Advancing Policy and Practice on Climate Action (APPOCA) through
intergenerational dialogue in Vietnam and beyond across Southeast Asia
APPOCA is funded as part of the British Academy’s Maxmising Impact Programme – a programme set up to provide additional funding to ‘…ongoing research projects to maximise the impact of their cutting-edge work in developing countries’. The project is therefore focused on taking forward the impact from the British Academy’s Youth Futures-funded project: Youth-led Adaption to Climate Change Challenges in Vietnam (YACC)
Background, context and existing impact from YACC
Anthropogenic climate change is one of the most serious threats to humanity, requiring urgent action to address its projected consequences. However globally, climate action is still not happening on the scale or at the speed needed. It is also a crisis of justice where those least responsible for contributing to climate change are most at risk of the impacts, have the fewest opportunities to make required adaptations and are least empowered to make systemic changes. Hierarchical and unequal power relations restrict collective action, with youth, disadvantaged communities and poorer Global South countries, often at the sharp end of this failure to act.
Vietnam, a country regarded as one of the most at risk from the climate crisis, was the setting for the initial YACC project. The original project focused on developing youth-focused and youth-led perspectives and climate action on the sustainable development challenges facing the diverse Red River catchment in northern Vietnam.
The project supported youth to work in partnership to identify imaginative ways of mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change. This is both in the sinking deltaic region with relative sea-level-rises and increasing saline-intrusion, and the upland regions that experience enhanced hydrological extremes, landslides and soil erosion placing the RRC at the front line of climate change.
Vietnam, a country regarded as one of the most at risk from the climate crisis, was the setting for the initial YACC project. The original project focused on developing youth-focused and youth-led perspectives and climate action on the sustainable development challenges facing the diverse Red River catchment in northern Vietnam.
The project supported youth to work in partnership to identify imaginative ways of mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change. This is both in the sinking deltaic region with relative sea-level-rises and increasing saline-intrusion, and the upland regions that experience enhanced hydrological extremes, landslides and soil erosion placing the RRC at the front line of climate change.
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The project supported research capacity development to enable youth to research ‘at risk’ local communities, investigating and capturing both the challenges faced as well as localised knowledge of, responses to and resilience against these challenges. The key objectives from the initial research included utilising our youth participatory action research model focused on ‘knowledge, exploration, action’. This scaffolds social science research skills education, alongside scientific ‘knowledge’ on climate change to support youth to capture and analyse diverse, local knowledge and build social capacity for a more sustainable future. This also included supporting youth to innovate and create arts-based outputs from their findings as a means to support localised knowledge exchange and enhance community resilience. You can read more about the YACC project here. |
As the end of the research phase of YACC approach, there was strong emerging evidence that the approach adopted alongside the youth participation model was working to support community-based intergenerational dialogue and to support/inspire independent, intergenerational community-based climate action. The important role of creativity and storytelling in these processes was also emerging strongly.
APPOCA therefore has the following three specifically impact-focused objectives:
- To enhance and extend opportunities for dialogue between youth and key policy-makers and practitioners focused on climate action at national and international level within Southeast Asia.
- To influence youth- and/or climate-focused policy-makers and practitioners to engage with approaches that include community-focused, intergenerational knowledge exchange
- To advocate for the role of creativity, storytelling and emotions in supporting and encouraging climate action
APPOCA still included a significant focus on Vietnam, though extended its reach within Southeast Asia where many other countries similarly experience the climate injustices outlined earlier. The key audiences that APPOCA worked with are policymakers and practitioners connected to youth- and/or climate-focused policy, initiatives, groups and organisations across the Southeast Asia region and specifically in Thailand and Cambodia.
Across APPOCA, there was a broad view of policymakers that included but extended beyond local and national governmental policymakers. To this end, ‘policymakers’ included any individual or collective across NGOs, charities and other organisations, including those based at grassroots level or within the private sector, that are in a position to influence current and future climate action. Importantly, this also focused on those that are youth-led.
Across APPOCA, there was a broad view of policymakers that included but extended beyond local and national governmental policymakers. To this end, ‘policymakers’ included any individual or collective across NGOs, charities and other organisations, including those based at grassroots level or within the private sector, that are in a position to influence current and future climate action. Importantly, this also focused on those that are youth-led.
Activities
In summary, to deliver and maximise the impact from the objectives outlined above, APPOCA’s remit was to:
- Host key stakeholder workshops (in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand)
- Produce an ‘international’ policy and practice brief (as well as individual country policy briefs)
- Co-produce adapted resources to support policymakers/practitioners
The workshops focused on around these two main questions:
- What learning can stakeholders take from the project that they can build into future policies/initiatives focused on youth and/or climate action?
- What information and resources would they need to adopt and advocate the wider adoption of the resources?
Workshops
In October and November 2023, the workshops have taken place in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia sharing the work of the YACC project and working in partnership with youth.
In Cambodia and Thailand, the workshops partnered with the first ever LCOYs in both countries. The approach and the four core principles were shared and discussed and collaboratively, leading youth climate changemakers in each context are working alongside researchers to develop policy briefs and resources to support others to adopt to similar approaches.
The wider team alongside in-country teams are now working to combine policy pledges and wishlists and co-create policy briefs and updates will be shared on here as soon as available.
We are advancing this work under the umbrella of Younity4Action - an international collaborative space focusing on advancing transdisciplinary research committed to co-created and youth-led climate action
In Cambodia and Thailand, the workshops partnered with the first ever LCOYs in both countries. The approach and the four core principles were shared and discussed and collaboratively, leading youth climate changemakers in each context are working alongside researchers to develop policy briefs and resources to support others to adopt to similar approaches.
The wider team alongside in-country teams are now working to combine policy pledges and wishlists and co-create policy briefs and updates will be shared on here as soon as available.
We are advancing this work under the umbrella of Younity4Action - an international collaborative space focusing on advancing transdisciplinary research committed to co-created and youth-led climate action
