IDRC is a pioneer and key funder of research on climate change adaptation in developing countries. The Centre has managed more than CA$190 million in programming in this emerging field since 2006, the year that “adaptation” first appeared on the COP agenda. Over the past decade, IDRC has strengthened research capacity for 165+ institutions and supported 1000+ researchers from more than 70 developing countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
The IDRC Climate Change program (2015-2019) funds research to find and test solutions to climate change in cities, leads innovations in private sector financing for adaptation, and supports four large, multi-country, and interdisciplinary research consortia through the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) – a jointly funded initiative between IDRC and the UK Department for International Development (DfID). These four consortia are working in climate change hot-spots across Africa and Asia, including Himalayan glacier-fed watersheds, major river deltas, and semi-arid regions. The field of adaptation research has rapidly evolved over the last ten years, as has IDRC’s programming on this topic:
The Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) program (2006-2012) was a joint initiative with the UK Department for International Development (DfID), focused on participatory action research and community based adaptation.
The Climate Change and Water (CCW) program (2010-2015) focused on inter-disciplinary research including an emphasis on natural sciences and economics of adaptation, and covered a range of geographies such as coastal regions, mountainous areas, cities, and drylands.
Through a partnership with the Government of Canada, CA$37.5 million in Fast-Start Climate Finance (2011-2014) supported adaptation research centres in identifying and/or testing adaptation solutions.
The International Research Initiative on Adaptation to Climate Change (IRIACC) (2011-2015) was jointly funded between IDRC and the Tri-Council and aimed to help vulnerable populations in Canada and in developing countries
adapt to climate change