The 4th Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum will assist participants from all levels of government, in business and society become more effective in addressing the challenges of development in a changing climate through critical reflection on the roles of actors involved and how new partnerships for resilient development can be secured.
The Asia Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forums are among the biggest climate adaptation events in the region. Three previous Adaptation Forums have been co-organised by the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) since 2010.
A focus on adaptation actors
The 4th forum will focus on adaptation actors and how they collaborate to form partnerships and networks. Actors are individuals, organisations or networks that participate in decision-making and action-taking related to adaptation to climate change. Actors in adaptation can influence agendas and activities in many ways all the way from lobbying or advising through to creating and following rules, norms and procedures.
Some actors have authority, influence or power, whereas others have much less over the ways in which adaptation is pursued in development. The effects of actors on the pursuit of successful adaptation can be both positive and negative.State actors typically claim legitimacy to act on behalf of their constituencies and sometimes make substantial efforts to enable adaptation to climate change. Non-state actors – civil society organisations and businesses – also can make critical contributions to adaptation.
Actors are important at local, national and international scales. At the international level, for example, are various intergovernmental organisations. Scientific networks operate at several scales and may contain members from both public and private bodies. Business associations have roles within and among countries. Local actors are usually critical for success of adaptation policies and programs in particular places.
Important cross-cutting questions about actors that will be addressed in the forum include:
What are the roles of state and non-state actors in adaptation?
What are the barriers to different actors’ involvement and how can these be addressed?
What knowledge do different actors use?
How do different actors exercise agency or have influence on decisions and actions?
What types of collaborations and partnerships amongst different kinds of actors are important to successful adaptation?
What are the features of effective multi-stakeholder adaptation processes?
How can different actors effectively include gender responsiveness in adaptation practices?
Conference themes
To help address the general questions about adaptation actors in a way that can be useful for practice the 4th Adaptation Forum will be organised around the following five themes:
Mainstreaming and Transformative Change: policy; trade and finance; technology/knowledge transfer; public –private partnerships; ethics and values; gender sensitive development; community involvement; poverty alleviation
Development and the Food-Water-Energy Nexus: agricultural land; water-use; water resources; infrastructure/reconstruction; private investment; energy/water/food security
Disaster Risk Reduction and human security: loss and damage; insurance; risk communication; risk management and adaptation; reconstruction; health; conflict; migration; poor and vulnerable groups.
Forestry, Biodiversity and Ecosystems Change: livelihoods; traditional ecological knowledge; conservation; community-based and ecosystem-based adaptation
Cities with an emphasis on coastal Development and Sea-Level Rise: urbanisation, tourism; heat waves; mangrove protection; sea-level rise and SIDS
Participating in the 4th Adaptation Forum
There are many ways to participate in the forum: as a speaker, as a booth holder in the market place, as an attentive and questioning member of the audience, and by sharing your views in a briefing note.
Speakers
As in previous events speakers in parallel panels will be a mixture of invited speakers identified by the organizers of individual panels and the Forum, and a selection of individuals drawn from the open call for speakers.To express your interest in being a speaker in a panel register and submit an ‘abstract’ summarizing in 200-500 words the key points of your proposed presentation. You may include 1 figure or table. Identify which panel your contribution fits most closely.
See information below on Session Formats for guidance on how to prepare your talk.
Listeners and writers
Individuals who would like to participate in the event but do not wish to make a formal presentation in a panel are also encouraged to contribute submitting briefing note about their work. All briefing notes will be reviewed and as long as are appropriate to themes of conference, be included in an electronic document for distribution to all participants. This is a good way to tell others about your work and interests in adaptation.
Session organizers
Organizations interested in sponsoring and taking the lead in organizing a particular panel session should approach the organizers. The titles and guiding questions in the current draft of the programme are to be intended as a guide and can be adjusted in negotiation with the overall conference organizers.
For any inquiries, please contact the Forum 2014 Secretariat at
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
