaptation is attempting to re-focus attention on agency, whilst also managing a conceptualisation of ‘local’ that is not limite…
Development geography I
Co-production of knowledge is a promising approach to promote more just and sustainable development outcomes. However, co-production covers many approaches, with a cleavage between those focusing on outcomes and the production of actionable knowledge; and those focusing on process and inclusion of multiple voices. There is not always dedicated commitment to identify and confront the embodied power relations nor the hegemonic knowledge systems amo…
Advancing climate resilient development pathways since the IPCC’s fifth assessment report
Development processes and action on climate change are closely interlinked. This is recognised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its fifth assessment report, which reports on climate-resilient pathways, understood as development trajectories towards sustainable development which include adaptation and mitigation. The upcoming sixth assessment report dedicates a chapter to climate resilient development pathways. In this co…
Cell phones, electronic delivery systems and social cash transfers
Electronic delivery systems for social cash transfer programmes offer advantages to programme implementers and benefit recipients in terms of enhanced cost efficiency and flexibility. The rapid penetration of cell phone infrastructure, combined with a growing interest from banks to extend financial services, is likely to make the electronic delivery of cash transfers an increasingly viable option. Taking into account the broader benefits for cash…
Documenting the state of adaptation for the global stocktake of the Paris Agreement
Article 7, paragraph 14 of the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change commits Parties to create a five yearly assessment of observed adaptation to track progress and enable appropriate future commitments through the Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans. No large‐scale study exists that shows the types of adaptation, the spatial distribution of types of adaptation, and the numbers …
Adaptation pathways to inform policy and practice in the context of development
Adaptation pathways are a decision-focused approach to account for future uncertainties and complexities in planning and implementation of adaptation actions. The pathways approach incorporates flexibility into decision making to accommodate for changing conditions over time, and to reduce undesirable path dependencies and maladaptive consequences. While the pathways approach for adaptation planning has received great interest from both climate s…
Using technology to deliver social protection
Providing cash transfers to vulnerable groups reduces vulnerability and chronic poverty; but delivering cash to remote, rural locations can be expensive and insecure. Alternative delivery systems using technology are thus being piloted. This article uses examples from southern Africa to highlight the opportunities and risks involved in using technology to deliver social protection, with particular focus on two schemes in Malawi. It concludes that…
Integrating power, justice and reflexivity into transformative climate change adaptation
Provides strong normative grounding for the idea and practice of transformative adaptation. • Contends that transformative adaptation requires transformation among those who implement interventions. • Presents four vectors of transformative adaptation as a reflexive form of organisational learning. • Highlights the importance of power, knowledge, coalitions and tradeoffs within programming. • Provides a clear guide to existing literature on trans…
Can insurance catalyse government planning on climate? Emergent evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper explores how climate risk information produced in the context of insurance-related activities can support public climate adaptation planning. The central contribution is to outline how relevant climate risk information can translate into behaviour change, and the drivers and barriers that influence this in Sub-Saharan Africa. The insurance industry has the potential to catalyse greater use of climate information, either through existin…
Large-scale sustainability programming is reshaping research excellence
The growing emphasis on the societal impact of sustainability research has implications for how we understand, measure, and support research excellence. This shift is particularly relevant for international research undertaken through partnerships between collaborators in the global North and South because the reframing of research excellence has implications for developing capacity of Southern-based researchers. Against this backdrop, this study…
A framework to analyse the implications of coastal transformation on inclusive development
Uncertainty in adaptive capacity
The capacity to adapt is a critical element of the process of adaptation: it is the vector of resources that represent the asset base from which adaptation actions can be made. Adaptive capacity can in theory be identified and measured at various scales, from the individual to the nation. The assessment of uncertainty within such measures comes from the contested knowledge domain and theories surrounding the nature of the determinants of adaptive…
Does tomorrow ever come? Disaster narrative and public perceptions of climate change
The film The Day After Tomorrow depicts the abrupt and catastrophic transformation of the Earth’s climate into a new ice age, playing upon the uncertainty surrounding a possible North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (Gulf Stream) shutdown. This paper investigates the impact of the film on people’s perception of climate change through a survey of filmgoers in the UK. Analysis focuses on four issues: the likelihood of extreme impacts; concern ove…
Uncertainty in adaptive capacity and the importance of scale
Using technology to deliver social protection
Providing cash transfers to vulnerable groups reduces vulnerability and chronic poverty; but delivering cash to remote, rural locations can be expensive and insecure. Alternative delivery systems using technology are thus being piloted. This article uses examples from southern Africa to highlight the opportunities and risks involved in using technology to deliver social protection, with particular focus on two schemes in Malawi. It concludes that…
Cell phones, electronic delivery systems and social cash transfers
Electronic delivery systems for social cash transfer programmes offer advantages to programme implementers and benefit recipients in terms of enhanced cost efficiency and flexibility. The rapid penetration of cell phone infrastructure, combined with a growing interest from banks to extend financial services, is likely to make the electronic delivery of cash transfers an increasingly viable option. Taking into account the broader benefits for cash…
Using Indicators to Assess Climate Change Vulnerabilities
Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is committed to supporting adaptation in developing countries but identifying priority needs depends on an assessment of vulnerability. Indicators and indices are one common method for vulnerability assessments. A variety of vulnerability indicators and indices have been created for global level, cross-country comparison within regi…
Documenting the state of adaptation for the global stocktake of the Paris Agreement
Article 7, paragraph 14 of the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change commits Parties to create a five yearly assessment of observed adaptation to track progress and enable appropriate future commitments through the Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans. No large‐scale study exists that shows the types of adaptation, the spatial distribution of types of adaptation, and the numbers …
