By Shailendra Yashwant

With global heat records reaching new highs, extreme weather events and other natural disasters becoming more deadly, everyone is equally vulnerable to climate change. But it’s the poorest of the poor, especially women and children in remote and fragile environments, that bear the brunt of increasingly frequent climate induced disasters.  

Defying climate change, a new report from Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) and UNICEF India, introduces some of the most effective and innovative women and child centric resilience building projects being implemented across climate hotspots of India.

The focus of the ongoing partnership between UNICEF India’s Disaster Risk Reduction Section and CANSA is to assist state government policy makers and practitioners to convert existing climate action plans into actionable work plans for relevant departments like health, education, drinking water, etc.

This report is an attempt to identify recently tested and innovative Community Based Adaptation projects and practices that benefit women and children directly or indirectly and can be used as models to develop and promote women and child centred adaptation and disaster risk reduction best practices on a national scale.

Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) to climate change aims to allow local people to determine the objectives and means of adaptation practices by including affected people in the design and implementation of adaptation projects and practices. The CBA projects featured here demonstrate the importance of locally appropriate solutions, community ownership and multi-stakeholder partnerships in building resilience of the most vulnerable communities.

The methodology applied for shortlisting projects for the report required the projects and practices to fit into the following matrix of the following 9 minimum requirements to reach the most vulnerable and poor.

1. Directly benefits women and children
2. Is an innovative practice, technology or method of implementation
3. Adopts clear monitoring and evaluation strategies
4. Involves diverse stakeholders, including local self governments and other NGOs
5. Is participatory, people-driven with community buy-in and social acceptability
6. Is sustainable and incorporates sustainability strategies with identified resources and potential for replications
7. Is cost effective and doable using indigenous adaptation knowledge and materials where possible
8. Demonstrates transparency and accountability
9. Has a clear mechanism for knowledge sharing and knowledge building beyond the immediate locality.

The report features initiative the success of Swayam Shikshan Prayog in ‘Women led climate resilient farming’ in the drought- hit districts of Maharashtra, the first carbon neutral panchayat in Kerala, unique pond water filtration system from Odisha rissa and Ice Stupas of Ladakh amongst others.

Download the report at: https://goo.gl/JsM7cW