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The Project Challenge

Climate change is an immediate, existential threat to humanity. When facing the dangerous effects of climate change, not everyone is equal. Some people in some parts of the world are feeling the impacts of climate change more intensely and more devastatingly than others. In facing these challenges, there is evidence of tremendous strength, tenacity and community connection from the communities most affected by climate change. We know that governments and policymakers don’t always draw on the knowledge and expertise of vulnerable community members, such as women, those with disability or older people, when determining climate adaptation and disaster policies and practices.

Our research project was situated in one of the most climate vulnerable regions of the world, and worked in partnership with some of the most marginalised community members. We sought to share vulnerable community members’ understandings of how donors, funders, governments, policymakers, Non-Government organisations (NGOs) and researchers across Indonesia, Australia and the Indo-Pacific can enhance climate resilience, focusing on health, wellbeing, and future-proofing communities and environments.

Our challenge was to gather and share insights and a framework for understanding how to work in partnership with vulnerable community members to foster resilience in the face of a changing climate. We have created a Toolkit for Climate Resilience by Engaging Communities to help governments and policymakers to collaborate with and support vulnerable communities in enhancing their climate resilience.

Our project was based in Eastern Indonesia and focused on three particularly vulnerable groups: people with disability, women, and older people. Our research was located in Lombok, Makassar and Kupang in Eastern Indonesia, all severely affected by climate change.
Building resilience against climate change necessitates social, cultural, economic, and political change. We have created a Toolkit for Climate Resilience by Engaging Communities. It is based on strong partnerships we have built to support and understand the challenges faced by people with disability, diverse women, and older people in Lombok, Makassar, and Kupang.
By collaborating with Indonesian and Australian government and non-government organisations, we have developed inclusive and sustainable solutions to benefit the Indo-Pacific region.
Eastern Indonesia is particularly vulnerable to climate change with a high risk of extreme flooding, droughts and fierce heat. Lombok, Makassar, and Kupang especially are already experiencing increased intense rainfall, leading to water pollution, reduced food production, health problems and difficulties accessing healthcare.
Climate change impacts different communities unevenly, often affecting the most vulnerable more severely. Heat and flooding can increase illness, limit access to clean water and nutritious food, and reduce job opportunities, especially for vulnerable groups.
We have focused our attention in this project on three particular groups who face greater impacts of climate disasters. Where people experience multiple vulnerabilities, the intersectional nature of their disadvantage may compound the impact of climate change.
People with disability are at high risk of climate-related harm due to challenges in taking preventive measures. While people with disability should be provided with reasonable accommodations to ensure they can respond to climate disasters equally with others, government assistance for those with disability is often lacking. Typically poor infrastructure and unequal access to information about climate change, among others, contribute to these challenges. A Deaf person we spoke to in Kupang explained how inaccessible disaster information isolated and endangered them:
“Trees fell down and damaged our home... I faced difficulties because…. I did not receive information. I have a hearing device, but it's too noisy, this becomes a challenge for me.”
Women’s caregiving roles, gendered household power dynamics and low economic security affect their ability to respond to climate events. One woman we spoke to Makassar, South Sulawesi explained how her own difficulties responding to climate change impacted her whole family:
“Due to climate change and reclamation, my income has decreased. As I mentioned before, I can no longer catch the shellfish, I have no income, and my kids have stopped going to school. We cannot afford even [for] our basic needs."
Women often bear the heaviest burden of cleaning up, caring and responding to climate disasters, including experiencing increased family, domestic and sexual violence. Gender diverse women face additional challenges due to severe discrimination in Indonesia and stigma affecting all aspects of their lives.
Older people are vulnerable due to financial insecurity, limited mobility, declining health and increased care needs. Many older people live day-by-day and depend on their families or younger neighbors, who may also be equally struggling to mitigate climate change impacts, as one older person in Makassar told us:
“We were evacuated because we slept under the house, so we moved to the upper floor when there's a flood. If we can't go up the stairs, the children help us and my children usually buy food from the store and prepare it for me."
Despite these challenges, our project found strong evidence of tremendous strength, tenacity and community connections amongst diverse women, older people, and people with disabilities in Eastern Indonesia. This helps to build resilience to climate catastrophe.
Read more about how we worked with communities in equitable partnership here.
Our research aimed:
1. To explore local understandings of, and capacity around, strengthening climate resilience, focusing on health, wellbeing, and future-proofing communities and environments;
2. To co-design a toolkit to better understand gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) and climate resilience through collaboration with policymakers and communities in Indonesia and Australia. Our Toolkit for Climate Resilience by Engaging Communities was developed to allow scalability and applicability to other parts of Indonesia. The model has been developed, tested and shared.
3. To equip policy and change-makers with tools to enhance their understandings of gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI), resilience and climate change through a human rights lens and identifying opportunities for intervention;
4. To generate strategic outputs, including policy briefs, reports, research agendas, peer-reviewed articles, and public communications with a focus on GEDSI. This ensured impact on the knowledge-to-policy cycle in Australia and Indonesia;
5. To build capacity for early career researchers and Indonesian Postdoctoral fellows to develop skills to drive innovative research agendas on climate resilience in Indonesia; and
6. To establish a collaborative interdisciplinary research team to address climate resilience in Indonesia and Australia. This included the establishment of a network of policy makers, academics, practitioners and industry stakeholders to secure further funding grants.

Monash University, Indonesia

Monash University, Indonesia

The Project Challenge

The Project Challenge

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