Andy Large – Director of Living Deltas Bjoern Ole Sander – CGIAR Asian Mega-Deltas Initiative, IRRI
Monday 8th November 2021 marks Adaptation Loss and Damage Day, set up by the COP26 Presidency to “highlight the need to adapt and also step up action on loss and damage resulting from extreme weather and slow onset events.”
But what does this phrase mean in practice? How do we build meaningful capacity for inclusive resilience in the face of the urgent need for climate justice, more global south representation, and investment in policies and programmes that truly represent not just the climate change risks we face, but also the people at the forefront of those climate change hazards, risks and vulnerabilities?
Asian Mega-Deltas are a crucial natural resource ecosystem for more than 170 million people, many depending on agriculture for their livelihoods, and they face the growing threat of climate change each year. The challenges of sea level rise and salinization, extreme weather events and increasingly devastating droughts, risk the lives and livelihoods of millions.
In their work, the UKRI GCRF Living Deltas Hub (Living Deltas) and the CGIAR Asian Mega-Deltas Initiative (including IRRI, IWMI, WorldFish, CIAT-Bioversity and CIMMYT) focus on locally led adaptation strategies co-created with delta communities.
At COP26 in Glasgow, both organisations delivered a session aimed at amplifying delta voices which traditionally are unheard in debates over future policy development, management, and governance of these extremely vulnerable and rapidly altering low-lying landscapes.
To be sustainable, adaptation strategies need to be locally centred, culturally sensitive and co-created with the communities most at risk. Put simply, delta dwellers everywhere need to be given a meaningful voice in their futures.
Across the organisations involved and with the…