Climate Change Adaptation in the Humanitarian Sector: Locally-Led Solutions Under Increased Pressure
Tuesday, August 25, 2026: 15:00-16:30 CEST
Webinar objectives
The Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations brings together over 530 signatories — local and national NGOs, INGOs, Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies, UN agencies, and government and donor supporters — in a collective commitment to transformative climate and environmental action. Central to that commitment is Commitment 1: to step up our response to growing humanitarian needs and help people adapt to the impacts of the climate and environmental crises.
Over the past year, the Charter Secretariat has developed eight thematic guidance pages as part of the Tools and Resources Platform — a curated knowledge hub designed to help signatories turn commitments into action. These cover themes including Early Warning and Anticipatory Action, Nature-based Solutions, Indigenous and Local Knowledge, Environmental Sustainability, and Climate Action in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings.
This webinar marked the launch of the eighth page in the series: Climate Change Adaptation. The signatory community already holds significant adaptation expertise the Charter can help spotlight and connect.
The Charter’s 2026 Signatory survey has also sharpened the focus for this session. It confirms that adaptation is a programmatic necessity for humanitarians, and that the challenge Signatories face is less about whether to adapt but more about doing so under mounting funding pressure.
Webinar objectives
Launch the new Climate Change Adaptation guidance page and introduce its resources to Charter signatories and the wider humanitarian sector, particularly within areas of highest expressed need
Showcase signatory expertise by highlighting locally-led adaptation work from within the community, reflecting the depth of experience of the sector.
Address the funding landscape, creating space to discuss delivering adaptation amid shrinking resources, disrupted partnerships, and shifting humanitarian priorities; update on the Secretariat’s new funding opportunities page
Refresh the Tools and Resources Platform, one year on since the launch of the platform — with a focus on how signatories can navigate it to what is relevant to them.
Set the forward agenda by inviting signatories to share what could be most useful to guide the future development of this platform.
Speakers
Dabal Kaji Rokaha and Mamun Muhammad Ali, IOM Bangladesh
Elmi Nure, Dan Church Aid Ethiopia
Abdikadir Adan, Zamzam Foundation Somalia
Shahnawaz Whara, Concern Bangladesh
Paul Knox Clarke, Adapt Initiative
Amir Khouzam, ODI
Nishanie Jayamaha and Natasha Westheimer, Charter Secretariat
Webinar Takeaways
Adaptation is already underway, funded or not, though funding remains the binding constraint. Adaptation is happening under severe funding constraint, and often with no dedicated adaptation funding at all — organisations are integrating it into what they already do. When we asked participants what stood in their way, funding came out top. It is also where practical, transferable answers were most in demand.
Listening comes before designing, and learning is key. Every example began with listening rather than designing. One speaker described reopening a failed project design with the community and going back to the donor to change it; another trained thousands of people in conflict-sensitive resource management before breaking ground. What separates organisations that change course from those that don’t is whether learning is an active function. One solar irrigation approach came from noticing what a neighbouring organisation had installed and asking how it worked.
Coordination and partnership do the heavy lifting. No speaker described working alone. Shelter designs were laboratory-tested, agreed with government authorities and sector partners, and revised with feedback from residents. Cross-border rangeland agreements were brokered through traditional leaders, local authorities, youth, women’s groups and civil society. Others worked directly with local government to get climate resilience into municipal budgets, or ran studies jointly with government so the findings would outlast the project.
Climate change isn’t confined by sector boundaries. As Paul Knox Clarke put it, climate change increases pressure on every sector at once, and hardest where they meet. Speakers echoed it from practice: shelter is not four walls and a roof but protection, water and sanitation, site planning and relocation; adaptation in the Horn of Africa delivered peacebuilding and social cohesion alongside food security; climate work in Bangladesh runs straight into health. Breaking internal silos was a precondition for doing any of it well.