CoCooN – Conflict and Cooperation in the Management of Climate Change

On-going research by the consortium partners has demonstrated that processes of climate change and urbanization are creating growing problems of water insecurity in the peri-urban areas of the rapidly expanding cities of Khulna (Bangladesh), Kathmandu (Nepal), and Hyderabad and Gurgaon (India). However, a critical knowledge gap exists in measuring their direct and indirect effects on the lives of the poor and vulnerable, and their implications for the incidence of conflict and the emergence of new forms of cooperation that are more sensitive to issues of water security for water-insecure, poor and marginalized groups. Another critical gap lies in devising innovative ways to use new knowledge and insights for capacity-building, to support sustainable, climate smart and pro-poor development trajectories that focus on the nexus of water security, climate change and urbanization. This project aims to strengthen and empower communities for the effective management of water insecurity, induced by the combined impacts of climate change and urbanization in the use, management, and governance of peri-urban water resources of South Asia. The project will, first, assess and compare the changing insecurities, vulnerabilities, incidences of conflict, and options for cooperation associated with climate change and urbanization. It will research local manifestations of the impacts of urbanization and climate change as experienced in the peri-urban areas of the selected cities. Building on this, it will assess the effects of water -, climate – and other relevant policies on resource-related conflict and cooperation in peri-urban water resources. Second, through collaborative efforts between scientists, policy-makers, NGOs, private enterprises and local stakeholders the project will contribute to strengthening community resilience and devising pathways to equitable and sustainable institutional transformations to increase water security. This will yield new frameworks and tools for generating understanding on conflicts and cooperation, sensitizing public opinion and creating an appropriate policy mix to reduce risk-exposure. Third, the project will engage in ‘south-south’ and ‘north-south’ capacity-building of the consortium partners, of the stakeholders involved in peri-urban water insecurity issues, and of the academic world - by developing academic curricula and training materials that explicitly deal with peri-urban areas. Crucially related to development, the project will build the capacity of communities by providing them platforms for dialogue with service providers to improve service delivery and to better articulate their rights to water and service provisioning on one hand, and enhance their livelihood skills to increase adaptive capacity in the face of climate change and urbanization.