REDAA co-design workshop – South Asia

About the workshop

ICIMOD and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) are organising a co-design workshop to help prepare the research-to-action programme on Reversing Environmental Degradation in Africa and Asia (REDAA), supported by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and managed by IIED.

The workshop aims to bring together key experts from local to regional levels to validate and refine final findings and to co-design elements of the REDAA strategy for South Asia.

Objective of the workshop

To co-design priorities that the REDAA programme in South Asia can address and ensure that the REDAA programme works closely with key regional stakeholders on locally led research, innovation, and action to help people and nature thrive together.

Background

ICIMOD led the REDAA scoping study for South Asia, bringing together academics, practitioners, community representatives and policymakers to collectively discuss and validate priority research-to-action areas that can help in reversing environmental degradation in South Asia.

REDAA aims to expand the technical knowledge and evidence base for environmental restoration and sustainable natural resources management in Africa and Asia over at least four years starting in April 2023. It will include a grant-making facility to support primarily locally led initiatives putting research into action.

Drawing on a range of studies, and on the initial results from several ‘demonstrator projects’, a draft REDAA strategy is being developed. One of the scoping studies, led by ICIMOD, focuses on potential research-to-action priorities for REDAA in South Asia. These priorities are in the form of promising areas of research-to-action that REDAA could potentially support where evidence can be improved and taken up; tools can be improved and well used; and governance systems can be improved for environmental restoration and sustainable natural resources management. The ICIMOD-led study also identified sites in South Asia where addressing those emerging research-to-action priorities is the most pressing.