Through the actions of the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network by 2012

a network of cities in Asia will have developed robust plans to prepare, withstand
and recover from climate change impacts.
The Challenge ACCCRN aims to catalyze attention, funding and action on building climate change resilience for poor and
vulnerable people by:
• Creating robust models of climate change resilience for poor and vulnerable people
• Funding, promoting, and disseminating those models
• Increasing pressure on funders, practitioners and policy-makers to support climate change resilience for poor
and vulnerable people.

Cities of the future...
50% of the global population currently live in cities and this is expected to
increase to 70% (or 6.4 billion people) by 2050. Asian cities are expected
to see more than 60% of this increase and 46% of all urban population
growth will occur in cities with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants.
UN-Habitat estimate that over 1 billion (or one in three) urban inhabitants
currently do not have adequate access to water and sanitation, live in
overcrowded conditions, live in poor quality, temporary shelters or lack
security of tenure and they predict that the number of “slum dwellers”
could double, to 2 billion, by 2050.
...face unprecedented challenges...
The IPCC predict decades of global warming as our past emissions
continue to heat up the earth’s atmosphere.
Potential climate change impacts include: rising sea levels, more
frequent, stronger storms, coastal erosion, diminishing biodiversity,
continuing loss of glaciers and arctic ice, salinity in freshwater aquifers
and an increase in heat-related diseases like malaria and dengue fever.
The objectives of the ACCCRN program are to:
• Test and demonstrate a range of actions to build climate change resilience in cities
• Build a replicable base of lessons learned, successes and failures
• Assist cities to develop and implement a climate change resilience building process
• Build the capacity of cities to continue climate change resilience building activities.
Anticipated results of the ACCCRN program include:
1. Capacity building
Selected cities in South and South East Asia have adequate capacity to plan, finance, coordinate, and
implement climate change resilience strategies.
2. Network for learning and engagement
A broad range of representatives of cities, civil society, donors, private sector, technical partners engage
with ACCCRN to mutually identify and solve key climate change resilience problems.
3. Expansion, deepening of experience, scaling up
New and more diverse partners provide resources and funding for replication in current and new cities to
support the implementation of resilience plans and strategies.

...particularly for the most vulnerable.

Climate change will have the greatest impact on communities who have
done the least to cause it. Poor and vulnerable populations have the least
capacity to prepare and plan for the impacts of climate change and the
least capacity to respond.

“C
ommunities around the world need better weapons —
new tools, techniques, and strategies — if they hope to
tame the three-headed hydra of climate risk, poverty,
and precipitous urbanization (...) Since it may be too late to stop
the global warming that’s already occurred, we must figure out
how to survive it”

Judith Rodin, President, The Rockefeller Foundation

phase 1
ACCCRN Phases
phase 4
1. City Scoping and Selection
April 2008 to September 2009

Identify partner cities which are:

phase 2

• e xperiencing rapid urbanization

• v ulnerable to the impacts of climate change
• h ave the capacity to engage with ACCCRN

Identify key stakeholders and local partners.

2. City-level engagement and capacity

development
January 2009 to mid 2010

Shared learning dialogues with key stakeholders to:

• Understand city-level vulnerability
• Identify potential climate change impacts
• Create an urban climate change resilience action plan.

3. Implementation of urban resilience projects

phase 3

Indonesia and Thailand

2010 to 2012

Work with local and international partners to implement replicable

interventions identified in the climate change resilience action plan.
4. Replication
Mid 2008 onwards
The ACCCRN program will scale-up through:
• Networking and shared learning within and
between cities, countries and sectors
• Continuous monitoring and evaluation to evaluate
emerging results and capture lessons learned
• Promoting the development of capacity for replication
• Dissemination of learning and adaptation frameworks
• Leveraging additional funding sources for resilience
building initiatives throughout the region.
ACCCRN Phase 1 is currently underway to identify up to two cities from
each country in which to take forward intensive engagement. This work
is being led by Mercy Corps and URDI in Indonesia, and TEI and ADPC in
Thailand.
Activities in this phase include meetings with city-level stakeholders
(local government bodies and NGOs) and advisory groups (national
government bodies, academic institutions and civil society). Assessment
involves desk and field surveys to gain an understanding of the physical,
social, political and economic contexts of each city.
The cross-disciplinary information gathered in this phase provides a basis
for:
• Understanding vulnerability within the city
• Understanding potential climate change impacts
• Guaging the city’s readiness to engage with ACCCRN
• Proceeding to Phase 2 of the ACCCRN process.

