The limited literature on institutions and pathways relevant to system transitions and CRD suggests that institutions are most effective when taking a development-first approach to adaptation. This is consistent with the principles of CRD which emphasise not simply reducing climate risk, but rather making development processes resilient to the changing climate. There is agreement in this literature that such an approach allows for the effective integration of climate challenges into existing policy and planning processes  . However, this approach generally rests on an incremental framing of institutional change  based on two critical assumptions. The first is that existing processes and institutions are capable of bringing about system transitions that generate desired development outcomes and thus can be considered appropriate vehicles for the achievement of CRD. A large critical literature questions the efficacy of formal state and multilateral institutions. The evidence for the ability of local, informal institutions to achieve development goals remains uneven, with robust evidence of positive impacts on public service delivery, but more ambiguous evidence on behaviour changes associated with strengthened institutions . The second is that the mainstreaming of adaptation will bring about changes to currently unsustainable development practices and pathways, instead of merely strengthening development as usual by subsuming adaptation to existing development pathways and allowing them to endure in the face of growing stresses . There is evidence that countries with poor governance have limited adaptation planning or action at the national level, even when other
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report