Context 

The risks faced by people and ecosystems in a changing climate vary from one locality to another. It’s partly a question of physical geography and partly a question of the human factors – social, economic, cultural – that make people resilient or vulnerable to climate hazards. 

That is why adaptation should be locally led. Adaptation is most effective when it is centred on people’s human rights and driven by the knowledge and needs that local people, especially the most marginalised groups, bring to the table. Top-down approaches that impose adaptation solutions on communities without adequate buy-in or financial support have a history of failure. 

That said, the risks and impacts of climate change cascade across borders. The long-term success of locally led initiatives can be linked to policies and practices at multiple scales. It is not just about local action, then, but about local leadership of adaptation that responds to threats and opportunities locally and regionally. Adaptation leaders mobilise indigenous and local knowledge and resources for the task, and forge external partnerships for support when they are needed. 

Locally led adaptation (LLA) is also about people’s adaptive capacities. These are the capacities that enable people to recover from climate impacts and anticipate and prepare for future climate risks. In this way, LLA is a dynamic process that involves the most vulnerable groups and constantly strengthens people’s capacities – individual and collective – to face the future. 

Objectives 

With its mission is to improve the wellbeing of the most climate-affected people in the Global South, especially marginalised groups, CDKN has long embraced the ethos of locally led adaptation.  CDKN focuses on amplifying and strengthening local leadership, voice and capacity for inclusive, climate-resilient development.  

Activities 

 CDKN’s activities include: 

• Partnership with local adaptation champions across Asia and the Pacific, Africa and Latin America to tell their stories of LLA in practice. 

• Grants to ‘knowledge to action’ partners in five African countries, for locally led adaptation initiatives at community level (Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Mozambique, South Sudan). 

• Support for community radio-based, climate outreach initiatives by local women in northwest Ghana. 

• Partnership with community actors in Namibian districts, and in coastal and agricultural communities in Senegal, to assess their vulnerabilities and empower them to build solutions from the ground up.  

• Training of and partnership with local authorities in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, to deepen their capacities for more inclusive and climate-resilient local development, including action on heatwaves and support for Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPAs) in Nepal. 

• Capacity strengthening with young leaders from informal settlements in Kenya, to energise their LLA efforts, with partner organisation Slumdwellers International. 

• Exploring multi-scale governance including community actors with Water Funds in the Andean region. 

• Widespread efforts across the CDKN programme to ‘democratise’ knowledge and especially recognise and apply relevant local and Indigenous knowledge, for transformative climate action. 

Knowledge products 

Collections of stories and voices, and syntheses from across regions: 

Stories of resilience: lessons from local adaptation practice (report) 

Stories of resilience: lessons from local adaptation practice (video) 

Climate justice: Youth perspectives on action in their communities (video) 

Making local adaptation count towards the global stocktake (video) 

Stories and voices about LLA in specific places: 

Voices of resilience: amplifying women’s voices through songs for locally-led action and inclusion in northern Ghana (video)   

Technology, tradition and co-existence: How one CDKN partner is working with pastoralist communities to monitor and steward their environment (Photo story) 

Multiple wins for Indigenous women’s craze for eco-enterprises in rural Nepal (paper) 

Nature and People as One (NaPO, Kenya) Conservation Cup (video) 

Enabling the success of locally-led water investments in Kenya (paper) 

Learning from eight, multi-scale water funds in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru (paper)