IDRC at Adaptation Futures 2025

The complexity of adapting to climate risk in informal settlements: Lessons and future directions (panel discussion)

2:30 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

This panel discussion will include a range of inputs from those actively working in informal settlements, sharing research and practice perspectives. It will include contributions from CLARE programme projects in Africa and Asia and those grappling with implementing adaptation in informal settlements.  

Lived experience across timescales: Weaving together insights on Climate Adaptation and Resilience (knowledge café)

10:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m.

At Adaptation Futures 2023, CLARE convened a knowledge-exchange event on driving transformational change through action-oriented research. Building on these efforts, CLARE has identified a set of ‘threads’ that cut across ongoing research projects: how lived experiences of extreme events influence adaptation, how to link short-term and long-term actions to help avoid unintended consequences, and how to develop thinking on climate-resilient development. This co-creation session will critically examine how these threads advance thinking on and the practice of adaptation research.     

Feature side event: Resilient small islands — Integrating knowledge, policy and action for sustainable futures

1:45 p.m.–3:15 p.m.

This co-creation session will foster an interactive exchange of ideas and insights from leading researchers, policymakers and community representatives engaged in climate adaptation efforts across the Pacific region. It will feature panelists from AQUADAPT, CLARE, the Loss and Damage initiative and the Pacific Ocean Climate Crisis Assessment, alongside a guest from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme. 

From tradition to innovation: Indigenous leadership and strategies for climate adaptation and justice in Latin America (knowledge café)

2:15 p.m.–3 p.m.

This session will facilitate short presentations by Indigenous women leaders from Peru and a social scientist advocating for Indigenous and Afro-descendent communities in Central America. Presentations will be followed by a dialogue on how these communities use multi-pronged strategies — such as community cohesion, leadership strengthening and the use of modern, technological methods — to defend their collective territorial rights, autonomy and livelihoods and significantly contribute to regional and global climate adaptation and justice debates.

CLARE: Engaging hearts and minds through arts-based approaches and play for adaptation (hands-on activity)

9 a.m.–9:45 a.m.

Arts-based approaches and games have been instrumental in co-exploring lived experiences and climate impacts faced by communities. This session shares specific approaches to enhance community engagement and integrate different knowledge systems. Methods include photovoice, storytelling and sculpting to bring personal and emotional dimensions of climate adaptation and resilience to the forefront.

Addressing intersecting vulnerabilities for climate adaptation action (panel discussion) 

9:00 a.m.–10 a.m. 

This panel will focus on how gender interacts with dimensions of class and caste (ethnicity, nationality), and the role of often deep-rooted inequalities that tend to be reinforced by climate change impacts. It will help enhance understanding of how structural inequalities create vulnerabilities to climate change. The panel will explore how policies and advocacy to build resilience need to incorporate an understanding of ‘pre-existing’ inequalities, which can be conceptualized through an intersectional gender lens. This, in turn, can inform effective strategies for supporting resilience and help overcome intersecting vulnerabilities . 

Feature Talanoa: Advancing the blue economy — Sustainable seaweed food systems through Indigenous and traditional climate knowledge

10:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m.

This Talanoa session (a term shared by Tongans, Samoans and Fijians to refer to a conversation or sharing of ideas) will explore the integration of Indigenous and traditional climate knowledge in aquatic food systems, emphasizing its role in strengthening climate adaptation and resilience. With a particular focus on seaweed’s role in sustainable aquaculture and climate adaptation, this session will highlight how reciprocal knowledge sharing can enhance food security, environmental sustainability and decolonization efforts in agrifood systems.  

CLARE: ‘Co-creation’ labs for urban climate adaptation and resilience (knowledge café)

2:15 p.m.–3 p.m.

The session aims to share experiences from select CLARE projects (RURBANISE, INACCT, IPCC Cities, CLARITY, Tuwe Pamoja, CLARE-ASEAN) working with urban communities in Africa and Asia to advocate for stronger integration of local and Indigenous knowledge in the development of knowledge on urban resilience. The session will specifically highlight the different approaches being used to support transdisciplinary knowledge creation and enable transformational change for communities in informal and complex urban contexts.

Masterclass: Nature-based solutions for climate adaptation — Case studies in aquaculture from Asia-Pacific

3:45 p.m.–5:15 p.m.

