1. Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA)
Research to Policy & Practice
CARIAA will work in three climate change hot spots in Africa and Asia to
Our overarching aim:
To develop robust evidence on how to increase the resilience of vulnerable populations in climate change hot spots in Africa and Asia.
Generate new knowledge
Promote research uptake
Strengthen adaptation expertise
CARIAA will fund 3 interdisciplinary research consortia with up to 5 members each.
Each consortium will be expected to include the different expertise required tackle the issues specific to their hot spot, probably bringing together institutions that have worked together before.
Since the investment is over several years, it will provide adequate time to conduct research within the hotspots and also analysis across the hotpots. It will also provide enough time for significant engagement with local communities in the research and develop solutions that work for them.
The relationships developed through this process of collective learning and knowledge co-creation around a shared agenda and the leadership from a strong institution in Africa or Asia should translate into increased avenues for impacts and also sustainable capacity to work on these issues.

2. Program Overview Partnership with DFID $70 million, ending 2019
Builds upon Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) program
CARIAA represents a joint investment by DFID and IDRC of 70 million in Canadian dollars over 7 years, ending in 2019.
It builds on a previous collaboration – the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa program, a $60 million project that lasted from This time we include both Africa and Asia. The graphic above features its final interactive report, which can be found on our website.

3. Hot Spot Approach Glacier-fed river basins Deltas Semi-arid regions
CARIAA aims to build the resilience of poor people to climate change by supporting a network of four consortia to conduct high-calibre research and policy engagement in three climate change hot spots in Africa and Asia: deltas, glacier-fed river basins, and semi-arid regions.
The concept of hot spots is intended to foster knowledge sharing, learning and collaboration across regional and political scales.
CARIAA has developed the hot spot approach through early research work, including the publication of a special issue of Regional Environmental Change including seven papers and an editorial on climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation policy and practice in the hot spots.
Semi-arid regions

4. Cross-Cutting Work & Entry Points for Program-Level Collaboration
Program Strategies
Knowledge management & Communications
Monitoring and evaluation
Stakeholder engagement
HI-AWARE
DECCMA
Cross-cutting Themes
Migration
Gender & equity
Economics
Climate science
Scenarios
ASSAR
PRISE
ENTRY POINTS FOR PROGRAM-LEVEL COLLABORATION
Beyond collaboration within consortia, CARIAA supports program-level collaboration across consortia and hot spots on relevant themes and strategies. At the program level, these cross-cutting themes and strategies provide entry points for program-level collaboration with similar initiatives. Some of these areas were identified early on in the call for consortia– namely gender and equity, climate science, and economics. Others, including migration and scenarios, and coordination of engagement efforts in countries where multiple consortia are working, emerged in discussion with consortia during the program’s inception phase.
To facilitate collaboration across consortia on these themes and strategies, CARIAA has set up thematic, strategic, and country groups with representation from consortia. Five ‘Country Groups’ represent locations where two or more consortia are working to ensure coordinated stakeholder engagement and explore opportunities for joint approaches and implementation. CARIAA has also just launched an internal “Opportunities and Synergies Fund” that will will provide additional financial support for emerging research-related activities that further collaboration across consortia and offer new opportunities to progress towards the programme’s overall objectives.
CARIAA encourages these working groups to connect with external initiatives to engage on themes, strategies, and countries of common interest. For example, a representative of the Future Climate for Africa Initiative participates in some meetings with the Climate Science working group. We encourage you to think about individuals and/or institutions in your networks who may be interested in connecting with CARIAA around these themes.
Countries
Ghana
India
Bangladesh
Pakistan

5. ASSAR aims to generate evidence on the responses that can lead to effective, widespread and sustained adaptation to climate change in semi-arid areas.
Effective - improves the wellbeing of the poor and vulnerable
Widespread - for many rather than few
Sustained - maintained to a high level over many years
ASSAR works across four SARs - Southern Africa (Namibia, Botswana, South Africa), West Africa (Ghana, Mali), East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda) and South Asia (India)

6. Research for climate resilient futures
PRISE aims to generate new knowledge about how economic development in semi-arid regions can be made more equitable and resilient to climate change. PRISE research targets semi-arid areas across six countries in Africa and Asia: Burkina Faso, Senegal, Tanzania, Kenya, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
PRISE’s overall research questions include:
What are the most effective ways of achieving climate resilient, equitable economic development in semi-arid lands (SALs)?
How do people, economies and the way they are governed interact to influence paths to climate resilient, equitable economic development in SALs?

7. Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE)
Contribution of glacier + snow melt to rivers
Shrinking of glaciers leads to increased streamflow (peak melt ± 2050 – 2070)
Shift in timing and increasing high precipitation events, monsoon variability
Increasing temperatures and heat extremes
Changes in the mountains impact people living downstream
IGB Basins highest incidence of poverty
Himalayan glaciers are sources of freshwater for 10 major rivers in Asia – a lifeline for 210 million people in the HKH region and
1.3 billion people downstream
These changes in the mountains impact people living downstream. Glacier retreat not only leads to a reduction in streamflow. A shift in timing of high precipitation events, falling as rain rather than snow, can lead to floods as well, as the Uttarakhand flood of 2013 showed.
If we come down from the mountains the same processes - higher temperatures and changing monsoon patterns - lead to different stresses: high rainfall events lead to local flooding, an increased frequency of dryspells during the monsoon affects agriculture, and increased temperatures affect health conditions of the poor, both in urban and rural areas.
HI-AWARE Impact: Enhanced adaptive capacities and climate resilience of the poor and vulnerable in the mountains and plains of the river basins of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region, through the development of robust evidence to inform people-centred and gender sensitive climate change adaptation policies and practices @hi_aware

8. DEltas, vulnerability, and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA)
Aims: To better understand in deltas:
1. Migration processes, including the role of climate change
2. Adaptation choices, with a focus on migration.
BUET
Jadavpur University
Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna Delta
Mahanadi Delta
Volta Delta
@deccma

9. A strategy for research-policy engagement across PRISE and HI-AWARE consortia
Specific objectives:
(i) To carry out policy mapping and analysis across the two regions (i.e. glacier-fed river basin and semi-arid lands) for synthesising  key findings of joint research activities
(ii) To moblise joint stakeholder mapping and engagement to improve collaboration and policy up-take across two geographical regions of PRISE and HI- AWARE in Pakistan
(iii) To devise RiU (Research In Use) strategy to carry the CARIAA message to different stakeholders. 

10. Probable Outputs
(i) Migration in mountain and Hill regions as adaptation options and probable policies to safe migration.
(ii) Policies on economising water and strategy to capacity building of water professionals to implement water use efficiency plans
(iii) Engaging with policy advocacy towards promoting adaptation options in the regions of water scarcity, cities and other regions of critical importance