Findings and Recommendations

This page includes a summary of the project’s research findings of the impacts and resilience strategies already in use, and projects recommendations for building climate resilience for women, older people, people with disabilities in Eastern Indonesia.

This is for policy makers for Government and policy makers, Non-Government organisations and Community Leaders to strengthen adaptive capacity and sustainable livelihoods.

1. The Findings

Climate Change Intersectional Impacts

The research found significant gaps in the inclusion of older adults, people with disabilities, and women in climate policy-making processes within Eastern Indonesia. Despite their disproportionate vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, these communities have been largely excluded from decision-making forums and policy discussions. .

These intersectional vulnerabilities manifest in these ways:

• Livelihood disruptions bring economic hardship: Extreme weather events disrupt the agricultural and fishing livelihoods of these groups, leading to water scarcity, food insecurity, and reduced incomes. This exacerbates poverty and cycles of debt.
• Gender Impacts: Women in general, including women with disabilities and older women, face heightened challenges in accessing water for domestic and agricultural use, further burdening their caretaking responsibilities. Women also experience increased gender-based violence during climate-induced crises.
• Health and Wellbeing: Older individuals, people with disabilities and women are more susceptible to climate-related health issues (cough, cold, headache, etc), while economic hardship leads to mental health challenges like stress, anxiety, and depression.
• Accessibility Barriers: Inaccessible climate information and disaster response efforts compromise the safety and inclusion of people with disabilities, older people and women during climate-related emergencies.
• Intersecting Inequalities: Existing socioeconomic, political, and gender inequalities amplify the vulnerabilities of these vulnerable groups, limiting their access to resources, support, and decision-making processes.

Climate Change Intersectional Resilience Strategies

To mitigate these intersectional climate change impacts, people in Eastern Indonesia have developed various resilience strategies:

• Livelihood Diversification: Combining an ‘on Farm and off Farm’ diversification strategy: Combining farming with livestock rearing and alternative income sources like Ikat weaving, production and selling of food products e.g. Cassava crackers, fried tuna floss, seaweed crackers, tomato sauce, and opening a small shop help to buffer against climate-induced livelihood disruptions.
• Utilization of Traditional Knowledge: Older adults' ecological and cultural knowledge informs adaptive agricultural, fishing practices and traditional-based health practices; older women pass down Ikat Weaving knowledge to younger women, contributing to community resilience.
• Borrowing money: Funds borrowed from social networks (family members, relatives, and neighbours) and financial institutions (cooperatives, moneylenders with higher interest rates, and banks) is a coping mechanism that represents collaboration and support for each other. However, it often traps many in a cycle of debt when funds are borrowed from moneylenders.
• Reliance on Faith and Spiritual Practices: Shared cultural and religious beliefs and practices in mosques and churches provide essential sources of individual and family strength, community support, and collective coping mechanisms.
• Grassroots Advocacy: Community-based organisations empower these vulnerable communities to assert their rights and access essential resources for building climate resilience, e.g. the Village People with Disability Group (KDD). These platforms provide a valuable channel for people with disabilities to voice their needs and assert their rights within local governance structures.
• Drip Irrigation System for Climate smart Agricultural Practice: Drip irrigation systems offer an inclusive, climate-smart agricultural solution that can enhance the resilience of women, people with disabilities, and older adults. By reducing water consumption, physical labor, and improving accessibility, the introduction of drip irrigation can empower these marginalised groups, safeguard their livelihoods, and promote sustainable agricultural practices in the face of climate change.

Region-specific Impact and Resilience Strategies

Region-specific insights highlight how these intersectional resilience strategies play out:

Kupang:

• Ikat weaving, a traditional textile craft in the region, is a livelihood diversification strategy for women, including older women and women with disabilities and, has become a key source of supplementary income for women whose agricultural livelihoods have been disrupted by climate-induced challenges, such as crop failures.
• Grassroots advocacy for people with disabilities through the Village People with Disability Group (Kelompok Difabel Desa/KDD), has enabled:

1. Assertion of their rights and secure access to essential support and resources for adapting to climate change impacts.
2. Participation in local decision-making processes to ensure their perspectives inform climate adaptation planning.
3. Strengthening of community networks and solidarity, enhancing their collective capacity to navigate climate challenges.

