2 May 2013: The 7th Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA7) was organized around the theme ‘mainstreaming CBA into national and local planning.’ The event brought together over 250 international participants and 50 government representatives who shared their experiences, good project practices, ideas and research interests in plenary and parallel sessions.

The Conference took place from 18-25 April 2013, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and was promoted by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), in cooperation with the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies (BCAS), with the support of a number of organizations, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN University (UNU), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), and UN Women.

Topics addressed included water, agriculture, gender, urban management and equity. In addition, over 1400 people registered for the conference as Virtual Internet Participants (VIPs), and over 4000 people viewed and took part in the CBA7 conversation through IIED’s live blog and twitter over the conference period.

At the Conference, the government representatives from Asia, Africa and Latin America decided to form a Government Group on Climate Change Mainstreaming, thus emphasising that governments now support and endorse the notion of mainstreaming CBA into national and local planning. This international Government Group will be coordinated by the Planning Commission of Bangladesh.

The eighth Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA8) will be held in 2014, in Nepal, around the theme ‘Financing CBA.’ [Conference Website] [IISD RS Sources]