This session will share insights and learning on enhancing resilience to climate change through multi-stakeholder collaboration in coastal communities in Southeast Asia. 

The region is among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change and disasters, with the Philippines and Indonesia ranked first and third, respectively, for disaster risk in 2022. Both nations experience intense and frequent flooding and typhoons, while over 60% of their populations reside in coastal areas, making them highly vulnerable to sea-level rise, which puts communities at high risk of being forcibly displaced. As such, scaling up adaptive capacity through coordinated approaches and improved social cohesion is essential for ensuring inclusive resilience.

This session will explore insights and experiences from projects in the Philippines and Indonesia being led by Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific (JRS) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), supported by the Australian Government through Caritas Australia.
 
Through the Research and Advocacy for Climate Policy and Action (RACPA) project, JRS is accompanying three coastal and island communities in Indonesia and the Philippines in participatory action research to help develop deeper understanding and knowledge on climate change vulnerability and displacement among the different climate stakeholders. 
 
Through the Climate Action Partnerships in Asian Cities (CAPACities) project, CRS is working with local government units (LGU) to enhance climate change governance and adaptive capacity. In doing so, the project focuses on supporting LGUs to develop, finance, and implement effective climate change adaptation and mitigation activities, for strengthening the resilience of coastal communities.
 
This session will feature speakers from across these projects, including community members, government stakeholders, and program staff, who will share insights on the need to ensure solidarity between communities, governments and the private sector for ensuring inclusive and accountable action to combat the growing effects of climate change. It will speak to the need bridge community knowledge, lived experiences and stories with global and regional frameworks, and science-based approaches to adaptation. It will share deeper insights into the non-economic factors that may reinforce or weaken the adaptive capacities of vulnerable communities.
 
Delegates will obtain greater insights from lived experiences on enhancing resilience to climate change through multi-stakeholder coordination in Southeast Asia. While approaches to climate change adaptation and addressing displacement have made significant progress, demonstrated in the development of frameworks, policies and science-based approaches, non-economic, socio-cultural and psychological factors at the local level are often overlooked. Bridging the global–local gap through solidarity and strengthened coordination, along with grassroots governance informed by ongoing dialogue between local government and community members, is critical in addressing the wide-ranging factors that intersect with communities’ resilience. 
 
Delegates will be presented practical insights and actionable strategies to better achieving meaningful inclusion from evidence-based findings shared by stakeholders on the ground. Speakers will share stories and case studies from their respective works in climate action programming, research and advocacy that can seek to ignite conversation and deeper thinking around how we understand and approach the notion of resilience. 

Following presentations, a Q&A will enable delegates to put questions to panellists.