As part of the CDKN project in South Asia, knowledge products on adaption practices have been developed in Bangladesh and Nepal.

The Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), Bangladesh has finalised an issue brief, ‘Adaptation Model Identifies Adaptation Requirements for Climate Risk Reduction’. The brief aims to help decision-makers to take the necessary developmental actions to meet adaptation and environmental policy targets, which would help millions of poor people living under the threat of climate change. It used a model to calculate the adaptation deficiency and the steps necessary to minimise the climate risk of coastal areas.

IWFM also organised a virtual Training of the Trainers workshop on the Evaluation of Adaptation Trials for Coastal Livelihoods in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta and its Upscaling to Climate Financing. Representatives from the county’s Planning Commission and activists involved in the UNDP’s National Adaptation Plan discussed the project outcomes, lessons learned, and its future prospects.

Meanwhile, the draft national policy brief on ‘Local Urban Resilience Plans Using Climate Adaptation Indicators: Development and Integration in National Planning Processes’, developed by ICLEI South Asia, has been shared with national and individual experts for review and comments. The policy brief aims to increase the involvement of local governments in Bangladesh in local climate resilience planning and its effective integration in the national planning process. It also envisages ways to assess local climate risks and vulnerabilities and showcases examples of available climate resilience-building tools that local governments can use.

In Nepal, Li-Bird has developed two Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices flyers (one and two) to share information with state and local level authorities, local farmer communities, and agriculture training institutes. The flyers are on the Zero Budget Natural Farming System (ZBNFS), an agricultural practice, and on the Farm Yard Manure (FYM), one of the most commonly used organic fertilisers in Nepal.

In another development, the Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) conducted a webinar on water management, in which it released a new policy-relevant knowledge product, Policy Perspective – Water and Development in South Asia. Dr. Bishnu Uprety, the chairperson of the Nepal government-run Policy Research Institute, released the publication and spoke on the need for research to be able to influence policy.