Building Climate Resilience in Asia Pacific: Local Leadership and Global Support for Bigger impacts
This moderated talk show brings together the expertise and initiatives of Asia-Pacific civil society organizations networks (CSOs), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through their Community Resilience Partnership Program (CRPP) to tackle, at local level, the urgent challenges of disaster risk reduction and climate resilience in the Asia-Pacific region. The highly interactive session emphasizes the vital roles of CSOs and local leaders, especially women, in working with local and national governments and gathering international support and the private sector to bolster local level disaster and climate resilience.
Speakers will crystallize the everyday issues of local communities into a disaster and climate resilience agenda, gathering insights, commitments and inspiration for action from audiences inside and outside this partner event.
Speakers from Pacific Island countries, Nepal, and Philippines, will share authentic local voices and the strategies to better articulate and amplify them to build robust and viable partnerships that increase the chances of successful pathways to replication and scaling up of local disaster and climate resilience.
This session will focus on the consolidation of civil society organisations (CSOs) across the Asia-Pacific region, highlighting the critical role of local leadership, particularly that of women. Investing in these efforts is essential in the face of unprecedented challenges posed by disasters and the uncertainties of climate change – and to address the highly contextualized nature of climate and disaster impacts and vulnerabilities. Compelling examples will be presented to demonstrate how CSO partnerships have transformed marginalised communities into resilient and adaptive ones, especially when local leaders and governments bring their justice, creativity and courage to address pressing issues. By the end of this session, it will be clear that with the support of national and international frameworks and resources, building resilience at the local level is not only feasible, but often becomes an inevitable path to creating scalable models that generate substantial and lasting impact.
Panel:
- Mr. Puji Pujiono, Senior Advisor to the Pujiono Centre, Indonesia (Moderator)
- Ms. Olive Natalie Mafi, Coordinator, Facility Aiding Locally-Led Engagement (FALE) Pasifika initiative at the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (PIANGO)
- Mayor Karen Rosales of Las Nieves, Agusan del Norte, the Philippines
- Ms. Suranjana Gupta, Senior Resilience Advisor, Huairou Commission
- Ms. Sobina Lama, Program Manager, Lumanti Shelter Resource Group (Nepal)
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The session will address the critical need for representation of local actors in DRR decision-making processes. It will showcase local champions that exemplify effective grassroots and locally-led initiatives, and how their actions empower communities, particularly women and marginalized groups. This event is a collaboration between PIANGO, Asia Pacific CSOs, and the ADB.
Participants will explore how civil society organizations can advocate for and implement people-centered practices based on high and universal values. The session will also zoom into practical outcomes of years of having active grassroots women’s movements and CSOs/CBOs in DRRM Councils across Asia Pacific to date and unpack their value add as well as examine where local groups will be most value adding in DRR in the next 5 years.
In this session, we will present insights and recommendations from our partner communities in Asia Pacific in the hopes of helping and complementing our government officials and leaders in their planning, decision making and investment strategies that provide the biggest dividends for all, especially for marginalized communities. The session will also share biggest lessons learned from failures and how concerted effort is still needed to fill the existing and potential new gaps that frameworks, policies and current practices are not properly addressing for whole of society growth.
This session will draw on recent findings from the Sendai Mid-Term Review, link to the Sendai Gender Action Plan, and highlight actionable steps for the remaining period of the Sendai Framework.
This event is a follow-up to the decision taken by Asia-Pacific CSOs at the CSOs Meeting hosted by PIANGO in the Pacific Hall/Pavilion at the 2022 APMCDRR Brisbane to present themselves as one. Since then, Asia Pacific CSOs have maintained a digital platform that has been strengthened. CSOs have met for four rounds since February 2024 to consolidate their perspectives and contribute to raising the ambition in the Asia-Pacific region to accelerate disaster risk reduction by 2030. A series of grassroots consultations and convenings are happening between May 2024 all the way to the actual APMCDRR on October 2024 that will further consolidate views from the local level.
The ADB, through its Community Resilience Partnership Program, alongside Huariou Commission (a global network of grassroots women’s groups) and International Institute for Environment and Development (a think tank working at the intersection of critical environment and development issues), is working on building the evidence case for, local and national capacities, and systems needed to invest in local level adaptation at scale, addressing the nexus of climate change, poverty reduction, and gender.
Agenda
Location
Philippine International Convention Center
Online access
Details
Organized by
Pacific Islands Association of Non-Government Organization (PIANGO) Asian Development Bank (ADB) Asia Disaster Risk Reduction Network (ADRRN) Alliance for Empowering Partnerships (A4EP) Center for Disaster Preparedness (CDP) Philippines Coastal Association for Social Transformation Trust (COAST) Bangladesh Community world Service Area (CWSA) Pakistan & Afghanistan Disaster Risk Reduction Network (DRRNet) Philippines Ecosystems Work For Essential Benefits (ECOWEB) Philippines Humanitarian Aid International (HAI) India Huairou Commission International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) Asia Localisation Lab of the Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR) Oxfam Community-led Empowering Actions for Resilience Network (CLEARNet) National Anti-Poverty Commission – Victims of Disaster and Calmities Sectoral Council (NAPC-VDC SC)Contact
Akmal Ali, Coordinator, Facility Aiding Locally-Led Engagement (FALE) Pasifika initiative at the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (PIANGO), email: [email protected] and [email protected]