With a strong focus on understanding the factors that enhance or diminish people's vulnerability and wellbeing, and the responses they take to deal with both climatic and non-climatic stressors, ASSAR focused on the most marginalised. In particular, we sought to shift the adaptation narrative from centering mainly on infrastructural, technical solutions to forefronting and addressing some of the barriers posed by power structures, patriarchal norms and governance disconnects. 

Gender inequality is a key factor making adaptation efforts ineffective, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Researchers and practitioners involved in ASSAR provided ample evidence to show that commonly-held beliefs about women being the most vulnerable and needing to be the target of interventions should be challenged as local realities show much more complexity and variance.

ASSAR's Kenya team investigated barriers and enablers for effective adaptation to climate change among agro-pastoralist and pastoralist communities in the semi-arid region of Isiolo, Meru, and Samburu counties of central Kenya.

The role of aspirations in shaping adaptation choices is seldom discussed in climate change studies, but understanding aspirations can give insights into why people are adapting or not.

Mark Tebboth, at the University of East Anglia, looks at how 'developmentspeak' can hamper communication in communities not used to international development jargon.