Across Southeast Asia, climate adaptation is entering a new phase. Most ASEAN countries now have a National Adaptation Plan (NAP). The next step is harder: turning these plans into action on the ground. Through Partners for Water, The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is supporting this next step through cross-learning by bringing experts, governments and countries together to learn from each other. This is part of a wider approach that reaches beyond the ASEAN region.
ASEAN is one of the global regions most vulnerable to climate change. Rising temperatures, extreme weather, sea-level rise and water scarcity put pressure on food security, infrastructure and livelihoods. Like elsewhere in the world, turning national plans into local action depends on access to finance and close horizontal and vertical coordination between different layers of government.
Cross-learning helps to bridge that gap. Climate resilience and water management are shared priorities in the partnership between ASEAN and the Netherlands. Since 2025, a cross-learning event has taken place each year in the country that chairs ASEAN. Delegates bring challenges and real cases from their own countries and work on them with peers and experts. Promising cases can lead to follow-up support, bringing plans a step closer to implementation.
Organised by the Philippines, chair of ASEAN in 2026 and the Government of the Netherlands, and facilitated by Partners for Water, the latest cross-learning event took place in Malolos City in September 2026. Seven ASEAN countries and the Netherlands came together around one shared question: how do you turn long-term plans into results on the ground?
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Dutch knowledge in practice
The sessions in Malolos covered themes that have shaped Dutch water practices over the years, drawing on experiences from both at home and through international cooperation. Dutch experts shared their experiences as input for the cases that delegates brought from their own countries.
Land subsidence was one of these themes. Experts from Wageningen University & Research shared insights into its underlying causes, including groundwater extraction. The issue came up in several cases, from the Pampanga Delta, the Mekong and Red River Delta, the Bangkok Bay to the North coast of Java. The Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAPP) approach offered a way to look at these cases over time. Which steps are needed now, and which choices can wait without limiting future options?
Nature-based approaches and transformative landscapes are gaining ground in the Netherlands and across the ASEAN region. In the Pampanga River Basin, for example, residents, farmers and a local wetlands NGO are helping to turn a plan for large grey infrastructure into one that combines floodwater storage, protected zones and farmland that accommodate floodwaters when needed.
For hundreds of years, we concreted our way out of it. Now we are going back to building with nature. Here in Malolos, together with you, we are trying to re-revolutionise nature-based solutions.
Financing these approaches remains a challenge. Yet nature-based approaches can generate benefits values in multiple ways. Mangroves protect against erosion and provide breeding grounds for fish, which supports local livelihoods. Other solutions also bring wider benefits, such as ecotourism. Knowing exactly what these benefits are, and who receives them, helps to identify how these solutions can be funded.
What connects these themes is a shared way of working: start from the local context, build plans together with the people who live there, and combining local knowledge with expertise from elsewhere.
What the Netherlands takes home
Cross-learning is not a one-way exchange. ASEAN countries are already dealing with climate extremes such as intense rainfall, drought and saltwater intrusion. That experience offers valuable lessons for the Netherlands, both in general and through specific cases.
The nature-based alternatives developed for the Pampanga River Basin are one example. Storing floodwater in rice fields can serve as an example for Dutch approaches, such as a ‘wisselpolder’ (a sedimentation or land-raising polder) or the rewetting of peatlands. The same goes for measures that dampen waves and trap sediment, such as coastal forests and nature-based wave breakers, as seen on the coast of Pamarawan Island.
“The resilience of local people is especially inspiring to me,” says Liliane Geerling of Partners for Water. “Local adaptation measures can be very creative. Raised tricycles, an important mode of transport in the Philippines, can keep carrying people even when roads are under 80 centimetres of water.”
Beyond Southeast Asia
The same approach reaches beyond Southeast Asia. Alongside ASEAN, Partners for Water supports cross-learning with Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, in collaboration with the NAP Global Network. Peer learning events in Johannesburg and Accra in 2026 focused on the same question as Malolos: moving national adaptation priorities from planning to implementation. Insights from both regions will be shared at international forums, such as the UN climate conferences.
