Climate resilience in higher education, Pakistan’s case

• In Event: Climate resilience in education: strategies for more resilient systems

Proposal

The purpose of this presentation is to situate the discussion in the broader context of climate resilience and the role of the higher education institution in raising awareness, playing a coordinating role and providing evidence based scientific research in mitigating the negative effects of climate change. The climate crisis in Pakistan cannot be addressed without a close collaboration between academia, think tanks, research institutes, government, international partners and the private sector. It is important to share the vision for improving climate resilience in all sectors through educational platforms that aim to educate people across the board. It can change people’s attitudes towards climate-related issues such as water crisis, food insecurity, deforestation, soil degradation and environmental pollution through student engagement, academic debates and public engagement and evidence based policy advice.
USAID’s recently established modern applied research centers in Pakistani universities in the field of water, energy and food security/agriculture are producing cutting edge applied research in these fields directly related to climate change. USAID is currently supporting Pakistani universities to form the Pakistan Climate Research Coordination Network (RCN) with technical support from the U.S. universities. RCN brings academia, government, nonprofit, and private sector researchers together to exchange ideas, facilitate collaborations, and identify new research ideas that advance climate resilience in Pakistan. It allows thought leaders, government officials, businesses, civil society, and the international donor community to work together on climate change issues by providing an opportunity to guide the development of research agenda and a critical path forward for mobilizing Pakistan’s higher education sector to improve Pakistan’s climate resilience. RCN outcomes include higher education leadership development in climate research; engagement of stakeholders and sponsors; development of climate change science-to-action research ideas; proposal development for science-to-action research ideas.

The RCN debates call to action in the following areas: Integration of climate change in education programs, expanding interdisciplinary research; characterize the national baseline of Pakistan’s current climate adaptation level; assess institutional capacities to advance adaptation efforts; provide guidance from stakeholders and policy makers about the future scope of (climate adaptation) action; coordinate and synthesize adaptation-related research in Pakistan to establish what is worth scaling up and how, identify gaps in adaptation knowledge, and define future adaptation roadmap; undertake climate profiling of vulnerable geographical pockets to advance adaptation planning and prioritizing actions to safeguard livelihoods and assets at risk; and implement incremental solutions as they become available rather than waiting for the perfect solution to emerge. The presentation will provide discrete examples of how these calls to action can create a more climate resilience system.

Author

• Asima Rehman, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)