From 24-30 April, “Measuring and Enhancing Effective Adaptation” will be the hot topic during the Ninth International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation which will be held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Nairobi, Kenya will in April play host to the Ninth International Conference on Community-based Adaptation (CBA) where the focus will be on ways to empower and support communities to take action based on their own decision-making processes.

This is a cornerstone of CBA: to recognise that environmental knowledge, vulnerability and resilience to climate impacts are embedded in societies and cultures. Increased resilience to climate stresses can be achieved by enabling communities to enhance their capacity to cope with climate extremes and surprises, such as hurricanes, floods or droughts. And although CBA is an emerging area, efforts are being been made to develop participatory methodologies, raise awareness of climate change and foster adaptive capacity.

While each conference aims to build upon the lessons learnt from previous conferences, CBA9 will not be looking to define the concept but rather to move discussions towards how to best scale-up, mainstream, monitor and support CBA to reach the ever-increasing numbers of vulnerable poor people affected by climate change. The theme for CBA9 in Kenya in 2015 is therefore ‘measuring and enhancing effective adaptation’.

In particular, the organisers hope to see participants share and consolidate the latest developments in CBA monitoring, evaluation, planning and best practice in different sectors and countries in East Africa and globally, and disseminate this knowledge more broadly. It will emphasise how there are different ways to measure effectiveness, which include assessing how money is spent but also what its impact on recipients is.

Specific objectives are to:

• Bring together different stakeholders and practitioners to share and discuss knowledge of measuring and enhancing effective adaptation, planning and best practice.
• Capture the latest experiences and learning on the theme.
• Share lessons learnt thus facilitating the effective up-scaling, mainstreaming and financing of CBA in national and international development programmes.
• Enhance the capacity of practitioners and donors to help those most vulnerable to climate change to improve their livelihoods.
• Disseminate lessons learnt at the conference through proceedings and other media.

CBA9 includes a two-day field visit to CBA projects in different ecosystems across Kenya, such as drought, flood-prone, forest and urban areas, followed by three days of interactive conference hotel-based discussions utilising a variety of different session formats. These will include formal plenary and parallel sessions and two high level panels. Several interactive ‘out of the box sessions’ will be held for those who appreciate a more hands-on approach to learning. Poster sessions will share more case study oriented material in a way that is more visual and interactive, and exhibits will share publications, films, photos and more.

The conference is open to anyone interested in CBA including policymakers, non-government organisations, research and policy institutes, those funding CBA initiatives, academics, government officials involved in adaptation and practitioners with grassroots experience. Self-funded participants can apply to the organisers to attend and participants without funding to attend will be able to follow the conference online.

For more information contact Saleemul Huq, IIED: saleemul.huq@iied.organd Hannah Reid Hannah.reid@iied.org