By Mihir R. Bhatt and Vishal Pathak, Issue 86 (Article 9), March 18, 2025

This edition of the Humanitarian Exchange, ‘Climate change adaptations in humanitarian programming’, aims to help answer this question by providing some examples of the work that humanitarian organisations are doing in response to the threat of climate change. Co-editors Paul Knox Clarke (Principal at the ADAPT Initiative and an expert on humanitarian system reform) and Mihir R. Bhatt (Director of the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, or AIDMI) present here a range of articles that encapsulate relevant interventions and learning. The choice of activities, organisations and locations is by no means representative, but the articles here do provide a broad overview of some of the ways that humanitarians are adapting their programming to take climate change considerations into account – and, taken together, they point to a number of emerging trends.

A distinct thread runs through the articles in this edition, of very strong community engagement, design and ownership of many of the climate-related programmes. The collection includes several examples of humanitarian agencies working to bring together local knowledge of environmental change and adaptation options with a more scientific understanding of climate change. A particularly interesting approach is that of the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI). Mihir R. Bhatt and Vishal Pathak explain AIDMI’s appreciative inquiry method to help communities (in this case, groups of women farmers) identify and augment ways of making agriculture more resilient to climate change. The AIDMI article also highlights some of the organisation’s work in urban areas to increase resilience to heatwaves – a reminder that climate change is as much an urban as a rural phenomenon.

Read full article: https://odihpn.org/publication/locally-led-actions-to-combat-the-impacts-of-heatwaves/

Read full publication: https://odihpn.org/magazine/climate-change-adaptations-in-humanitarian-programming/