This interactive co-creation session will explore the role of nature-based solutions in enhancing climate adaptation for aquaculture in both marine and freshwater environments. Through a combination of expert presentations, collaborative discussions and real-world case studies, participants will engage in a structured dialogue to define key adaptation strategies and identify practical solutions for integrating nature-based solutions into aquaculture systems. 

Enhancing finance for inclusive climate adaptation (paper presentation)

12:15 p.m.–12:30 p.m.

This session will present a paper that synthesizes existing and emerging evidence on the barriers to accessing funding for local adaptation. It examines the structural, institutional and procedural challenges that hinder local actors — such as communities, civil society organizations and small enterprises — from securing climate finance. While global climate finance commitments have increased, growing evidence indicates multiple and often compounding barriers, particularly for adaptation activities, that tend to be ‘hyper-local,’ and for marginalized groups and regions. Ongoing work suggests that addressing this requires action on multiple fronts, including evidence generation, policy change and capacity strengthening.

African Synthesis Centre for Climate Change, Environment and Development: Accelerating actionable research on climate change (side event) 

1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m.

Traditional healing methods and climate change adaptation in Bhutan (knowledge café)  

2:30 p.m.–3:15 p.m.

Dialogue on knowledge democracy: Fifty years of participatory research in the Global South and in Māori and Pacific communities: Lessons, challenges and going beyond adaptation (Talanoa) 

4 p.m.–5 p.m.

Innovation Spotlight 1: Currents of Change: From the Pacific to the World

4 pm – 5:45 pm 

Climate Finance Online: Harnessing Locally Led Adaptation Metrics for Enhanced Climate Finance and Policy Integration in Africa

8:45 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. 

Strengthening climate mitigation and adaptation strategies for shrimp pond-dense coastal ecosystems through the development of a shrimp pond greenhouse gas calculator (paper presentation) 

8:15 a.m.–8:30 a.m.

Community-led research and climate resilience: Emerging lessons from DECODE (panel discussion) 

8:30 a.m.–9:15 a.m.

Innovation spotlight 2: Cityscapes and seascapes: Blueprints for resilient living (masterclass) 

8:30 a.m.–10 a.m.

Well-being, continuity and place: methods, concepts and evidence (panel discussion) 

10:45 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Innovative nature-based and adaptive passive measures for the design of circular infrastructures in the built environment (poster viewing session) 

12:15 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. 

Connecting the dots: What can we learn from small islands? (paper presentation) 

2 p.m.–2:15 p.m.

Feature side event: Resilient Small Islands – Integrating Knowledge, Policy, and Action for Sustainable Futures    

1:45 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. 

From Tradition to Innovation: Indigenous Leadership and Strategies for Climate Adaptation and Justice in Latin America (knowlege café) 

2:15 p.m. –  3:00 p.m.  

Does habitat heterogeneity predict high ecological diversity? A case study from Indonesian and Filipino coral reefs (paper presentation) 

3:45 p.m.–4 p.m.

Lessons from climate-smart shrimp implementation in Indonesia: A case study in Lalombi village, Central Sulawesi (paper presentation) 

4:30 p.m.–4:45 p.m.

A multi-stakeholder initiative to improve shrimp aquaculture across a whole jurisdiction: The Shrimp Improvement Program in Banyuwangi, Indonesia (paper presentation) 

4:15 p.m.–4:30 p.m.

Climate REEFS: Working with people and nature to improve adaptive capacities of small-scale reef fisheries in Indonesia and the Philippines (paper presentation) 

5 p.m.–5:15 p.m.

Climate adaptation in aquatic food systems: Co-benefits, trade-offs and policy considerations (paper presentation) 

8 a.m.–8:15 a.m.   

Optimizing catfish by-products as an alternative protein source for marine aquaculture (paper presentation) 

8:15 a.m.–8:30 a.m. 

Strategic urban living labs: Reconfiguring governance networks for inclusive adaptation (panel discussion) 

10:45 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

How can city-level Heat Health Action Plans build local resilience to heat wave risks? (panel discussion) 

1:45 p.m.–2 p.m.  

Adaptation Finance Gap 2025 (Part of Kaupapa Motuhake: Strategic Insights and Side Events Focus on Finance Part 2) (paper presentation) 

12 p.m. - 12:15 p.m. 

Enhancing Finance for Inclusive Climate Adaptation (Part of Kaupapa Motuhake: Strategic Insights and Side Events Focus on Finance Part 2) (paper presentation) 

12:15 p.m. 12:30 p.m.