Abstract: USAID Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change project (USAID Mekong ARCC), in partnership with International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Asian Management and Development Institute, and the World Food Programme, is implementing approaches to build local level adaptive capacity and resilience within rural communities across the lower Mekong basin (LMB) countries of Thailand, Lao PDR, Vietnam, and Cambodia. USAID Mekong ARCC's Adaptation Decision Making Approachhe project engaged World Resources Institute Vulnerability and Adaptation Expert, Moushumi Chaudhury, to capture lessons learned from application of the Community Adaptation Decision Making method (see illustration) developed by USAID Mekong ARCC and implemented by partners across sites. This participatory decision-making approach sought to integrate top-down scientific and bottom-up community perspectives in order to improve resilience and sustainability of local adaptation plans. The Lessons Learned report is intended to help government planners, donors, researchers and practitioners in the LMB region understand how scientific knowledge can be merged with local knowledge, and how this empowers communities to collaboratively develop adaptation plans. Community adaptation plans have since been completed, and livelihood resilience strengthening solutions are now being trialled in target communities.

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