• Adopting drip irrigation systems has become a key climate-smart agricultural practice in Kupang to enhance community resilience.

Lombok:

• The advanced age, health issues, and physical limitations of older individuals with disabilities intersect to create unique challenges in coping with extreme weather events, which often go overlooked. Older people persist in working actively because they cannot and do not want to rely on their children and family to survive.
• Older women farmers save money to improve their livelihood, such as purchasing a water pump to water their agricultural land during long drought and purchasing better seeds after several harvest cycles.
• Some older women collect rainwater for emergencies (for laundry and washing dishes).
• With advocacy by a local NGO focused on conservation, a fishing community takes collective action, especially for (i) coral conservation, (ii) improved earnings by harvesting octopuses every 3 months while the recovery time of coral and data-base-collection of octopus catches for better selling to collectors/exporters, and (iii) tourism at the beaches, including cafes, cleaning beach program, etc.
• Collective initiatives by smallholder farmers and fishermen, such as forming and legalising their groups. As a farmer group, they can access subsidised fertiliser and other assistance from the government at the national and local levels. As a fishing group, they can access assistance (fishing gear, boat, training, etc.) from the local government at the regency and provincial levels.

Makassar:

• Traditional ecological knowledge passed among Makassar communities (e.g., weather prediction to fishing practice, stilted houses etc) informs adaptive strategies in agriculture and fishing, contributing significantly to community resilience.
• Diversification of fishing products through small/medium enterprises and tourism-related activities.

2: Recommendations

The project recommendations to enhancing climate resilience of vulnerable communities in Eastern Indonesia are:

For Government and Policymakers

• Include older adults, people with disabilities and women in climate policy development: Ensure that older people, people with disabilities and women are actively included in climate resilience planning and policy-making processes, ensure their voices and experiences inform policies that directly affect their livelihood, health and wellbeing. For example, integrate the input of women, people with disabilities, and older people to develop more inclusive early warning systems, evacuation plans, and emergency response protocols that cater to their specific requirements.
• Empower and strengthen community-based initiatives employed by these vulnerable communities for sustainable incomes. They include access to capital loans, marketing assistance, community support networks, training for business development and marketing skills (packaging, marketing, and distribution), and fostering equitable access to markets and other support systems.
• Develop innovative and inclusive financial products and services tailored to enhance their resilience for sustainable livelihood.
• Enhance healthcare access and social protection for vulnerable communities, including free BPJS (health insurance) and social assistance, to improve their access to alternative climate-resilient livelihoods through diverse incomes.
• Incorporate cultural and religious aspects into initiatives for climate change adaptation, campaigning, and development to enhance vulnerable communities' inherent resilience and adaptability, including sharing their complaints related to mental illness.
• Support vulnerable group members as agents of change in their communities through integrated climate change education and activities in schools, religious institutions, and other community platforms to build climate resilience.
• Strengthen off-farm livelihood diversification, such as making and selling ikat weaving and food products as a resilience strategy, underscores the importance of supporting women's access to alternative, climate-resilient livelihoods. Investing in developing, marketing, and scaling up traditional crafts can empower vulnerable women to build more sustainable and adaptive livelihoods amid climate change.
• Provide targeted support for the widespread adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices to better safeguard livelihoods and food systems in the face of a changing climate.
• Improve accessibility of climate information by providing weather data and early warning systems in accessible formats, including large print, audio, and sign language. Partner with local communities to disseminate climate information through trusted channels.

For Non-Government Organisations

• Empower grassroots advocacy efforts.
• Facilitate climate change education and awareness-raising in religious institutions, community groups and schools.

For Community Leaders

• Ensure meaningful participation of vulnerable communities in climate resilience planning and implementation.
• Leverage faith, cultural, and spiritual practices to enhance collective resilience actions and strategies.
• Integrate climate change education across community institutions and groups.