Abstract

This side event will explore how locally led solutions can drive system-wide resilience and address loss and damage in climate-vulnerable countries. Drawing on evidence from the ALL ACT and ASPIRE programmes, it will highlight how linking anticipatory social protection, community-driven infrastructure, and resilient planning delivers high returns, saving up to five times in avoided losses while strengthening livelihoods and food security.

The discussion, co-convened by IIED, CDRI and partners, will bring together government leaders, development finance institutions, and civil society to share experiences from Somalia, Senegal, Brazil, and Bangladesh, and outline pathways to scale through the DRI Action Agenda and the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD). The event will conclude with a joint commitment to advance a locally led, inclusive, and finance-ready roadmap for resilient infrastructure and loss and damage solutions across LDCs and SIDS.

1. Background

Climate change is driving escalating economic and human losses, particularly across Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), where fragile infrastructure, weak social protection systems, and limited fiscal space amplify vulnerability. Communities at the frontline of climate risks are often the first to experience loss and damage. Yet also the first to innovate local solutions that protect lives, livelihoods, and essential services. Strengthening these locally led solutions and linking them to national and international financing systems is critical to building long-term resilience.

The ALL ACT programme, working across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, demonstrates how community-driven infrastructure investments such as climate-resilient roads, embankments, water systems, and public facilities can deliver rapid protection, enhance adaptive capacity, and reduce the scale of loss and damage. These interventions are low-cost, inclusive, and rooted in local knowledge, yet their success depends on access to predictable finance and integration within broader planning and delivery systems.

Evidence from the ASPIRE (Anticipatory Social Protection Index for Resilience) diagnostic across eight countries and 24 social protection programmes shows that linking anticipatory and resilience-building social protection with local infrastructure investment is both cost-effective and transformative. Every US$1 invested in anticipatory and resilience action saves between US$2 and US$5 in avoided losses, while strengthening food security, social cohesion, and productivity. When combined with climate-resilient infrastructure, such systems can protect households and local economies before crises escalate, turning vulnerability into opportunity.

This session will explore how locally led approaches can complement national loss and damage strategies and the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD). It will highlight lessons from countries such as India, Somalia and Senegal, where local networks are rebuilding community infrastructure while integrating early warning, social protection, and local governance mechanisms. The discussion will also showcase innovations from India, Brazil, and Nepal, where governments and civil society are embedding resilience into national systems through inclusive, gender responsive infrastructure design and participatory delivery models.

2. Key objectives of the event and session focus

The session will bring together government representatives, NGOs and institutional partners including CDRI, IIED, and members of the ALL ACT network to discuss three central questions:

• 1. How can locally led solutions reduce loss and damage and strengthen anticipatory systems?
• 2. What governance, policy, and financing mechanisms are needed to scale these approaches nationally and link them with the FRLD and other climate funds?
• 3. How can partnerships between governments, MDBs, and local organizations unlock sustainable investment for locally led resilient infrastructure?

By combining local innovation with institutional support, this dialogue aims to chart a pathway for locally led, system-wide resilience, where communities are not just beneficiaries of adaptation, but key architects of resilient infrastructure that safeguards lives, livelihoods, and economies in an era of escalating climate risk. Through the discussion we will aim to achieve the following:

• • Build consensus on how locally led investments can serve as a cornerstone of national strategies for addressing loss and damage, complementing the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) and other financing mechanisms.
• • Identify practical models for linking anticipatory social protection systems with resilient infrastructure development, based on evidence from the ASPIRE diagnostics and lessons from ALL ACT partner countries.
• • Identify options for scaling locally led infrastructure finance, including through national adaptation plans, subnational investment pipelines, and blended finance arrangements that mobilise public, private, and philanthropic capital.
• • Strengthen collaboration between governments, local organisations, and global partners such as CDRI, IIED, and regional networks, to integrate the DRI Action Agenda with locally led adaptation and loss and damage frameworks.

It will conclude with an agreement to develop a joint roadmap or learning platform under the ALL ACT–CDRI partnership to document best practices, inform future proposals to the FRLD, and support replication across LDCs and SIDS

3. Agenda

• 1. Welcome and opening (5 min)
  • Suchismita Mukhopadhyay, Lead Specialist – Advocacy, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)
  o Welcome participants and introduce the session’s integrated approach and present the DRI Action Agenda as a key initiative to strengthen infrastructure resilience and collaboration.
• 2. Evidence and framing (5 min)
  • Ritu Bharadwaj, Director – Climate Resilience, Finance and Loss & Damage / ALL ACT, IIED
  o Presentation of findings from the ASPIRE economic assessment showing the cost-effectiveness of anticipatory and resilience-building actions, and how these can reduce loss and damage while advancing inclusive adaptation.
• 3. Release of the ASPIRE Economic Analysis Report – Climate resilience through social protection: the economic case for early action
• 4. High-level and country perspectives panel: Building resilient futures (30 min)
  Purpose: Explore how locally led actions are reducing loss and damage, strengthening systems, and scaling national responses.
  Panellists:
  
  • • H.E. Ruleta Camacho Thomas, Climate Ambassador, Government of Antigua and Barbuda
    o Aligning resilience and debt reform with loss and damage action in SIDS.
  • • Gillian Martin MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, The Scottish Government
    o How early action through social protection can be embedded into climate justice and international cooperation efforts.
  • • Abdihakim Ainte, Director, Food Security and Climate Change, Prime Minister’s Office, Somalia
    o Linking social protection, infrastructure, and early warning to address loss and damage.
  • • Emmanuel Seck, Director, Enda Energie, Senegal
    o Civil society partnerships and inclusive approaches to local resilience.
  • • Emiliano Milanez Graziano da Silva, Instituto Fome Zero (IFZ), Brazil
    o Community-driven innovations for food security and resilience.
• 5. Financing, partnerships, and policy enablers (30 min)
  Purpose: Discuss how innovative financing, institutional partnerships, and enabling policy frameworks can scale locally led resilient infrastructure.
  Panellists:
  
  • • Annika Otterstedt, Deputy Director General, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
    o Donor priorities for scaling local action.
  • • Jihyea Kim, Programming and Country Engagement Lead, Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage
    o How community-driven solutions could feed into country pipelines and funding readiness.
  • • Valerie Herzog, Climate Change Specialist, OPEC Fund
    o Innovative finance models and partnerships for resilience.
  • • Harj Narulla, Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers, London
    o Legal and rights-based approaches for locally led inclusive resilience.
  • • Bhim Adhikari, Senior Program Specialist, IDRC
    o Evidence and learning to inform national and global resilience finance.
• 6. Summary and way forward (5 min)
  • Tom Mitchell, Executive Director, IIED