The locally led adaptation learning journey

The LLA principles are gaining greater recognition and support. Over 130 organisations, including governments, development agencies, intermediaries and local organisations, have now endorsed the principles. However, for many endorsers, transitioning from endorsement to implementation is still a challenge.

There is a need to ensure that the principles are not just a tick box exercise but lead to a shift in behaviour and incentives, including funding, to move from business usual to 'business unusual' in addressing the intersecting crises of climate change, biodiversity degradation and inequality. 

This requires coming together as a community of practice to share changes, innovations and lessons to strengthen locally led adaptation action.

What is IIED doing?

Together with our partners, IIED is drawing on our experience in convening multiple policy dialogues and communities of practice to create a coherent journey that enables us and our partners to collectively reflect on what is working, reform current practices and deliver policy innovations.

We believe these actions will lead to effective and transformative locally-led actions for resilient and prosperous communities. 

The main objective of this LLA learning journey is to support the climate change adaptation community, including researchers, practitioners, donors, academics and policymakers, to share lessons, innovations, approaches, tools and any other materials to support the principles to be put into practice.

By doing this, the learning journey will contribute to IIED’s ambition of systems change, which is to promote locally-led approaches that advance justice and resilience for people, climate and nature.

Creating a space for peer-to-peer knowledge exchange

A series of annual events involves diverse stakeholders across different knowledge systems to promote dialogue, facilitate learning of LLA best practices and co-create knowledge for transformative adaptation. Those with lived experience of climate change, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities, are prioritised.

These events include the Gobeshona conference, the community-based adaptation conference and the Development and Climate Days (D&C Days) event at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP).

Learning from LLA will also extend to our engagement with major international policy events such as the UNFCCC COPs and Convention on Biological Diversity BD COPs, with potential connections further afield to initiatives such as the G20 Summit and regional climate weeks.

• Gobeshona conferences - Gobeshona is the bangla word for research and this conference, led by the International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), provides an opportunity for scholars, policymakers, researchers and practitioners across the world to share their research, knowledge, expertise and experience on climate change.
   
• The community-based adaptation conference is a space for the adaptation community to share lessons on community-based and locally led adaptation systems, and to explore how to put the LLA principles into practice, recognising the complexities, innovations and challenges that must be overcome. 
  
  With a focus on acquiring new skills, sharing experiences and connecting with peers, the conference offers participants four days of discussion, debate, peer-to-peer ‘skill-shares’ and knowledge exchange, through an innovative, dynamic and interactive space, enabling participants to promote climate action.
   
• D&C Days, held during the climate COP, provide a space for the LLA community of practice to bring the outcomes from the Gobeshona, CBA and other events to the policymakers at COP as well as advocate for more organisations to endorse the LLA principles.

Our other activities under the LLA learning journey include:

• Creating a growing repository of LLA resources and tools to support the LLA community of practice in implementing the LLA principles
• Training and mentoring of practitioners on LLA principles and best practices, and
• Creating a stronger and more vibrant community of LLA practitioners, connecting them through informal platforms such as weADAPT.

Additional resources

Insight: Locally led adaption to climate change: the start of a 10-year learning journey, Saleemul Huq, Clare Shakya (January 2021)

D&C Days at 20: Ambition, action, resilience, Evan Easton-Calabria (2023), IIED report