How do staff motivation and workplace environment affect capacity of governments to adapt to climate change in developing countries
Government ministries are increasingly mainstreaming climate change adaptation within policies and plans. However, government staff in key implementing ministries need to be empowered to ensure effective delivery of policy goals. Motivation to act on climate change, combined with the capacity to make decisions and apply resources to programmes, is crucial. Informed by theories of motivation and workplace environments from social psychology and or…
A framework to analyse the implications of coastal transformation on inclusive development
Addressing power imbalances in co-production
Understanding gender differences in availability, accessibility and use of climate information among smallholder farmers in Malawi
Smallholder farmers in the sub-Saharan Africa are vulnerable to climate variability and change, and are thus in need of adaptation. Access to climate information, such as weather forecasts, has been identified as a potential enabler for improved adaptation, but such access tends to be strongly gendered. This study uses qualitative and quantitative data to assess the availability, accessibility and use of climate information among smallholder suga…
Climate Risk in Africa
Adaptation pathways
Adaptation pathways have experienced growing popularity as a decision-focussed approach in climate adaptation research and planning. Despite the increasing and broadening use of adaptation pathways reported in the literature, there has not yet been a systematic attempt to review, compare and contrast approaches to adaptation pathways design and their application. In this paper we address this gap through a literature review of conceptual and appl…
Climate variability affects water-energy-food infrastructure performance in East Africa
The need to assess major infrastructure performance under a changing climate is widely recognized yet rarely practiced, particularly in rapidly growing African economies. Here, we consider high-stakes investments across the water, energy, and food sectors for two major river basins in a climate transition zone in Africa. We integrate detailed interpretation of observed and modeled climate-system behavior with hydrological modeling and decision-re…
Advancing climate resilient development pathways since the IPCC’s fifth assessment report
Development processes and action on climate change are closely interlinked. This is recognised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its fifth assessment report, which reports on climate-resilient pathways, understood as development trajectories towards sustainable development which include adaptation and mitigation. The upcoming sixth assessment report dedicates a chapter to climate resilient development pathways. In this co…
Toward a climate mobilities research agenda
Mobility is a key livelihood and risk management strategy, including in the context of climate change. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced long standing concerns that migrant populations remain largely overlooked in economic development, adaptation to climate change, and spatial planning. We synthesize evidence across multiple studies that confirms the overwhelming preponderance of in-country and short distance rather than international migratio…
Adaptation interventions and their effect on vulnerability in developing countries
This paper critically reviews the outcomes of internationally-funded interventions aimed at climate change adaptation and vulnerability reduction. It highlights how some interventions inadvertently reinforce, redistribute or create new sources of vulnerability. Four mechanisms drive these maladaptive outcomes: (i) shallow understanding of the vulnerability context; (ii) inequitable stakeholder participation in both design and implementation; (iii…
The evolution of empirical adaptation research in the global South from 2010 to 2020
This paper applies a scoping review approach to inductively assess the evolution of empirical adaptation research in the global South over the period 2010 to 2020 using, as indicators of the literature, three leading adaptation journals covering different scales of analysis: Global Environmental Change, Regional Environmental Change and Climate and Development. The review confirms that previous calls for an increase in empirical adaptation resear…
Breaking vicious cycles? A systems perspective on Southern leadership in climate and development research programmes
South–North research collaborations are now commonly used in the field of climate and development to advance knowledge, inform decision-making and strengthen capacity in the global South. Southern leadership within these collaborations is widely seen as instrumental to their lasting impact. This study examines how Southern leadership and capacity were promoted in the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) programme, a five-year initiative that sought t…
Development geography I
Co-production of knowledge is a promising approach to promote more just and sustainable development outcomes. However, co-production covers many approaches, with a cleavage between those focusing on outcomes and the production of actionable knowledge; and those focusing on process and inclusion of multiple voices. There is not always dedicated commitment to identify and confront the embodied power relations nor the hegemonic knowledge systems amo…
Can insurance catalyse government planning on climate? Emergent evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper explores how climate risk information produced in the context of insurance-related activities can support public climate adaptation planning. The central contribution is to outline how relevant climate risk information can translate into behaviour change, and the drivers and barriers that influence this in Sub-Saharan Africa. The insurance industry has the potential to catalyse greater use of climate information, either through existin…
Status of global coastal adaptation
Adaptation pathways to inform policy and practice in the context of development
Adaptation pathways are a decision-focused approach to account for future uncertainties and complexities in planning and implementation of adaptation actions. The pathways approach incorporates flexibility into decision making to accommodate for changing conditions over time, and to reduce undesirable path dependencies and maladaptive consequences. While the pathways approach for adaptation planning has received great interest from both climate s…
Development geography II
In this report, I review the concept of community-based adaptation, showing how it morphed from a participatory development-informed approach centred around agency and empowerment to one which is often externally driven, focusing on a spatial, rather than social, definition of community. I then highlight how locally-led adaptation is attempting to re-focus attention on agency, whilst also managing a conceptualisation of ‘local’ that is not limite…
Large-scale sustainability programming is reshaping research excellence
The growing emphasis on the societal impact of sustainability research has implications for how we understand, measure, and support research excellence. This shift is particularly relevant for international research undertaken through partnerships between collaborators in the global North and South because the reframing of research excellence has implications for developing capacity of Southern-based researchers. Against this backdrop, this study…
Climate change (17 works) · Geography (16 works) · Environmental resource management (15 works) · Political science (15 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Economics (13 works) · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration (11 works) · Ecology (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Business (9 works)