Climate change is one of the major threats to sustainable urban development in Asia, given exposure to significant climate risks, high population and rapid urbanization. Local governments are the frontline responders to impacts of climate change, being the level of government closest to affected communities. In spite of undertaking different actions to respond to and adapt to the impacts of climate change, local government officials sometimes lack relevant knowledge and capacity to plan and implement inclusive climate change adaptation action.

This project aims to identify the technical knowledge and capacity needs that local governments require to support inclusive climate action, and to address these needs through a responsive capacity-strengthening program. The project will support capacity strengthening for up to a total of 240 participants from local governments and climate practitioners identified from 15 cities in each of the four target countries: the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal and Bangladesh. Capacity strengthening will be delivered through tailored, interactive online and offline training events and peer-exchange sessions. The project will also develop an internship opportunity designed to strengthen the capacity of up to 60 young professionals from underrepresented groups (including women) to contribute to local adaptation planning and decision making. To ensure broader reach and future use of project outputs, the team will engage relevant national institutions and make use of strategic networks to advance opportunities for institutionalization and sharing of capacity-strengthening modules, tools and training materials.