The Context:
The summer of 2023 in the Northern Hemisphere was marked by extreme weather events, from record-breaking heatwaves and droughts in Western Europe, the United States, and China, to severe flooding in Japan, South Korea, and Pakistan. These events highlight the growing urgency of addressing both climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports indicate that extreme weather events are expected to worsen, emphasizing the critical need for societies to not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also adapt to a changing climate, particularly in coping with intensified droughts and floods.
In response, the Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA), launched at COP26 in late 2021, brings together over 150 organizations across 40 countries. The ARA’s mission is to ensure that adaptation research is not left on a shelf but is actively used by those who need it, including practitioners such as farmers and engineers.
Purpose and Objectives:
The core purpose of the consultation process, led by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in partnership with Inclusive Innovation, was to identify research priorities in two critical areas of climate adaptation: food systems and gender equality and social inclusion. These priorities would inform future collaboration within the ARA, ensuring that research efforts are directly relevant to the needs of practitioners on the ground.
The objectives were:
To surface actionable research priorities from diverse perspectives, ensuring that the research produced would be practical and impactful.
To create a process that allowed meaningful virtual discussions among experts from various sectors, disciplines, and geographies.
To synthesize the outcomes of the workshops and share them with the ARA as a foundation for future collaboration.
People Involved:
The consultation process involved over 100 experts from various sectors, including researchers, practitioners, and funders, representing different disciplines and geographic regions.
Workshop Process:
The consultation process was structured in three main steps:
Pre-workshop Surveys: To gather initial research priorities on food systems and gender equality, with input from participants representing diverse sectors and regions.
Virtual Workshops: Two virtual workshops were held to discuss and validate the research priorities that emerged from the surveys. These workshops provided a space for experts to refine the priorities and discuss actionable steps for adaptation research.
Synthesis and Reporting: The outcomes from the workshops were synthesized into two reports, which were presented to the ARA to inform future collaborative efforts.
The workshops were designed to be highly interactive and engaging, with participants working in smaller groups to explore specific research questions. One of the key discussions focused on how climate adaptation research could be more inclusive, especially in terms of ensuring marginalized communities are considered and heard in the process.
Environment:
The virtual environment of the workshops was intentionally designed to foster deep, meaningful engagement despite geographical distances. Inclusive Innovation utilized its expertise in creating dynamic virtual events to ensure participants were not merely passive listeners but actively engaged throughout the process. This included pre-workshop surveys, real-time discussions, and post-workshop synthesis, ensuring that all participants had a voice in shaping the outcomes. The environment was structured to bridge the gap between research and practice, ensuring the conversation was both relevant and productive.
Output & Impact:
The workshops produced two key reports (accessible below) summarizing the research priorities identified around food systems and gender equality and social inclusion. These priorities will guide future adaptation research and collaboration within the ARA. For instance, one of the key priorities was how to enhance the agency of marginalized groups in the context of climate change, recognizing that research often fails to reach those who are most affected, such as women and children in vulnerable regions.
Beyond the workshops, a future-looking alliance
Erika Malich, a Program Management Officer with the Climate Adaptation and Resilience initiative at IDRC explains that on top of highlighting key opportunities for collaboration within the alliance, the workshops also served as an initial step in engaging the broader adaptation research community. In other words, the workshops created new links between various networks and individuals, forging a new space for future research co-creation.
“This was one of the most efficient virtual meetings I have experienced,” says Amina Maharjan from ICIMOD. “I did not just listen and instead, felt like I was engaged throughout the process, from the preparatory work to the final report.”
In the end, she hopes that the alliance will grow as a space where members can learn from each other, collect and grow future seeds of transformation.
In the long term, the consultation process has not only highlighted key areas for research but also paved the way for deeper collaboration within the ARA, ensuring that adaptation research is more inclusive, actionable, and relevant to those on the frontlines of climate change.\
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