The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region—one of the most dynamic, diverse and complex mountain and associated floodplains systems in the world—provides water resources and other ecosystem services to more than 210 million people in the mountains, and 1.3 billion people downstream. Socio-economic changes in combination with climate change impacts may significantly affect these people’s livelihoods. More than 70 percent of the Pakistani population depends directly or indirectly on the agricultural and livestock sectors which are being significantly impacted by climate change, and by water supply. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its fifth assessment report, shows those regional impacts of climate change which are going to create negative impacts on water, energy and food, and the livelihoods of poor farming communities.

In terms of assessing the anticipated impacts of climate change on agriculture and agricultural water management, it is clear that water availability (from rainfall, river flow and aquifers) is a critical factor. The anticipated impacts of climate change will put additional stress on food production systems under pressure to satisfy the food needs of a rapidly growing and progressively wealthier world. As agriculture develops and becomes more intensive in its use of land and water resources, its impact on natural eco-systems becomes more apparent. The assessment of viable and effective adaptations to the impacts of climate change on water and agriculture will require a sound understanding and integration of agronomic science with water management and hydrology. Due regard for the resulting environmental interactions and trade-offs will be essential. Substantial adaptation will be needed to ensure food security for the growing population—the adequate supply and efficient utilisation of what will, in many instances, be a declining resource.

To address priority adaptation issues in the region, the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) is executing a regional project—“Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE) Research on Glacier and Snowpack Dependent River Basins for Improving Livelihoods”—led by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal. The other members are The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India; the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), Bangladesh; and knowledge partner Wageningen University and Research (WUR), the Netherlands. The project is one of four consortia of the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) and is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)-Canada and the Department for International Development (DFID)-UK.

HI-AWARE is in the process of developing robust evidence to inform people-centred and gender-responsive policies and practices for enhancing the adaptive capacities and climate resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable communities. The project is adopting a comparative and cross-scalar approach, with research and pilot adaptation interventions taking place in sites representing a range of climates, hydrological conditions and socioeconomic contexts, and it will actively engage stakeholders in the research process.

Project Overview and Objectives of the Stakeholder’s Consultation Workshop:

A thorough understanding of the conditions leading to the vulnerability of the livelihoods of the poorest in the mountains and plains of the HKH region is needed to develop appropriate climate change adaptation approaches and increase their resilience to climate change. The HI-AWARE consortium conducts integrative research across scales on the biophysical, socioeconomic, gender, and governance drivers and conditions leading to vulnerability in order to understand climate change impacts and to identify critical moments for adaptation. The initiative focuses on the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra river basins, where the impacts of climate change on the livelihoods of the poor are uncertain but likely to be severe. Adaptation policies and practices, based on robust evidence, are urgently required in these basins to increase the resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable populations and improve their livelihoods in a quickly changing climate.

To generate robust evidence and facilitate an improved understanding of the potential of adaptation approaches and practices, with an explicit focus on gender and livelihoods, the HI-AWARE project is focusing on multi-criteria analysis, on a combination of mixed methods such as systematic reviews, stakeholder analyses, in-depth field work, pilots, turning point analyses and socio-economic cost benefit analyses, as well as other similar methods. In addition, the project aims to promote the uptake of the robust evidence generated at various scales through the development of synergies between science-based knowledge and the adaptation practices of communities in order to shape improved policies and practices that will help vulnerable populations adapt to climate change.

To develop stakeholder-driven and gender-inclusive prioritisation of adaptation in various sectors and identify pathways based on the up- and out-scaling of institutional and on-the-ground adaptation innovations that enhance the capacities of the poorest and most vulnerable to adapt to climate change, CAEWRI-PARC is organising a stakeholders’ Consultation Workshop for Prioritisation on Climate Change Adaptation in the Water, Agriculture and Energy Sectors from 2–3 June 2016 at the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) premises in Park Road, Chack Shahzad, Islamabad, Pakistan. The objective of workshop is to discuss the progress of the project and get insights from experienced stakeholders into adaptation relating to climate-vulnerable sectors like agriculture, water, forestry, health and energy.

The consultation intends to focus primarily on the identification and prioritisation of climate change adaptation in the Indus Basin in the Water, Agriculture and Energy Sectors using a set of criteria. A diverse group of researchers, practitioners, students and prominent senior scientists are expected to attend the workshop which focuses on:

• Climate change issues and impacts on the agriculture, water and energy sectors
• Enlist potential adaptation practices in the agriculture, water and energy sectors
• Stakeholders’ prioritisation of identified adaptation practices