Ten projects receive funding for research into climate change resilience
Ten organisations have been selected to receive funding for research into helping Asian cities adapt to climate change, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has announced.
The funding into how to adapt to climate change is part of IIED's work with the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN), which is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Funding applications were open to individuals and research institutions based in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. IIED was looking for projects with a particular focus on either health and climate change in cities, or sanitation and urban services in the context of climate change. A total of US$200,000 was available.
These are the ten projects that have received funding:
Bangladesh
- Improving multi-stakeholder collaboration for water and sanitation sector to contribute to positive impact on urban climate resilience in Bangladesh – Habitat for Humanity, Bangladesh
- Impacts of climate change on urban utility services: bringing resilience to a coastal urban centre of Bangladesh – ICCCAD, Dhaka
India
- Migration, vulnerability and climate change: A scoping study on adaptation to health inequities in Indian cities – Centre for Incubation of Social Work Initiatives, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (Dr Sunil Santha)
- Scaling up resilient housing designs in Gorakhpur – ISET International and GEAG, Gorakhpur
Indonesia
- Learning from climate change vulnerability assessments in Indonesia – Yayasan Kota Kita and the Institute of Governance and Social Change
- Assessing the role of urban regeneration in improving health resilience under a changing climate: potential and challenges in Indonesian cities – Diponegoro University/Griffiths University (Rukuh Setiadi)
The Philippines
- Towards establishing water security and climate change resilience in the city of Baguio: A study in urban resilience, sanitation and water security – Cordillera Studies Center, UP Baguio (Alejandro Ciencia)
- Sanitation and other urban services in the context of climate change – Institute for Popular Democracy, Quezon (Patrick Patino)
Vietnam
- Addressing institutional challenges in the water supply sector in response to urban growth and climate change adaptation – ISET Vietnam, Hanoi
Thailand
- Climate change and health in Pra Lab, Khon Kaen Province – WeSD, Khon Kaen University
IIED will work with researchers to ensure that the knowledge and evidence is produced and disseminated in various forms including working papers, policy briefs and peer-reviewed journal articles. The aim is to inform key stakeholders at the local, national and international level.
108 proposals submitted
Diane Archer, of IIED's Human Settlements Group, said the organisation had received a total of 108 proposals covering a wide variety of topics and cities in the specified countries.
She said: "Given the very large response, we were invariably unable to fund all of the proposals which we would have liked to."
In assessing the proposals, IIED applied the following criteria:
- Relevance of the topic in helping to build resilience to climate change
- Quality of the research questions proposed
- Appropriateness of the outputs proposed
- Ensuring a spread of topics, cities and organisations funded.
Archer added: "We look forward to working with the research teams over the next six months and seeing the results of their research."
ACCCRN is an eight-year, multi-country initiative, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, which seeks to build the capacity of cities to plan for and implement actions to increase their resilience to climate change. As a regional partner within ACCCRN, IIED's role is to contribute to and strengthen the body of knowledge that informs urban climate change resilience.