Event

As part of an ongoing project funded by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research, APAN for which IGES operates the regional hub with AIT-UNEP RRC.AP, held a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) Meeting on 31 January 2011 at AIT Campus, Bangkok, Thailand.

The meeting reviewed the current status of training programmes/modules for agriculture sector and designs for conducting the TNA surveys 5 project countries namely Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Mongolia and Nepal with an aim to mainstream climate change adaptation concerns in the ongoing capacity building programs. Subsequent to this meeting, training modules will be drafted in a module design workshop tentatively planned in June/July 2011. These will be pilot tested and scaled-up to other countries and sectors in collaboration with various Network partners. The meeting had participants from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Mongolia and Nepal; faculty of AIT, and the staff of UNEP-ROAP, AIT-UNEP RRC.AP, USAID, and Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN), and IGES.

Key Messages

The key messages which emerged out of meeting are: 

1. Climate change adaptation is also an issue of capacity building and hence capacity building of key stakeholders is of paramount importance for promoting climate change adaptation in some of the most vulnerable sectors and countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Awareness generation and capacity building of policy makers is the key since they are crucial to bring change in the various government related processes and in the society at large.
2. There have already been several initiatives by various international and national agencies for training and capacity building of key stakeholders. Training and capacity building of various government staff and trainers in the region have been facilitated by both formalized systems consisting of induction and on-the job training programs and ad-hoc training programs that are conducted from time to time when resources are available. However, they are too few and inadequate in terms of their design and implementation.
3. Discussions have identified the presence of pilot training and capacity needs assessments for adaptation in some of the project countries. However, the nature and details of these training and capacity needs are not yet clear and have to be taken into consideration before making any further interventions in this area.
4. Formulation of draft training modules and pilot programs shouldn’t be seen as an end but only as a beginning for creating an enabling environment for engagement of different stakeholders. Active and coordinated engagement of national and local governments and other stakeholders is crucial to regularize training and capacity building programs in the Asia-Pacific region.
5. The Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network is well placed to play an important role as a facilitator to bring various stakeholders together and to initiate training needs assessment and formulation of draft training modules and pilot training programs for the most vulnerable sectors in the Asia-Pacific region. However, piloting and scaling up of these initiatives requires proactive participation of various stakeholders including the Governments, NGOs, national and local institutions and donor agencies.

Related Files

›› Proceedings Report