Increasing climate resilience in ASEAN cities through inclusive Nature-based Solutions

Cities in the ASEAN region are growing. What for a long time has been seen to stand for a positive development and increasing human wellbeing might be at a turning point due to the increasing risks that cities are, and will be, exposed to from climate change. However, cities’ inhabitants are not impacted equally. Various factors including poverty, inequality and the lack of access to basic services, play a significant role in shaping the vulnerability of individuals and specific groups within the urban population, heightening their susceptibility to climate risks. Gender is found to be an important determinant of vulnerability due to, among others, being intertwined with many socio-economic factors contributing to higher vulnerability. The resilience of groups in vulnerable situations to climate risks, including women and girls, can be increased substantially if adaptation measures are conceptualized, designed,and planned in an inclusive way. Ideally, these measures not only incorporate the adaptation to climate risks, but lead to an overall sustainable urban development with better and safer infrastructure solutions for all.

This paper investigates the potential of inclusive Nature-based Solutions (NbS) projects to increase the resilience of ASEAN cities to climate-related risks, while empowering people in vulnerable situations. NbS have increasingly gained attention over the last decades in the field of climate change adaptation, due to their potential to address climate risks while providing important economic, social, and biodiversity benefits, often in a cost-effective way. The paper investigates key aspects of NbS projects aiming at empowering women and other people in vulnerable situations. The role of targeted analyses, participatory processes, inclusive NbS design, and of income generating activities and capacity building are explored in more detail, and important entry points for mainstreaming inclusive NbS in urban settings are explored.