CBA12: Local experience driving climate action

Conference

Malawi hosted this year's CBA event from 11-14 June 2018, when experts in locally-driven climate action shared innovation, skills and knowledge on how to get climate finance behind what works.

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A woman farmer in Malawi, surrounded by maize, examines her crop

Malawi's subsistance farmers have recently faced both heavy rains and drought. Adopting new seed varieties and farming practices helps reduce food shortages (Photo: Neil Palmer/CIAT, Creative Commons, via Flickr)

CBA12 logoCBA12 in Lilongwe focused on getting local experience on climate action heard. Adaptation practitioners, researchers, policymakers and investors met at CBA12 to discuss how to promote local action on climate change. Read the key messages that came out of the discussions.

CBA12 brought together the CBA community of practice to:

  • Showcase lived experiences, tools and examples in the CBA marketplace
  • Put forward and discuss burning issues around key themes in the open space
  • Exchange knowledge and share expertise in the skills clinics on topics such as monitoring and evaluation, accessing climate finance, developing proposals, communications, and more
  • Build pitches with climate investors for innovative finance for locally driven climate adaptation; decentralised climate finance programmes; and adaptation technology investments.

The overarching aim was to achieve inclusive, meaningful community engagement in decision making, in ways that enable opportunities for gender-transformative outcomes. Read more about how CBA12 benefited the CBA community of practice in this Q&A

A new approach

IIED brought a new approach to this year's event. The CBA12 programme included two days of workshops, followed by two days of multi-stakeholder dialogues.

Days one and two brought practitioners together under three workstreams:

  • Building a shared understanding of effective devolved climate finance
  • Innovating in applying adaptation technology, and
  • Transforming 'lived experience' and local knowledge into evidence that drives better policies and investments.

Policymakers and investors joined for the multi-stakeholder dialogues on days three and four to discuss: how to propose and plan locally-driven climate investments; the enabling environment needed for scaling-out and up; and ways to further strengthen our community of practice.

On day four the UNFCCC and the Least Developed Countries Expert Group convened the Regional National Adaptation Plans (NAP) Expo as part of CBA12. This followed the Regional NAP Expo programme at CBA11 (PDF), and this year explored issues including how well locally-driven climate action is working within NAPs.

Key messages and coverage

During the workshop, IIED published a series of daily updates to recount and amplify the experience being shared. This was followed by the collation of the key messages under each workstream. Other coverage included:

About the organisers

The CBA12 event was organised by IIED in partnership with the Climate Justice Resilience Fund, GIZ, the Global Resilience Partnership, the International Development Research CentreIrish Aid and Practical Action.

Connect with participants

CBA12 is part of a conversation: there are a range of opportunities to connect with participants and speakers:

  • Join the CBA LinkedIn group to connect with other participants, join discussions and share details of your organisation's work, and
  • Follow and tweet #CBA12 and connect with the organisers on Twitter via @IIED.

Previous CBA conferences

Community-based adaptation to climate change (CBA) focuses on empowering communities to use their own knowledge and decision-making processes to take action on climate change. 

The 11th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA11) was held in Kampala, Uganda, and focused on harnessing natural resources and ecosystems for adaptation. More than 300 participants from around the world took part. The event enhanced the capacity of stakeholders to work together to improve the livelihoods of those most vulnerable to climate change.

CBA11 also combined with the UNFCCC Regional NAP Expo for the first time. In parallel sessions (PDF), participants had the opportunity to discuss how to strengthen considerations regarding vulnerable communities, groups and ecosystems under the process to formulate and implement National Adaptation Plans.

Find out more about previous CBA conferences.

CBA12 partners