IIED and ICCCAD along with its partners have organised a series of international conferences on community-based adaptation (CBA) to enable practitioners, governments and donors to share latest developments and best practice.
Community-based adaptation to climate change (CBA) focuses on empowering communities to use their own knowledge and decision-making processes to take action on climate change.
The CBA conferences aim to:
- Share and consolidate the latest developments in CBA best practice, policy and theory across different sectors and countries
- Strengthen existing networks of practitioners, policymakers, planners and donors working on CBA at all levels, and
- Enhance the capacity of practitioners, governments and donors to help those most vulnerable to climate change.
The 11th conference will be in Kampala, Uganda in June 2017.
This page provides a summary of CBA conferences to date. The video below, and on IIED’s YouTube channel, illustrating some key quotes and images from the 10 conferences since January 2005.
CBA10: Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2016
The focus of the 10th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation was ‘enhancing urban community resilience’. It concluded with a call for governments, NGOs and infrastructure investors to work with urban community federations to mainstream and finance local adaptation.
CBA9: Nairobi, Kenya, 2015
The 9th International Conference on CBA focused on ‘Measuring and enhancing effective adaptation’. The conference concluded with the release of the Nairobi Declaration on community-based adaptation to climate change, which calls for developed nations to step up support for vulnerable countries as they work to meet ambitious goals for climate change adaptation.
CBA8: Kathmandu, Nepal, 2014
The 8th international CBA conference was themed ‘Financing local adaptation’. Over 400 people from more than 60 countries attended. The conference concluded with the launch of the Kathmandu Declaration on financing local adaptation, which calls for a radical shift in finance flows to ensure the most vulnerable communities can adapt to climate change.
CBA7: Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2013
CBA7 focused on ‘Mainstreaming CBA into national and local planning‘. The conference closing session featured a video address by Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, as well as speeches by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland; Camilla Toulmin, director of IIED; and Pauline Tamesis, country director, UNDP Bangladesh.
CBA6: Hanoi, Vietnam, 2012
The theme of CBA6 was ‘Communicating CBA‘. The conference featured a variety of communications-related sessions on topics such as blogging, working with the media, photo storytelling, using games to communicate risk, and tools for working with children. Another focus was outreach, with live interviews broadcast online each day and delegates writing almost 30 blog posts and nearly 2,000 tweets.
CBA5: Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2011
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stressed the importance of mutual learning when she gave the opening address at CBA5 in Dhaka on 28 March 2011. The conference theme was “Scaling up: beyond pilots”, emphasising the need to spread CBA knowledge across communities and also vertically across levels of governance and action.
CBA4: Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, 2010
The 4th international CBA conference was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and focused on sharing the latest developments in CBA practices, particularly work in vulnerable communities. Participants set up numerous working groups and agreed to develop the Global Initiative on Community-Based Adaptation (GICBA), a network which seeks to support CBA-related activities by through knowledge-sharing.
CBA3: Dhaka, Bangladesh 2009
Delegates to CBA3 agreed to set up a new initiative to share best practice on climate change adaptation. The conference in Dhaka brought together more than 140 people from 50 countries, and the conference programme featured some 60 presentations on the latest developments in CBA practice.
CBA2: Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2007
The 2nd international CBA conference featured three days of technical sessions and interactive discussions as well as field visits to four different locations in Bangladesh, including flood and drought-prone regions. Technical sessions addressed agriculture, drought, food security, extreme events, health, mainstreaming and partnership, and communication and knowledge.
CBA1: Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2005
More than 80 experts, policymakers, NGO representatives and grassroots practitioners attended the 1st International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation. The main aim of this first meeting was to define the concept of CBA and to find ways of gaining acceptance for it.