Dear friends and colleagues,

ICIMOD, together with its partner organisations BCAS, TERI, PARC and Alterra, is implementing the Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE) Research on Glacier and Snowpack Dependent River Basins for Improving Livelihoods. This initiative is supported under the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) programme funded by IDRC-Canada and DFID-UK. HI-AWARE is a five-year research initiative aiming at developing climate change adaptation approaches and enhancing the resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable women, men and children living in the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra river basins of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. The HI-AWARE research consortium is conducting 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 and adaptation turning points. It is focusing on the Indus, Upper Ganga, Gandaki and Teesta 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 enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of the poorest and most vulnerable populations and to improve their livelihoods in a changing climate. The research started in April 2014; presently it is in its second year of implementation and will end in September 2018.

As chairperson of the HI-AWARE steering committee, it is my pleasure to convey to you that the first issue of the HI-AWARE e-bulletin is out. This bi-monthly e-bulletin, operational from August 2015 onwards, will provide you with details of the HI-AWARE research and pilot activities done by the pool of researchers spread across five counties – Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Netherlands, and two continents, Europe and Asia. I hope that you will take advantage of the many benefits that come with being associated with HI-AWARE and that you will be able to use it as both a forum for the exchange of innovative adaptation ideas and as a resource for current debate on adaptation issues.

The present e-bulletin is divided into four sections – 1. News from HI-AWARE, 2. Notes from the Field, 3. Publications and Items of Interest and 4. Upcoming Events. As the activities grow, we shall add relevant sections to it.

We look forward to your comments and suggestions to improve this e-bulletin. I take this opportunity to congratulate HI-AWARE Knowledge Management and Communication (KMC) focal points who made this e-bulletin possible. Should you have any further questions or feedback, please direct them to the HI-AWARE E-Bulletin Editor at Ujol.Sherchan@icimod.org.

Warm regards,

David Molden, PhD
Director General – ICIMOD and Chairperson of the HI-AWARE Steering Committee