Multi-level participation in integrative, systemic planning: The case of climate adaptation in Ghana

Keywords Problem structuring methods; Climate adaptation; Community operational research; OR in developing countries; OR in government Highlights * Climate adaptation can be impeded by disconnects between different stakeholders group. * This is especially problematic when working across local-to-national policy levels. * A multi-level integrated planning and implementation (MIPI) process is presented. * Enhanced trust and mutual understanding enable integrative systemic analysis. * A trial of the MIPI process in Ghana successfully overcame problematic disconnects. Abstract Adaptation to climate change is impacted by a range of interrelated processes operating from local to global levels. There are often significant disconnects between different people's perceptions of responsibilities, capabilities and motivations, and divergent understandings of how the system works across actors, sectors and levels of governance. This results in misalignments of policies and practices, plus ineffective flows of resources and knowledge across the network of climate adaptation actors. As these disconnects are rooted in deep misunderstandings of the grounded realities of different actors, an experiential process of mutual discovery is required to build shared understanding and mutual respect. While it is common in the literature for people to talk about multi-level governance, most existing planning processes involve the production of separate plans at each individual level, based on the often-mistaken assumption that they will aggregate into an effective multi-level approach. This paper presents a new, multi-level integrated planning and implementation (MIPI) process, bringing together diverse actors from community, district, regional and national levels in the same workshop. The MIPI process creates a safe space that allows participants to interact directly in conducting systemic, cross-level analyses, as well as the multi-level integration of policies, plans and programs. The paper describes how the MIPI process was designed and facilitated in Ghana to address climate change, agricultural development and food security. This methodology has potential for much broader applicability to complex, multi-level planning and implementation processes. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Government of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia (b) Collaborative Futures, Australia (c) Centre for Systems Studies, Faculty of Business, Law and Politics, University of Hull, Hull, UK (d) Department of Informatics, Faculty of Technology, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden (e) School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna, Sweden (f) Victoria Business School, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand (g) School of Political and Social Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand (h) School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (i) Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK (j) Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands (k) World Food Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC, USA (l) MaRS Discovery District, Toronto, Canada * Corresponding author. Article History: Received 15 November 2019; Accepted 24 January 2023 Byline: Ariella Helfgott (a,b), Gerald Midgley [g.r.midgley@hull.ac.uk] (c,d,e,f,g,h,*), Abrar Chaudhury (i), Joost Vervoort (j), Chase Sova (k), Alex Ryan (l)