How can local knowledge be institutionalised in climate decision-making?

Climate adaptation efforts increasingly recognise the importance of local and Indigenous knowledge, but how can this knowledge be meaningfully embedded within decision-making systems and climate governance at local and national levels?

This peer-learning webinar brought together practitioners, researchers and policymakers to share lessons from four projects supported by IDRC's Step Change Initiative, which promotes equitable, inclusive and locally led adaptation across Africa. 

Drawing on experiences from DEFOCLIM in Senegal, CRAKS in Uganda, SCALE in Nigeria and PIEGIS in Burkina Faso, speakers explored practical approaches to strengthening participation, influencing policy, and ensuring local knowledge informs planning, budgeting and governance processes.

The webinar examined what it takes to move beyond consultation towards genuine institutionalisation of local and Indigenous knowledge within climate and development systems. It addressed the following questions:

• How can local communities, including vulnerable and marginalised groups contribute more meaningfully in climate response decision-making to ensure their knowledge and priorities inform local plans and budgets?
• How can coordination be made more inclusive of sub-national stakeholders, including community-based organisations and marginalised groups, in local and national climate governance systems?
• What enables or constrains institutionalisation of these more inclusive approaches within governance systems? 
• What role do power dynamics play in shaping whose knowledge counts in climate decision-making processes?
• How can the findings of action research projects be institutionalised within national decision-making systems?

This webinar was co-organised by ACTADE, IED Afrique and IIED as part of the DEFOCLIM and CRAKS projects that are funded through the Step Change Initiative, an initiative co-funded between IDRC and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.