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The Integrated Climate Adaptation Solutions for the Hindu Kush Himalaya Region (HI-CAS) is a multi-country project designed to enhance the climate resilience of vulnerable communities, particularly women, girls, Indigenous Peoples and marginalised communities in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region.
Guided by ICIMOD’s gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) policy and Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, the project aims to promote socially inclusive and community-based approaches that address barriers to gender equity, social inclusion, and human rights, with an explicit focus on the most marginalised and vulnerable women who face discrimination, social and economic exclusion, and inequitable access to and rights over resources.
February 2025 – March 2029
Global Affairs Canada (GAC)
Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)
Climate change poses significant challenges to marginalised women and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), ethnic minorities and the most disadvantaged groups. The project aims to bridge the gap between high-level climate policy and local climate action by promoting gender-responsive Integrated Adaptation Solutions Packages (IASPs), grounded on the principle that effective climate action must be responsive to local needs, be locally led, ecosystem-based, and socially inclusive.
Develop and implement a gender-responsive integrated adaptation solutions package – combining springshed management, agrobiodiversity, and productive use of renewable energy – using a participatory co-design process led by women’s groups, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) networks and local institutions in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.
Build the capacity of women’s groups, IPLC networks, and local/subnational government institutions to implement the IASPs and access climate finance for their sustained implementation.
Inform policy formulation and decision-making for scaling and uptake of the IASPs by national and subnational governments.
This project seeks to improve the livelihoods of approximately 40,000 IPLCs and reduce their vulnerability to climate change whilst also delivering positive outcomes for nature and advancing gender equality and social inclusion. This outcome will be achieved through the IASPs, which will leverage the expertise of ICIMOD and its partners to combine springshed management with renewable energy for irrigation and agrobiodiversity inputs.
The project will directly support communities, especially women and vulnerable groups, in enhancing their knowledge, skills, and assets to adapt to the growing challenges of climate change and advance sustainable development. Furthermore, leveraging the learnings from these pilots, the project will work to drive impact at scale through inputs into national policy formulation, the scaling-up of gender-responsive integrated adaptation solution packages, and improve access to climate finance for women and IPLCs, driving transformative change at scale.
The IASPs will be co-designed and co-implemented with active support from local communities and governments, gearing activities towards increasing women’s technical capacities and participation, which is an essential factor for sustaining these interventions and the mainstreaming of IASPs. By building their capacity to access climate finance, the initiative also builds long-term sustainability for implementing and scaling climate adaptation solutions.
HI-CAS will work closely with a diverse range of stakeholders, including:
Approximately 10,000 marginalised and vulnerable women and community members in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal directly benefitting including women’s groups, IPLC networks, local institutions, government entities and policy makers.
Approximately 30,000 marginalised and vulnerable people in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal as indirect beneficiaries who will benefit from reduced vulnerability through the adoption of gender-responsive IASPs.
GAC’s development priorities: Canada’s international assistance focuses on supporting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, inclusive governance, and climate action. This project directly aligns with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy and its commitment to supporting the most vulnerable in adapting to the impacts of climate change.
Total funding size: CAD 14,650,000/ USD11.0 million
Fund management: ICIMOD is responsible for overall project management, financial administration, monitoring, and reporting, and will implement project activities in close coordination with national partners.
