International Development Research Centre

The impacts of climate change disproportionately affect the poor, women, girls and marginalized populations, especially in the Global South. However, current estimates of the economic costs of climate change and the costs of adaptation do not provide a breakdown by gender or social group. This gap in knowledge hinders national planning for adaptation as well as the design of bankable adaptation projects that support gender equality and promote social inclusion. This project will conduct country-level studies in Nepal, Rwanda and Tanzania. Working closely with key actors from government, private sector and civil society, the project will update previous studies on the economic costs of climate change and costs of adaptation to include gender equality and inclusion dimensions. Bankable adaptation projects with potential to advance gender equality and inclusion will also be identified. The project will strengthen capacity to integrate gender equality and inclusion dimensions in adaptation planning and programming by generating new data, working directly with stakeholders using co-creation methods and providing training opportunities, including for early career researchers. This project is part of the Climate Adaptation and Resilience initiative (CLARE) co-funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and IDRC. CLARE is a five-year, CAD120 million initiative that aims to enable inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards for people across Africa and the Asia-Pacific.

In 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made clear that society has entered a critical juncture in its response to the climate crisis. The window of opportunity to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and a 1.5 ºC world and avoid dangerous and catastrophic climate change is rapidly closing. Human-induced climate change has already caused widespread losses and damages, with the most vulnerable people and places worst affected. The COP26 presidency called for an all-of-society response to adaptation that is underpinned by increased levels of accessible adaptation finance, catalyzes inclusive and equitable locally led action because it is more effective, and harnesses the power of nature to reduce vulnerability to disasters and safeguard food security. This project rises to that challenge, with the goal of advancing gender-responsive and socially equitable climate-resilient development by mobilizing knowledge into action, Southern climate leadership and capacities from local to global levels. To advance this goal, the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) will pursue three core objectives:  support the integration of gender and social inclusion in policies and practice to achieve climate-resilient development; strengthen the implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation to build the resilience of climate-affected communities; and advance access to appropriate and equitable finance for climate-resilient development that enables locally led adaptation.  CDKN will pursue these objectives with engagement strategies designed to respond to local needs and demand, support transboundary collaboration and learning, and amplify local voices in global policy fora. Efforts will be concentrated on 15 countries in Africa, South Asia and Latin America, selected based on need, existing relationships and opportunities for impact. The project will strengthen the capacities of decision-makers and Southern-based leadership to drive locally led adaptation. It will champion the integration of gender equality and social inclusion in climate change policies from local to global scales; strengthen the implementation of equitable ecosystem-based adaptation; and improve access to adaption finance for locally led solutions. The long term expected impact from this project is improved quality of life and resilience for the most climate affected people, especially marginalized groups.

After mitigation and adaptation, loss and damage emerged as the third pillar for international climate negotiation. Loss and damage refer to irreparable losses (such as loss of species, or land taken over by rising seas) and recoverable damages (damaged buildings, roads, power lines, etc.) from climate change. Research investments in the Global South that inform global negotiations on loss and damage are limited, resulting in a lack of evidence to support policy development and a lack of clarity on how vulnerable countries can formulate policy responses at the national level. It is critical for loss and damage to be addressed with a greater sense of clarity at the 2023 global stocktake of the Paris Agreement. This requires a large-scale effort to systematically document a vast number of losses and damages associated with climate change extremes and slow-onset events. There is a risk that many important facets of losses and damages will be missed, such as how slow-onset events are causing loss of culture and human health, or how the species loss of plants and animals will jeopardize rural women’s livelihoods. This project will support the development of country-level loss and damage policy and implementation mechanisms in the Global South. It will use a three-pronged collaborative research strategy: critical review of documented knowledge and discourse; country-level diagnostic studies and collaborative pilot policy actions; and a series of dialogues and knowledge exchange forums. The project will illuminate how strategies of loss and damage can be instituted in different policy and socio-environmental contexts, including lessons that can be learned from pre-existing risk governance systems.

For nearly five decades, IDRC has invested in high-quality research and innovation in developing countries to foster a more sustainable and inclusive world. This funding has also amplified the voices of scholars from the Global South in global policy debates and forums. To further enhance IDRC’s role as a catalyst for transformative development solutions, it is essential to synthesize and share knowledge from IDRC-supported projects for greater uptake and impact. In pursuit of this objective, IDRC’s Asia Regional Office (ARO) is launching two complementary strategic positioning initiatives. The first is a regional conference in Nepal entitled “Research for sustainable development: Building a greener, inclusive and resilient South Asia”. This event will examine regional research priorities, highlight evidence from IDRC-supported projects and showcase their contributions to policy and program development. The conference will build on IDRC’s decade-long investments in South Asia, laying the foundation for future research initiatives that unlock the region’s untapped potential. The second initiative, entitled “Sustaining the Global South’s contributions to the G20 under South Africa’s presidency”, marks the culmination of a series of Global South-led presidencies. As the G20 leadership shifts back to Northern countries in 2026, it is critical to understand the influence of Southern-led institutions in shaping the global agenda. ARO and IDRC’s regional offices in Eastern and Southern Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean will each commission a background paper within their respective regions to build on the progress made during the past three presidencies and contribute to shaping policy discussions and recommendations for the current presidency. These efforts will culminate in a high-profile G20 side event in South Africa (September–October 2025), co-funded by the three regional offices. This event will serve as a platform to ensure that the Global South’s critical development challenges remain central to the G20 discourse, reinforcing the long-term impact of Southern-led contributions to global governance.

Building resilience to climate change and natural hazards requires socially inclusive action. There is increasing recognition in the climate adaptation space, both in research and policy deliberations, that an intersectional approach is needed to reach the most vulnerable people. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change observes, risks vary across people within societies depending on intersecting inequalities and context-specific factors such as culture, gender, religion, ability, disability and ethnicity. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change also demonstrates an emphasis on intersectional approaches as countries move towards the global goal on adaptation. Applying intersectional approaches in practice, however, remains less clear. The project will develop country case studies that explore how to apply an intersectional approach to climate adaptation and resilience. Each partner will also collaborate with two or three equity organizations focusing on the rights of women, people with disabilities, younger or older people, or other underrepresented groups who will be engaged in design, data collection and analysis and dissemination. The aim of this work is to generate evidence-based recommendations for adaptation practitioners and policymakers that can inform relevant processes and policies and ensure that climate action works for everyone. This project is part of the Climate Adaptation and Resilience initiative (CLARE) jointly designed, funded and run by IDRC and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. CLARE is an ambitious five-year initiative to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

This project focuses on enhancing the peer learning of the Asian projects under the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) program. CLARE is a partnership between the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and IDRC. It aims to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change by supporting governments, communities and the private sector to drive long-term solutions while strengthening capacity of both those carrying out the research and those using the resulting evidence. This will be the first time ten partners working in 15 countries in Asia will come together, and a structured program will deepen learning across the different projects, help articulate a cross-project program perspective, and foster engagement with a diverse set of climate action stakeholders. This will be achieved through a three-day workshop, co-designed with all partners, with local partners leading on creating engagement with external stakeholders.