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The document examines the critical intersection of WASH services, climate change, and global health security, illustrating how water scarcity and infrastructure failure exacerbate disease transmission and political instability. It highlights specific instances in West Africa, India, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the lack of basic water services in healthcare facilities increased vulnerability to Ebola and other health crises. The author advocates for the U.S. Government to leverage its global water and climate strategies to promote sector-inclusive policies and funding that prioritize prevention over response.

This briefing document, prepared by the IAI Directorate, presents recommendations for revisions to the IAI Scientific Agenda for consideration by the Conference of the Parties at its 30th meeting. The revisions, developed by the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) and the Science-Policy Advisory Committee (SPAC), align the agenda's terminology with other multilateral environmental agreements and incorporate specific research priorities regarding climate variability.

The 29th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (CoP-29) resulted in the adoption of 17 decisions covering financial budgets, governance policies, and scientific initiatives. Key outcomes include the approval of a new Gender Policy, a Whistleblower policy, and the establishment of a working group for a national climate assessment initiative in Latin America and the Caribbean. The meeting also addressed financial strains caused by a lack of voluntary contributions and updated the IAI Scientific Agenda.

The report details the administrative, financial, and scientific outcomes of the IAI's 29th Conference of the Parties. Key actions include the approval of the 2021-2022 operating budget, the adoption of a gender policy for projects, and the establishment of a working group for national climate assessments in Latin America and the Caribbean. The meeting also addressed the financial pressure caused by unpaid voluntary contributions and the need to combat predatory scientific publishing in the Americas.

The research evaluates future food security using the FEEDME model, incorporating IPCC climate scenarios and Shared Socio-economic Pathways. The findings suggest that while climate change affects crop yields, population growth is the primary driver of undernourishment prevalence, with rapid population growth correlating with the worst food security outcomes.

The Market Approaches to Resilience (MAR) project (2015-2019) aimed to reduce the vulnerability of rural Ethiopian pastoralists to climate shocks by diversifying their assets beyond livestock. By providing microfinance services—including loans, savings, and credit—the project enabled participants, particularly women, to establish small businesses and generate steady cash incomes. This financial diversification reduced the need for long-distance migration to find grazing land during droughts. The project employed a 'systems approach' that combined financial services with the restoration of depleted landscapes through the planting of trees and vegetation. A key focus was gender integration, with some Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLA) reaching up to 80% female membership. The project reached 188,902 people, including 70,825 women, and demonstrated that pastoralist resilience can be improved without forcing a transition to a non-nomadic lifestyle. The authors conclude that systemic resilience requires longer funding cycles than the typical three-year period to ensure institutional gains are sustainable and to overcome barriers such as the reluctance of financial institutions to serve low-income, non-permanent settlements.

The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) announced the election results from its 28th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP-28) held on 19 August 2020. The Executive Council for 2020–2022 includes Canada, Chile, Jamaica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, the United States, and Uruguay, with the United States serving as Chair. Additionally, the document lists the newly elected members of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) and the Science-Policy Advisory Committee (SPAC), including their respective areas of expertise and institutional affiliations.

The Green Road Infrastructure Guidelines for Colombia establish a framework for integrating sustainability into the entire lifecycle of road projects—from strategic planning and design to operation and decommissioning. Central to this is the Early Intervention Approach (EIA), which emphasizes the use of the mitigation hierarchy (avoid, prevent, mitigate, correct, and compensate) to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services. The guidelines provide specific technical directives for each project phase, focusing on maintaining ecological connectivity, protecting Areas of Special Environmental Interest (AEIA), and managing water bodies. Key engineering recommendations include the construction of wildlife crossings, the use of 'green' drainage works, and the establishment of multifunctional nurseries. The document also stresses the importance of governability and community participation to prevent social conflict and illegal land grabbing, particularly in sensitive regions like the Colombian Amazon.

This briefing document, prepared by the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) and the Science-Policy Advisory Committee (SPAC), presents proposed revisions to the Scientific Agenda of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) for adoption by the Conference of the Parties at its 28th meeting.

The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) has proposed a revised Scientific Agenda to its Conference of the Parties. This update aligns the agenda with the IAI Strategic Plan, emphasizing transdisciplinary science and the integration of human systems. The proposed agenda is organized into four primary research themes: human dimensions and policy consequences, climate variability in the Americas, ecosystems and biodiversity, and the chemical composition of the atmosphere, oceans, and freshwater. These themes aim to address regional sustainability, including food and water security, climate adaptation, and biodiversity conservation across the Americas.

