BACKGROUND:

Climate change threats constitute one of the major challenges to achieving sustainable development
(World Bank, 2014). Building capacity to adapt to climate change is and will remain one of the most
important and complex challenges we are facing. A critical component of this challenge revolves around
knowledge to inform effective climate action.

Practitioners and decision makers are in constant need of quality information to address climate change
impacts and devise effective adaptation action. National and local researchers and research institutions
in developing countries have a large role to play in this effort (Naess, 2012).

Adaptation to climate change however requires new approaches, knowledge, data and information.
Countries have repeatedly express their concern highlighting that, even if the number of studies and
literature on adaptation to climate change has increased in the last years (Haunschild et al 2016), there
are still knowledge gaps, lack of access to locally usable knowledge, absence of appropriate tools and
methods on how to identify and use policy relevant information, and/or a lack of a long-term view to
build the capacity of local researchers to create policy relevant and evidence based knowledge on the
topic.

In particular, a compelling case has been made that the reliance on climate science alone is likely to
Photo by: ASTRID RENDÓN O´CÁDIZ
prove insufficient (Ishikawa & Nishioka, 2017). Useful knowledge will emerge from systematic
collaboration between climate and environmental scientists on one side, and social scientists on the
other.

At COP20 in Lima, Peru, the UN Climate Secretariat (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UN Environment) partnered to run the Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative (LAKI)
(endorsed in 2014) by bringing together different stakeholders to identify knowledge barriers and areas
of vulnerabilities that impede the implementation and scaling up of adaptation action across regions
and sub regions.

The first phase of the LAKI identified 85 priority knowledge gaps in 6 sub-regions (Andean, Western Asia,
North Africa, Hindu Kush Himalaya, Indian Ocean island countries, and Southern Africa), covering 38
countries. Of the priority gaps identified, 24 were related to knowledge on agriculture, 28% of the total.
These gaps include the lack of actionable knowledge on the sensitivity of agro-ecological zones,
appropriate climate risk management, and climate-smart agriculture.

For the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain
Development (ICIMOD), UNFCCC and UN Environment, jointly identified the following gaps for
agriculture:

• Access to adequate locally usable knowledge and information on weather and seasonal
forecasting to assist farm production operations

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 • Inadequate information and knowledge on adaptation options and technologies suitable to
addressing context-specific climate extremes, impact and risks for agriculture, and the net effect
of climate change at the local level
• Limited access to traditional knowledge and indigenous knowledge on agricultural adaptation
between climate negotiators, policy makers, farmers and researchers.

Closing knowledge gaps on agriculture in the region is an opportunity to experiment with new
approaches to produce policy relevant knowledge that brings together a social and natural science
perspectives, as well as new institutional arrangements that can support such efforts.

NEXT STEPS TO CLOSE PRIORITY KNOWLEDGE GAPS IN THE REGION : FORMING A NEW
CONSORTIUM

The Global Development Network was created by World Bank in 1999, with the goal to boost the
capacity of developing countries to produce the quality social science knowledge needed to inform local
development debates and policies; strengthen the production and use of data for development; and
contribute to linking – through globally connected local research - local and global debates on how to
overcome development challenges. Today, as an independent international public organization based in
New Delhi, India. In light of the Sustainable Development Goals and the growing awareness on the
importance of local, interdisciplinary research to support effective adaption to climate change as part of
broader development efforts, GDN’s mission remains salient.

The Global Development Network (GDN), as a partner of the Nairobi work programme, and in
collaboration with the UNFCCC secretariat and UN Environment, convenes a roundtable gathering
experts, stakeholders and key institutions working on social science and climate/agricultural science in
the region to discuss the way forward to close the priority knowledge gaps in agriculture identified by
the first phase of the LAKI.

In particular, GDN proposes to form and coordinate an interdisciplinary consortium of key research
institutions to accelerate and upgrade current efforts to close the priority knowledge gaps in agriculture
in the region. The ultimate goal of the consortium would be to close the identified knowledge gaps and
ensuring that agricultural research on the topic in the region integrates a strong social science angle of
direct policy relevance, identifies a clear policy challenge that it aims to contribute to, and that member
institutions have access to resources and tools needed to carry out interdisciplinary projects. The
consortium would also offer a stronger platform for:

- Fundraising and managing funds/grants specifically dedicated to closing the knowledge gaps
identified by the LAKI in its first phase.

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 - Pooling intellectual and institutional resources, included in terms of cross-mentoring, joint
projects and policy outreach, to stimulate a demand for the research produced, and
contributing towards the work of the NWP, as an existing knowledge hub by establishing a
knowledge engagement platform that can become a reference also for policy actors; To build
the capacity of younger or smaller research institutions in the region to develop high-level,
multidisciplinary, policy relevant research on agriculture;

Members of the consortium will fundraise together and will be able to access research support as well
as research grants, setting a new model for mobilizing resources and research capacities locally to close
knowledge gaps identified by the LAKI in its first phase.

