This report presents the results of a study on the information needs and gaps concerning climate change adaptation in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The authors surveyed more than 50 SIDS stakeholders with roles in planning, implementing, financing, monitoring, evaluation and learning on adaptation and resilience. The authors asked where stakeholders get their information, what information is missing, and how they would like to be supported to compile and analyse data and learn better.
Key messages
- Stakeholders working to advance climate change adaptation and resilience in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) find that the information they need is incomplete, inaccessible, and poorly presented. Disaggregated climate risk and impact information about groups facing inequality on the basis of gender, ethnicity, indigeneity and income is especially needed, but missing.
- SIDS stakeholders want to access more lessons from local and lived experiences in implementing adaptation solutions.
- Governments, regional and international bodies, and research institutions should collect data systematically and make it openly available. They should invite and collaborate with community actors to document and contribute their lived experiences.
- There is a need for high quality knowledge management systems for SIDS that collect, curate and publish such information. To the extent that global knowledge management systems for SIDS are being explored, such systems should be: SIDS-led, sustainable and non-duplicative. They should signpost to existing regional SIDS efforts that are much appreciated already, and they should add value in the dimensions described above.
- Stakeholders’ interest in lessons from lived experience lends itself to peer learning among individuals and institutions in SIDS.
- SIDS face severe human and financial resource constraints, so international public and philanthropic donors should ramp up grant funding to enable data collection, knowledge management and learning systems in SIDS to perform to their greatest potential.