Building Adaptive Capacities of Local Communities: Stories of Change from the Climate Smart Villages in Myanmar

The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) and its local non-government organizations (NGO) partners, with support from CGIAR-CCAFS and the International Development Research Center-Canada (IDRC), established four climate smart villages (CSVs) representing four major ago-ecological context of Myanmar agriculture. Since 2017, IIRR and its partners have been working on developing tools and processes are aimed at scaling out the CSV approach within the programs of government, donors, and NGOs in Myanmar. They also worked on establishing evidences on the potential of CSVs in addressing the development challenges of Myanmar’s rural communities — climate variability, food insecurity and poverty. Since the program started, at least 600 smallholder farming households benefitted from CSVs. They received resources to implement and test the various adaptation options identified and their learnings were also enhanced through trainings, workshops, and opportunities to engage with other farmers and organizations. These compilation of stories from Myanmar’s CSVs provides a glimpse into how individual households are affected in these villages. These stories are not exhaustive and are coming only from the CSVs in Chin state and in the Ayeyarwaddy region. IIRR will continue to document, whenever possible, future stories of change from the four CSVs