May 15, 2025: On Tuesday, May 6, 2025, PTF moderated a discussion at the 58th Asian Development Bank (ADB) Annual Meeting in Milan, Italy on from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM local time (10:30 AM to 12:00 PM Washington, D.C. time). The session, entitled “Engaging Stakeholders Meaningfully on Sustainable Development Projects: Lessons from Community Participatory Approaches” was moderated Dr. Vinay Bhargava, PTF’s Chief Technical Advisor.
The event aimed to share good practices on how community participation and monitoring can enhance the effectiveness of activities, finances, and climate change adaptation outcomes in ADB-supported programs.
Participants discussed the importance of community participation in climate finance operations of the ADB based on the ADB’s stakeholder engagement policy. This was followed by two case studies of successful applications of community participatory approaches for engaging stakeholders and highlighted lessons for tapping into local community knowledge to develop responsive solutions in the ADB supported financing for climate change adaptation and mitigation work in its member countries.
The case study presentations focused on community engagement promoted by Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in disaster relief and resilience (DRR) in Sri Lanka and on community participatory monitoring to enhance effectiveness of Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) Approach supported by the FANSA in seven South Asian countries. A background paper was shared online for comments and consultations. It will be finalized and published online as a knowledge product, along with the PowerPoint presentations from the session.
Stefano, presented the work being done by Pianeta in Italy and presented a framework for Transdisciplinary Co-creation process that connects public participation, climate and social policies, and environmental intelligence to produce meaningful outcomes.
Bruno Carrasco, Director General for the Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department at the ADB, provided reactions to the suggestions from panelists and explained the ADB’s new approach to civil society and stakeholder engagements. He shared that the ADB addresses issues of meaningful community engagement in climate adaptation and transition programs and thanked the panel for valuable suggestions for making this more effective. He drew participants attention to the ADB’s community development resilience program, and invited civil society continue to help communities participate in the ADB financed programs.
Vinay Bhargava, from PTF, noted that the ADB is doing a good job of engaging with communities and can do better by helping build knowledge and skills of citizens and to engage, sharing timely and user friendly information, supporting two-way dialogue between communities and duty bearers, and supporting digital literacy in communities.
The panel for the event, organized with the Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA), was be composed of:
- Vinya S. Ariyaratne – President, Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Sri Lanka
- Bruno Carrasco – Director General, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department, ADB
- Ani Paltajyan – Co-Founder and Project Manager, Climapolis; Student, American University of Armenia
- Samira Shakya – Program Manager, FANSA/Lumanti Support Group for Shelter