India
All of the ACCCRN cities in India are experiencing rapid population
growth and industrial expansion, with increasing demands on water and
energy resources, expansion of informal settlements and challenges for
urban planners.
Water scarcity is the main threat to the city of Indore, with the level
of water demand far outstripping supply, leaving a large section of the
population unserved. Demand is increasing rapidly with population
growth and extensive industrial development. Although the problem of
water scarcity is not new, increasing incidence and severity of drought
and floods are adding more stress on the city’s population and city
managers.
Gorakhpur is located in the middle of northern India’s Gangetic Plain.
Prolonged water logging together with poor waste management has
caused an increase in the incidence of vector borne diseases and related
health problems, as well as contamination of ground water.
Flooding, coastal storms and cyclones, sea level rise and inundation are
major threats to the port city of Surat. The city has experienced major
flooding every few years in the last two decades, with some events
covering as much as 75% of the city. It is low lying settlements and
settlements close to the river, often homes of the poorest and vulnerable
populations, that have been worst affected by floods.
India
Vietnam
In Da Nang, storms have caused severe damage to vulnerable coastal
areas, leading to the resettlement of many poor households. Flooding
is a recurring problem, both in poorly drained central areas as well as
in peri-urban districts undergoing rapid land conversion. Rapid tourism
development on exposed beach areas may become vulnerable in future.
In Quy Nhon, heavy rains generally lead to extensive flooding in low-
lying peri-urban estuarine areas, while more remote coastal fishing
communities are exposed to increasing erosion by storms and higher
tides. The same areas often suffer from water shortages and saline
intrusion in the dry season as droughts become more frequent.
The threats in Can Tho are somewhat different than in the other two
cities, because this region is accustomed to large-scale, long-lasting
seasonal flooding of the Mekong River, even without local rainfall. Sea
level rise and upstream climate and land use changes will exacerbate this
threat, while saline intrusion and water shortages in the dry season have
become more noticeable in peri-urban areas.
The National Target Program on Climate Change was announced in
December 2008. Binh Dinh province, including the city of Quy Nhon, has
been selected as an NTP pilot site and Quy Nhon’s ACCCRN experience
will help provide insight for emerging adaptation planning guidelines
there.
Partner
Organizations
Founded in 1913, The Rockefeller Foundation supports work around the
world to expand opportunities for poor or vulnerable people and to help
ensure that globalization’s benefits are more widely shared.
www.rockfound.org

ISET, the Institute for Social Environmental Transition is working with

country level partners to support project cities through a shared learning
dialogue process that will identify resilience-building activities.
www.i-s-e-t.org

Arup, a global consultancy of planners, engineers and economists,

is providing program management and technical assistance to the
Rockefeller Foundation and local partners and cities.
www.arup.com/internationaldevelopment

ProVention provides leadership in identifying, connecting and aligning

with potential funding sources at country, regional and global levels;
leveraging opportunities for donor funding of ACCCRN projects; and
building linkages between ACCCRN, practitioners and donors on
resilience priorities to support the objectives of the initiative.
www.proventionconsortium.org

ICLEI provides leadership in bringing city-level work to the national and

global levels, by helping cities to build a business case for the local
governments. ICLEI is also assisting the country partners in Indonesia in
city-level engagement processes.
www.iclei.org

Country Partners coordinate with national level entities, assist in the

identification of local partners and coordinate a process of deeper
engagement through Shared Learning Dialogues.

India
• TARU Leading Edge Consulting (www.taru.org)
• Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (www.geagindia.org)
Thailand
• Thailand Environment Institute (www.tei.or.th)
• Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (www.adpc.net)
Indonesia
• Mercy Corps (www.mercycorps.org)
• Urban and Regional Development Institute (www.urdi.org)
Vietnam
• Challenge to Change (www.challengetochange.org)
• NISTPASS (www.nistpass.gov.vn)

Email: acccrn@rockfound.org
Web: www.rockfound.org/initiatives/climate/acccrn.html