OBJECTIVES OF THE EVENT:

• Provide a background and key information on the Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative and the
Priority Knowledge Gaps for the Hindu Kush Himalayan region

• Discuss the creation of an interdisciplinary consortium. This consortium will be created with the
following objectives:

a) identify and map key institutions working on social science and climate/agricultural
science in the region

b) identify and map multidisciplinary research results/knowledge products already

available with the members that bridge the identified knowledge gap(s) and work
towards ‘repackaging’ for easy access by the relevant stakeholders, particularly ‘the
Parties’ from the UNFCCC

c) develop a new multidisciplinary research and knowledge agenda that can support
closing the knowledge gaps

d) create a committee or board that ensures that the new research produced is high-
quality, policy relevant and multidisciplinary (includes social and hard-science
perspectives)

e) support members to package existing scientific knowledge in a form that is easily

communicable and understood by the key stakeholders, and/or to build their
capacity to better communicate new research

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• Discuss the concrete next steps for the creation of this consortium, such as:

o What would be the mission, objectives and scope of the consortium?

o What type of collaboration we would have within the consortium?
o Which organizations should be part of the consortium (roles and responsibilities)?
o What type of financial requirements the consortium would have? How can we fundraise
together to achieve this?

• Submit a joint action pledge to the Nairobi Work Programme

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DRAFT AGENDA

Time Presentation Speaker

Welcome remarks Pierre Jacquet, President, Global Development

13:30-13:35
Network

What is the Lima Adaptation Livia Hollins, Associate Programme Officer,

13:35-14:00 Knowledge Initiative? United Nations. Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Priority Knowledge Gaps for the Dhrupad Choudhury, Regional Programme

Hindu Kush Himalayan region Manager Adaptation to Change & Senior
14:00-14:20 Livelihood and Adaptation Specialist,
International Centre for Integrated Mountain
Development (ICIMOD)

Knowledge leadership and

climate finance: how to close Chandan Bhavnani, Executive Vice President,
14:20-14:40
knowledge gaps and accelerate Responsible Banking, YES Bank,
climate action in the region

14:40-15:00 Coffee break

Roundtable: Forming an Moderator:

15:00-16:30 interdisciplinary consortium of Francesco Obino, Head of Programmes, Global
research institutions Development Network

Arianna Flores Corral, Fellow on Climate

Conclusions and Next Steps Change & Education for Sustainable
16:30-17:00
Development & Blog Manager, Global
Development Network

17:00-17:30 High Tea

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MAIN OUTPUTS:

❖ A regional consortium of experts and organisations working on developing policy-relevant

knowledge on agriculture and committed to coordinate to promote knowledge already
available, enhance agricultural research project to include social science dimensions that might
prove critical to inform more effective adaptation, and to develop new knowledge as a strategy
to support the NWP during the second phase of the LAKI to close knowledge gaps identified on
agriculture.

❖ A joint action pledge that will be submitted to the Nairobi Work Programme

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PARTICIPANTS:

Arianna Flores Corral, Climate Change & Education for Sustainable Development Fellow and
GlobalDev Blog Manager, aflores@gdn.int

Chandan Bhavnani, Executive Vice President, Responsible Banking, YES Bank,

chandan.bhavnani@yesbank.in

Deepak Chamola, Technical Expert, Umbrella Programme for Natural Resource Management
(UPNRM), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH,
deepak.chamola@giz.de

Dhrupad Choudhury, Regional Programme Manager Adaptation to Change & Senior Livelihood
and Adaptation Specialist, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
(ICIMOD), Dhrupad.Choudhury@icimod.org

Francesco Obino, Head of Programmes, Global Development Network, fobino@gdn.int

Ganesh Gorti, Research Associate on Climate Change Adaptation and Governance, The Energy
and Resources Institute (TERI), Ganesh.Gorti@teri.res.in

Gaston Meskens, Lecturer, Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, University of Ghent,
gaston.meskens@theacademia.org

Kallur Subrammanyam Murali, Senior Program Officer, International Development Research

Centre, kmurali@idrc.ca

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Livia Hollins, Associate Programme Officer, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC), LHollins@unfccc.int

Madhuri Dass, Head of Communications, Global Development Network, mdass@gdn.int

Matthew Hammill, Economist and Development Specialist, Subregional Office for South and
South-West Asia, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(ESCAP-SSWA), hammill@un.org

Mustapha El Hamzaoui, Director, Food Security Office, United States Agency for International
Development (USAID India), melhamzaoui@usaid.gov

Nafees Meah, Country Representative for South Asia, International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI), n.meah@irri.org

Neha Bansal, Department for International Development (DFID) Asia Regional Team, n-
bansal@dfid.gov.uk

Pierre Bertrand, Senior Programme Associate, Global Development Network,

pbertrand@gdn.int

Pierre Jacquet, President, Global Development Network, pjacquet@gdn.int

Priti Kumar, Senior Agriculture Specialist, World Bank India, pkumar2@worldbank.org

Raghavendra Naduvinamani, Project Analyst, Asian Development Bank (ADB),

rnaduvinamani@adb.org

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Ram Boojh, National Programme Officer, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), r.boojh@unesco.org

Ramona Angelescu Naqvi, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Global Development Network,

rangelescu@gdn.int

Suruchi Bhadwal, Senior Fellow, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI),
suruchib@teri.res.in

UnniKrishnan Divakaran Nair, Sr. Technical Advisor, Umbrella Programme for Natural Resource
Management (UPNRM), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH,
unnikrishnan.divakaran@giz.de