The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and CDKN are pleased to announce a call for stories on community-driven and locally-led adaptation. These stories will be collaboratively developed and featured in a publication to be launched at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in November 2023.

To respond to climate change and development challenges in an inclusive, sustainable and effective way, a variety of actors and voices need to come together and collaborate. Importantly, planning, designing, implementing and monitoring local interventions need to be led by communities and organisations on the ground that are equipped with their knowledge, experience, networks and varied strengths. Learning from local approaches and adaptation interventions is crucial to further promote LLA. 

Through this call, GCA and CDKN are looking to identify and collaboratively develop a number of stories that highlight different lessons emerging from community-driven and LLA interventions with local partners working in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The stories will form part of a publication that will be launched at COP28 and will follow on from the Stories of Resilience - Lessons from Local Adaptation Practice, which was produced by the GCA in 2022. 

Call focus

We are looking to identify cases from community-based, local non-governmental organisations or local governments that have recognised, prioritised and mobilised the capacity and knowledge held by local actors to design and deliver local adaptation interventions. While the work of GCA and CDKN focuses on climate resilience and action, the stories could focus on lessons from other sectors too (for instance, related to processes that enable and empower local leadership, or focus on a climate-vulnerable development sector such as health) to highlight learning that we could apply to the climate change adaptation field. The stories could highlight successful examples but could also show cases where certain strategies or approaches were tried, but did not succeed, providing rich lessons for others.

For further examples of potential story elements, refer to the call document.

How you can submit your story idea 

This is an open call. After assessing the submitted story ideas, approximately ten stories will be selected and agreed on through a series of virtual interviews conducted in either English, Spanish, French or Bahasa Indonesia (the languages our team has the capacity to speak). The CDKN team will draft the stories in English and collaborate with contributors before finalising them for publication ahead of COP28. Chapter contributors will be recognised as co-authors in the stories. 

To begin, ensure familiarity with the call document detailing the full submission process.

Submit your story idea here. 

The deadline for submission of story ideas is 12 June 2023.

Story contributors will be compensated for their time. For questions or further information, please contact cdkn@southsouthnorth.org with the subject line “Call for stories on Locally Led Adaptation”.