The Association of Monetary, Multidimensional and Traditional Poverty with Climate Change Adaptive Capacities in Northern Benin

Poverty and climate change are two of the most urgent issues the world is facing; and the view that poverty represents a constraint for a household’s adaptive capacities is widely accepted. However, poverty has been predominantly defined through an economic lens, thus ignoring the multidimensional nature of poverty. In this study, a cross-sectional survey is used to explore the effect of poverty on adaptive capacities in northern Benin. Three indices of poverty (monetary, multidimensional and traditional) were calculated along with two proxies of adaptive capacities (crop-related changes and perceived coping strategies). A significant lack of overlap was found between the three poverty indices. Multiple deprivations are negatively associated with both crop-related changes and perceived coping strategies. Improved economic status, through monetary or traditional asset growth, is associated with increased innovations, but only for the poorest households. Results of the multivariate analysis also suggest that in a context of rural poverty, social capital plays an important, and potentially compensating role in fostering adaptive capacities. Overall, this study illustrates that a purely economic view, most often relying on a single poverty measure, is insufficient to understand the complexity of the poverty-adaptive capacity nexus.