The guide outlines a simulation game where participants act as subsistence farmers managing assets (beans) against climate risks (droughts and floods). The game progresses from a gender-neutral phase to one that introduces systemic inequalities—such as lower starting assets for women and lower harvest payouts—to spark dialogue on climate vulnerability. An optional 'gender-smart programming' round demonstrates how targeted interventions can equalize outcomes by providing equal starting assets and harvest rewards regardless of gender.

The study evaluates the relationship between three drought indicators and communal conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa (1989-2014) using multilevel logistic regression. It finds that while all three measures are positively associated with conflict, the strength of the relationship increases as the measure moves from meteorological (SPEI) to agricultural (NDVI) and finally to socio-economic (EM-DAT) impacts. Specifically, socio-economic droughts approximately double the odds of experiencing violent conflict. However, the author notes that the NDVI effect may be driven by spatial correlation—where conflicts and vegetation loss occur in the same land types—rather than a direct temporal causal link. The study concludes that preventing meteorological droughts from escalating into socio-economic disasters could potentially reduce communal conflict risks.

The document argues that climate services—the production and use of climate knowledge for decision-making—are essential for adaptation but are currently underdeveloped and misaligned with user needs in the developing world. It identifies critical gaps in the use of long-term climate projections, which are often unsuitable for planning horizons of 10-30 years, and calls for a shift toward resilience-based approaches and improved national meteorological service (NMS) capacity. The authors propose ten recommendations focused on co-production between providers and users, filling observational data gaps, and reforming data policies to treat meteorological data as a public good.

The document outlines the evolution of the IAI's Scientific Agenda, moving from seven initial research areas to four broad themes. It presents a revised version of these themes—covering climate variability, comparative ecosystem studies, chemical composition of the environment, and human dimensions—to be adopted by the Conference of the Parties.

The IAI Strategic Plan (2019–2044) establishes a long-term framework to bridge the gap between science and policy in the Americas. The plan is organized into three themes: meeting the needs of member Parties, advancing science for regional sustainability, and ensuring the organizational sustainability of the IAI. Key priorities include promoting transdisciplinary research on climate action, water and energy security, and biodiversity, while expanding the institute's membership and establishing a 100 million USD endowment fund.

The Draft IAI Strategic Plan (2019–2044) establishes a 25-year roadmap to support sustainable policies in the Americas through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. The plan is organized into three themes: meeting the needs of member Parties, advancing a science agenda for regional sustainability, and ensuring the organizational sustainability of the IAI. Key priorities include climate action, water and food security, biodiversity conservation, and the promotion of open science and data. The IAI aims to act as a bridge between scientific research and policy-making, targeting the co-creation of knowledge and the enhancement of institutional capacities across the region.

The paper examines the use of high-end climate change (HECC) scenarios in adaptation planning across the EU, Hungary, Portugal, and Scotland, finding that decision-makers generally view these scenarios as low-probability and do not routinely integrate them into current actions, often prioritizing non-climate drivers over climate change.

The research assesses how smallholder rural households in four Asian countries adapt to climate pressures such as changing rainfall, droughts, and floods. Based on interviews with nearly 600 people, the authors identified 36 key indicators of adaptive capacity to determine why some households are better equipped to secure their livelihoods than others.

The document argues that public funding is insufficient to meet the rising costs of urban stormwater management driven by urban expansion and climate variability. It advocates for a shift from centralized 'gray infrastructure' to decentralized 'green infrastructure' on private property. To overcome the lack of private investment, the paper suggests the implementation of stormwater markets using quantity-based approaches such as credit trading, mitigation banks, in-lieu fees, and offsets, noting that a customized design is necessary to align with legal frameworks and ensure actor buy-in.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) provides technical tools and research in Colombia to bridge science and policy across water management, energy transition, and sustainable sanitation. Key efforts include the use of WEAP for water resource planning, LEAP for low-emission energy modeling, and TRASE for mapping deforestation in agricultural supply chains. SEI also investigates the socio-economic transition away from thermal coal in the César and La Guajira departments and supports the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).