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Innovation Hub Blog

Recap | Climate Justice in Adaptation Programmes

After a successful kick-off session on February 28th, the first learning session of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Climate Justice took place at the Oxfam Novib office on March 23 and it was a success! Around 30 development professionals (both Partos members and others) came together to explore Climate Justice principles in adaptation programmes. 

Did you miss it? Here you’ll read a short recap and the main take-aways of the session. Did you found this exciting and do you want to join the CoP on Climate Justice? You can still register and join the community!

13 April 2023

Introduction of the session

We started with an introductory presentation. Here, we touched upon the coming about of the climate justice learning trajectory as a whole and the why behind organising a session on climate justice in adaptation programmes specifically.

Since not all the participants knew each other, and for some it was (one of) the first physical sessions after a long period of online sessions during the pandemic, we kicked off the session with an introductory exercise. This created a really friendly and safe atmosphere for the remainder of the afternoon.

Case presentations

After the introduction, it was time for two case presentations. These were presented by Southern partners of Oxfam Novib and Wetlands International.

Case 1: Community-led and risk-sensitive land use and landscape planning as a base for climate-resilient agricultural practices for sustainable livelihoods of rural communities

In this presentation, Oxfam Novib highlighted the work of the Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC). This centre supports communities to mitigate the risks of climate change-induced disasters through the participatory formulation and implementation of climate-resilient, risk-sensitive land use plans at a local level, which the local governments are facilitating. In this multi-stakeholder process, communities are supported to co-design the land use and landscape planning. This in close coordination with local governments and other stakeholders. The planning process addresses multiple climate issues like land degradation, flash floods, unexpected rains and droughts, cold and heat waves, water scarcity and new diseases in agriculture.

Jagat Deuja, Executive Director of CSRC (Dhapasi, Kathmandu) and Rajan Subedi, Program Manager of River Basins Oxfam Nepal (Kathmandu), presented this case.

Case 2: Coalition building and strengthening the resilience of vulnerable fishermen, pastoralists and farmers in the programme Partners for Resilience

The second presentation zoomed in on the work of Wetlands International in Mali, where the organisation has a long-standing track record of working. Wetlands International mainstreamed climate justice in the work of Partners for Resilience (PfR) in Mali during 2016-2020. The program aimed at strengthening the resilience of vulnerable fishermen, pastoralists and farmers. A key element in the approach was building and strengthening coalitions to lobby for more effective integrated risk management. This case also dove into how communities were engaged in and perceived the program’s results and what principles of climate justice were applied. The presentation ended with reflecting on how Wetlands International mainstreams climate justice in its programs.

This case was presented by Mr Fofana Ibrahima Sadio, Advocacy Officer Wetlands International Sahel Office (Bamako, Mali) and Jeroen Jurriens, Program Manager Community Resilience Wetlands International (The Netherlands).

Group discussions

After the inspiring case presentations, the group was divided into smaller sub-groups to discuss the following key questions:

  • Which climate justice principles are essential for the success of our adaptation programmes and how?
  • How are these principles embedded in our organisational strategies and policies?

The groups used the LLA and and the Bali principles as guidance for their discussions.

Even though the discussions had to be kept short due to the limited time, all groups had fruitful conversations and came back with interesting insights.

Key takeaways from the session

Looking back on this interesting first session within the climate justice learning trajectory, we share three main takeaways with you:

  1. Given the complexity of climate change problems and the need for climate justice, we should work together towards a common goal whilst sharing expertise and resources;  working in coalitions and collaborative actions are important. Landscape approaches are gaining ground.
  2. Due to the complexities mentioned above, different and competing interests co-exist in climate adaptation (or mitigation) actions. The outcomes of this cannot always be predicted well in advance. Therefore, flexible programming and learning is paramount, and thus flexible funding is too.
  3. It is essential to connect local problems and priorities with climate responses and broader systemic issues at a global level to challenge those more significant systemic issues. By bringing this back to local levels, communities can increasingly see connections across different scales and levels, enabling more diverse conceptions and strategies for climate justice. 

What’s still to come for this CoP?

After such an inspiring first session, we are looking forward to share with you what is still to come for the Partos learning trajectory on climate justice. We are currently planning the second physical session which is expected to take place at the end of May. This session will most likely focus on the link between decolonisation and climate justice. In between these more larger sessions, we are thinking of organising some smaller sessions to dive deeper into some topics of interest with those who are interested.

Are you interested to be kept in the loop, but you are not a part of the CoP yet? No worries, you can still register here.

Suggestions for future sessions are also more than welcome! For this you can contact Sonja Bleeker at sonja@partos.nl.