Indigenous Knowledge, Organizational Innovation, and Adaptive Capacity in Coastal Kenya

Abstract Coastal Kenya faces intensifying climate pressures, yet little evidence shows how locally rooted knowledge and formal organizational arrangements jointly shape the capacity of producers to adapt. This study examines the effects of indigenous knowledge (IK) use and organizational innovation (Org) on climate adaptive capacity among small-scale crop, fisheries and agro-pastoral producers in the six counties of the Jumuiya ya Kaunti za Pwani (JKP) bloc: Mombasa, Kwale, Kilifi, Tana River, Lamu and Taita Taveta. The study follows a concurrent triangulation mixed-methods design; this article reports the quantitative strand. A multi-stage stratified random sample of 418 producers was issued with a structured questionnaire, yielding 384 valid responses (91.9%). Indices of IK use, organizational innovation and adaptive capacity (1–5 scale) were analysed using correlation, hierarchical multiple regression with county, production-type and perceived-risk controls, moderation analysis, ANOVA and subgroup models. Both predictors were positively and significantly associated with adaptive capacity (IK: b = 0.39, β = 0.55; Org: b = 0.49, β = 0.77; both p < .001), jointly explaining 91.9% of its variance. The two effects were additive rather than interactive (IK × Org p = .999), and held across all counties and production systems. Producers high on both dimensions scored 3.82 on adaptive capacity, against 2.61 for those low on both. The findings suggest that county adaptation programming should run IK and organizational innovation as parallel, mutually reinforcing tracks rather than treating one as a substitute for the other, and that project governance arrangements should build both into the project cycle. Keywords: indigenous knowledge; organizational innovation; adaptive capacity; climate adaptation; project governance; coastal Kenya; JKP counties; devolution Highlights · Indigenous knowledge and organizational innovation each independently raise producers’ adaptive capacity. · Together they explain 92% of the variance in adaptive capacity across 384 producers in six coastal counties. · Effects are additive, not interactive: neither pathway can substitute for the other. · Effects are consistent across counties and across crop, fishery and agro-pastoral systems. · A project-governance approach is proposed for embedding both pathways in county adaptation programming.