Distinguished guests 

Representatives of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, 

Members of civil society 

Colleagues, partners and friends: Good evening!

It is a pleasure to join you at tonight’s event, and to celebrate the launch of two important Adaptation Fund-supported initiatives that place local leadership at the center of climate adaptation.  

Today's event demonstrates what is possible when international climate finance is paired with local knowledge, community leadership, and long-term commitment.  

As we gather for COP17, which also falls in the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, we are reminded that climate change is not a distant threat. It is already impacting some of the world's most fragile landscapes. Indigenous Peoples, herders, smallholder farmers, and local communities are confronting prolonged droughts, floods, land degradation, and increasing pressure on the natural resources that their livelihoods depend on. And nowhere is this more acutely felt than here in Mongolia!  

Yet these same communities are not simply victims of climate change. They are custodians of knowledge, managers of ecosystems, and innovators in resilience. For generations, they have developed sophisticated ways of managing water, land, biodiversity, and livestock in the most challenging environments. The future of adaptation depends on recognizing and strengthening that leadership. 

That is precisely what the two initiatives - we are launching today - seek to do.  

The first initiative, now under implementation in six African countries, will support Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities across pastoralist landscapes to design and implement their own adaptation priorities through direct access to resources and locally led planning processes. The second initiative will extend this approach to countries in our region, bringing together communities from the Pacific Islands, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Mongolia in a shared effort to strengthen climate resilience at landscape scale. 

Together, these initiatives represent an important shift in how adaptation is financed and implemented.  

Too often, adaptation has been designed top-down. Communities are consulted but not always empowered to make decisions. Funding reaches local actors only after passing through multiple layers. 

These two new initiatives take a different path. They recognize that Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities should define, design, implement and monitor their own adaptation actions. 

In developing Adaptation interventions at Landscape scale, the initiatives will bring together local stakeholders to identify solutions that respond to their specific needs and opportunities. These may include restoring degraded rangelands, improving water management, promoting climate-resilient agriculture and livestock systems, protecting biodiversity, strengthening community governance, and diversifying livelihoods. Importantly, traditional knowledge will be valued alongside scientific expertise, recognizing that both are essential for building resilience in an uncertain climate future.  

But these initiatives are about more than smart climate adaptation. They are about empowering local communities not only to participate in adaptation, but to lead it!  

They invest in local institutions and local capabilities. They create space for women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and marginalized groups to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their future. They build networks for peer learning across regions and countries. And they help ensure that local experience and innovation can inform national and global policy conversations. 

For UNDP, this reflects our broader commitment to putting local leadership at the center of climate action. We know that lasting climate resilience is built from the ground up, through partnerships that strengthen local institutions, expand access to finance and knowledge, and enable communities to lead the decisions that shape their future. 

The GEF Small Grants Programme will play a particularly important role in this effort. For more than three decades, SGP has demonstrated the transformative power of direct support to communities and CSOs. Through these new Adaptation Fund initiatives, that experience will be leveraged to channel resources efficiently to those closest to the challenges and the solutions. 

As we launch these initiatives today, let us remember that adaptation is ultimately about people. It is about securing livelihoods, protecting ecosystems, preserving cultures and knowledge systems, and ensuring that future generations can thrive despite a changing climate.

Last but not least, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the Adaptation Fund for its continued partnership and commitment to ensuring that climate finance reaches those who are experiencing climate change first and most intensely. 

I look forward to hearing from our distinguished community representatives this evening, and learning from their experience.

Together, we have an opportunity to demonstrate how locally led adaptation can deliver resilience at scale across Africa, Asia and the Pacific.  

Thank you!