In the wake of growing vulnerability to climatic change, building the adaptive capacity of households, regions and countries has become a policy priority. Around the world, governments and international donors seek not only for new and better ways to build adaptive capacity, but also to understand how capacities are shaped by current development policy and international aid investments. Defining and developing metrics for adaptive capacity, however, is challenging on both theoretical and practical grounds. This research responds to these challenges by studying policies designed to mitigate drought impacts in Ceara, Brazil, a state historically marked by severe and frequent droughts. Public investments fall into two main categories: those specific to reducing drought vulnerabilities and those directed towards more generic response capacities. The first category includes activities such as crop insurance and the provision of irrigation and drinking water through the development of hydrologic infrastructure. The second category includes investments in social and human development such as rural pensions, poverty reduction and education voucher programs. This research examines how the vulnerability of rainfed farm households to drought has changed through time as a function of both specific and generic government-led interventions. The research also explores how these two categories of interventions are related, both in terms of their relative importance in defining overall adaptive capacity, and in terms of how they may create synergies or be mutually conditioning.

The research uses household and key informant data collected in 1997/98 as a baseline to understand longitudinal changes in vulnerability and adaptive capacity. New primary data emerge from a survey of 500 farm households in six different geoclimatic zones in the state and from in-depth interviews with policy makers and other key informants involved in different aspects of public policy development and implementation.

This research contributes to regional development and adaptation policy by informing the debate over the relative roles and complementarities of generic and specific investments in enhancing overall adaptive capacity. The project also contributes to building theory on the mechanisms through which change in livelihood practices and entitlements over time can result in vulnerability reduction.