Fostering local resilience and enhancing equity through ecosystem-based adaptation

The paper evaluates eight water funds in the Andean region against EbA principles, finding that while they effectively promote ecosystem resilience and multi-sector governance, they lack intentional focus on climate science, social vulnerability, and gender equity. It recommends integrating gender, social, and climate vulnerability analyses and strengthening monitoring and evaluation to better align with broader adaptation policies.

• The eight analyzed water funds are implementing EbA measures, often implicitly, as their core activities in conservation, restoration, and sustainable use align with EbA principles to ensure water quality and quantity.
• Water fund strategies rely heavily on participatory processes and local knowledge for co-creation, but they rarely incorporate climate science or national climate projections into their planning.
• While conservation and restoration measures support ecosystem resilience, they generally lack a deliberate focus on the social dimensions of resilience and the specific needs of the most climate-vulnerable populations.
• Water funds effectively employ multi-sector governance by bringing together public, private, and civil society actors, yet they fail to explicitly link their activities to broader national and international adaptation policy frameworks.
• There is a significant gap in monitoring, evaluation, and learning, particularly regarding social and gender impacts, which limits the ability of water funds to demonstrate co-benefits and attract further funding.

APA

Hildahl, K., Galindo, O., & Peña, N. (2025). Fostering local resilience and enhancing equity through ecosystem-based adaptation. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/2025-10/November%20final%20water%20funds%20paper%20.pdf

Chicago

Hildahl, Karen, Olga Galindo, and Niskar Peña. Fostering local resilience and enhancing equity through ecosystem-based adaptation. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2025. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/2025-10/November%20final%20water%20funds%20paper%20.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hildahl |first1=Karen |last2=Galindo |first2=Olga |last3=Peña |first3=Niskar |title=Fostering local resilience and enhancing equity through ecosystem-based adaptation |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=November 2025 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/2025-10/November%20final%20water%20funds%20paper%20.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hildahl2025fostering, author = {Hildahl, Karen and Galindo, Olga and Peña, Niskar}, title = {{Fostering local resilience and enhancing equity through ecosystem-based adaptation}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2025}, month = nov, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/2025-10/November%20final%20water%20funds%20paper%20.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }