Research by BBC Media Action in Bangladesh in 2023 revealed that adaptation efforts by communities and individuals are often not reported or communicated.  Media coverage is mainly focused on climate disasters and the international climate negotiations. In 2023, GCA teamed up with BBC Media Action to train journalists on reporting local efforts by communities to tackle the impacts of climate change.

In this year's Stories of Resilience, we bring you a crucial message from communities implementing adaptation on the ground: global and national systems are not changing fast enough in response to urgent local adaptation needs. Global and national policy makers and providers of adaptation finance "must do better" to activate transformational adaptation by creating the right enabling environments. According to the IPCC, this includes alignment of  government and non-government objectives; strong bottom-up governance; social learning; phased long-term program support; and appropriate financing.

Starting in 2020, the Nairobi city government began implementing a community-driven, multisectoral upgrading plan. The plan was the product of an ambitious two-year process known as the Mukuru Special Planning Area or SPA. While the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed official ratification of the upgrading plan, the Nairobi city government and Nairobi Metropolitan Services have already built roads, storm drains, several hospitals, a school, and a pilot water and sanitation project. Ongoing implementation efforts provide opportunities and pose several challenges.

Mukuru residents worked with the local government to plan crucial infrastructure investments to improve their health, safety and dignity. The SPA is an example of a true “co-planning” process. Work was undertaken together by government, residents and their civil society partners. This empowered residents to make planning decisions that have improved their resilience to climate change.

The world has lost one of the intellectual architects of what we now call Locally Led Adaptation, says GCA CEO Prof. Dr. Patrick Verkooijen, in his tribute to Dr. Saleemul Huq.

The Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities (EPIC), which has been implemented by universities worldwide, is a transformative approach to prepare students for the workforce, advance scholarships for researchers and make meaningful contributions to communities through engagement with, and empowerment of, local community members.

Empowering local stakeholders to guide adaptation efforts gives communities on the frontlines of climate change a voice in decisions that directly affect their lives and livelihoods. Shifting power to local stakeholders, without expecting them to shoulder the burden of adaptation, can catalyze adaptation that is effective, equitable, and transparent. The Global Commission on Adaptation has supported the development of 8 principles, based on over a year’s worth of consultations, on how to strengthen Locally Led Adaptation. The Commission now invites any organization to endorse these principles and join a community of practice on a journey of learning-by-doing on locally led adaptation. To learn about the principles for Locally Led Adaptation: https://gca.org/reports/principles-for-locally-led-adaptation-action/

Heat waves are a silent killer, particularly in Indian cities, where they are responsible for more deaths than any other natural disaster. Between 2010 and 2022, 10,104 deaths were attributed to heat waves in India. In cities in South Asia, where temperatures are already high and rising due to climate change, heat stress is exacerbated by the urban heat island effect.

Safe and clean drinking water is becoming increasingly difficult to access in Bangladesh. Frequent and intense cyclones, storm surges, and sea-level rise, particularly in the coastal belt, result in water logging, and drive salinity further inland. The poorest and most vulnerable residents in the country are the most impacted as they have to choose between drinking contaminated water and getting sick, or walking several kilometers to get clean water while learning to make do with less.

The urban population in Malawi face cyclones, storm surges, heat stress, extreme precipitation, flooding, landslides, drought, and water scarcity with increasing regularity as climate change escalates. The country recently suffered greatly from the effects of the 2019 Cyclones Idai and Kenneth and the tropical Storm Ana and Cyclone Gombe in 2022. In the capital city of Lilongwe, where 76% of the urban population lives in informal settlements, the storms and cyclones caused tremendous damage – particularly in the informal settlements in the Kaliyeka, Mchesi, Kawale and Mtandire wards.

In the current scenario, there is a clear hierarchy in funding, knowledge, and technology flows. And experts—researchers, practitioners, all the way up to extension workers—are used to a prevailing status quo with regard to how power and knowledge flow when projects are implemented. The ‘expert’ has to become a facilitator or a listener in the face of uncertain and complex change.

The Step Change initiative has approved seven new projects aimed at accelerating action and generating momentum for locally led climate adaptation in Africa.

Applications were received from individuals and organizations all around the world, and the five finalists in the Capacity Building category are implementing a diverse range of innovations that support a continuous and evolving process of learning.

The final five shortlisted in the Innovation in Devolving Finance category for the 2023 LAC Awards are exemplary, inspiring, and scalable examples of programs and projects that find innovative ways to enable and support local determination of climate challenges, priorities, and solutions.

The Women in Leadership category at this year’s Local Adaptation Champions Awards spotlights women leaders at the local, national, or global level who have designed or are implementing climate-resilience efforts in and for local communities.

The final five nominees in the Business Adaptations Solutions category demonstrate how small and large businesses are expanding access to adaptation solutions or technologies that address local climate-related vulnerabilities. The solutions also support efforts to address structural inequalities.

The Global Center on Adaptation has selected the 20 shortlisted finalists for the 2023 Local Adaptation Champions Awards in four categories: Capacity Building, Business Adaptation Solutions, Innovation in Devolving Finance, and Women in Leadership.

The language and expressions shaping the climate change conversation often don't resonate with the realities of the most affected communities. This needs to change.

Community Leaders from Mukuru, the largest informal settlement in Nairobi, showcased some of the early initiatives from their People’s Adaptation Plan to a visiting international delegation on 4th September 2023. The delegation included Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair, Global Center on Adaptation (GCA); Professor Patrick Verkooijen, CEO, GCA and Distinguished Chair of The Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies; Dan Jørgensen, Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy, Denmark; and Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, Minister of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships, France.

Community Leaders from Mukuru, the largest informal settlement in Nairobi, showcased some of the early initiatives from their People’s Adaptation Plan to a visiting international delegation today. The delegation included Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair, Global Center on Adaptation (GCA); Professor Patrick Verkooijen, CEO, GCA and Distinguished Chair of The Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies; Dan Jørgensen, Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy, Denmark; and Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, Minister of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships, France.

Statement developed by residents of Mukuru, one of the biggest informal settlements in Africa, at a Community Dialogue organized by Global Center on Adaptation and Akiba Mashinani Trust on 3 September 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya, in advance of the 2023 Africa Climate Summit.

The Community Dialogue organized a day before the Africa Climate Summit will seek inputs from community members, on how adaptation finance can not only be doubled by 2025, but also be made more accessible by communities, and flexible and predictable to address their needs more effectively.

Informal settlements in cities in low- and middle-income countries concentrate populations at greater risk of climate change impacts. Community- and city-government-led measures to upgrade settlements are not designed as responses to climate change, but they can enhance resilience to climate-change risks.

Data on environmental and human health vulnerabilities in slums, which are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, is very limited. Citizen science can help fill data gaps and contribute to more locally relevant climate justice interventions.

A study assessing the prevalence of mental health issues in Bangladesh found that individuals experiencing a 1°C higher temperature had a 21% higher probability of reporting an anxiety disorder and a 24% higher likelihood of experiencing both depression and an anxiety disorder at the same time. As climate change accelerates, so will its deteriorative effects on mental health, with wide-ranging implications for individuals and nations.