Research and Advocacy for Climate Policy and Action (RACPA) is a five-year project designed to better understand the climate change and human (im)mobility nexus in the context of coastal and island communities. Through advocacy efforts geared toward government and other duty-bearers and actors that are informed by this improved understanding, it hopes to pave the way for more responsive policies that would help coastal and island communities increase their climate resilience.

The project, supported by the Australian Government through Caritas Australia, takes as its starting point three communities in Indonesia and the Philippines, two archipelagic countries in Southeast Asia that are deemed among the most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change.

This regional report summarizes the initial results of these research activities, as well as of interviews and dialogues conducted by ESSC and Percik with key stakeholders from the national and local government, civil society, and the academe.

Insights from the findings will be validated and enriched through further research by the consortium in Year 2 of the project, using interviews, focus group discussions and multi-stakeholder forums. They will also underpin further community empowerment activities, including the preparation of community adaptation plans and implementation of small-scale community resilience projects.