Effectiveness and equity of local climate adaptation: Evidence from a comparative LAPA case study in rural Nepal

Abstract Like other countries, Nepal’s National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) institutionalized the Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA) to translate national climate priorities into locally grounded, pro-poor adaptation strategies. Despite its international recognition as a participatory model, systematic evidence of its distributive effectiveness remains limited. This study evaluates LAPA outcomes using the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) to compare vulnerability levels between LAPA-implemented and non-implemented communities and across caste groups (Brahmin and Dalit). Based on face-to-face surveys with 80 households, we constructed LVI scores across nine components: socio-demographic profile, livelihood strategies, social networks, food, water, health, infrastructure, natural disasters, and climate variability. Results show that the LAPA-implemented community exhibits slightly higher overall vulnerability than the non-implemented community, challenging assumptions that localized adaptation planning automatically reduces vulnerability. While some targeted gains are evident in adaptation-related infrastructure, including water, these improvements were partial and unevenly distributed, and did not reduce overall vulnerability. Dalit households remain disproportionately vulnerable, particularly in socio-demographic conditions and social networks, critical determinants of adaptive capacity. Of 38 implemented activities, most focused on drinking water supply and commercially oriented livelihood diversification, with minimal attention to strengthening social capital or addressing structural inequalities. Interventions disproportionately benefited relatively better-off households with irrigated land and greater risk-bearing capacity. These findings suggest that technocratic, infrastructure-driven adaptation planning may fail to confront entrenched social hierarchies that shape vulnerability. Enhancing LAPA’s effectiveness requires embedding equity-sensitive targeting, strengthening social capital, and integrating social justice considerations into adaptation design and implementation. Without addressing underlying socio-political drivers of vulnerability, decentralized adaptation risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than reducing them.