The exchange continues
Insights from Malolos will be presented at COP17 in November 2026 and at the UN Water Conference in December 2026. In 2027, the next ASEAN cross-learning event will take place in Singapore, coinciding with ASEAN’s 60th anniversary.
Throughout the year we will continue the cross-learning activities via webinars and one-on-one support. Meanwhile, the African track will continue with a workshop in Kenya.
Water, it touches the lives of every single person on this earth. Whether it’s too much, too little, too dirty or unequally distributed. Achieving a world where water is secure for all requires us to rethink water and climate adaptation efforts. For example, by looking into social inclusion.
In recent years, the water sector has taken several steps in this direction. Two things became clear: social inclusion is essential for sustainable interventions and collaboration on all levels is required to include this crucial process.
Climate- and water related problems often have the greatest impact on vulnerable people and the communities in which they live. Although these people have their own priorities, values and local knowledge, they are often seen as beneficiaries of the solution, rather than partners in resolving their water challenges. This approach fails to empower them, often resulting in missed opportunities for collaboration, community ownership and the valuable insights they can potentially bring to the table.
Levee breach in Colombia
Turning point
Starting in 2019, the Dutch water sector has made a conscious decision to initiate an open conversation about social inclusion and actively seek out different perspectives. This shift in approach was prompted by critiques from various scientists, NGOs, local governments and journalists, which included drawing attention to a lack of engagement with communities, culture and local governance. In order to pursue a more inclusive approach, the Dutch water sector is committed to actively listening to diverse voices, fostering dialogue and translating the outcomes into practical actions.
Community of Practice
With the aim of putting these intentions into practice, Partners for Water and Deltares started the Community of Practice on Social Inclusion, in 2019 . The community comprises of a diverse group of individuals from companies, knowledge institutions, NGO’s and governmental organisations. All of them are committed to learning about social inclusion, to sharing analyses and experiences, advising each other, developing improved practices and passing on the results to a wider audience.
Community of practice
Theory U
The aim of the Community of Practice is to foster a deeper understanding of the processes and perspectives that social inclusion encompasses rather than imposing a strict definition of it. One way of doing this, is by making use of Theory U developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Otto Scharmer. The theory aims to address complex challenges and foster transformative change. It involves practices like deep listening and observing the current situation supporting individuals or groups to suspend their habitual ways of thinking and open themselves up to new insights and possibilities (see Figure 1). Applying Theory U to integrate social inclusion in water management and climate adaptation enables a more participatory approach, ensuring that diverse perspectives and needs are incorporated into the process.
Making progress
While there are still many steps to undertake in this transformative journey, the water sector has recently taken important strides in addressing social inclusion in water management. For instance, by organising various sessions to openly discuss and reflect on important cases from the past few years, like Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia1. After discussing with international experts and local stakeholder on the innovative approach of Water as Leverages, the Community of Practice recognised three actionable perspectives regarding inclusivity: inclusive community engagement, inclusive project development and inclusive commissioning. These perspectives were translated into potential entry points for improving social inclusion in water climate adaptation (see Table 1). Similar sessions were held to reflect on efforts involved in developing and applying the Manila Bay Sustainable Master Plan in the Philippines and the cooperation between The Netherlands and the city of Beira in Mozambique. Within the water sector, all these sessions contributed to a growing understanding of and support for the concept of social inclusion in international water management.
Source: Water Governance International PP. 34
The Community of Practice also addressed social inclusion internationally by holding various side events during different global water conferences, like Climate Adaptation Summit 2021, the Waterproof 2021 event and the Stockholm Water Week 2023. During these events, professionals from diverse corners of the world came together to share examples of social inclusivity and to share best practices, challenges and practical tools for a more inclusive approach.
Learning and improving
Social inclusion leads to better outcomes and sustainable interventions and it cannot be achieved alone. Our aim is to enhance the integration of social inclusion in water and climate adaptation. How we strengthen these integration processes is something we must explore together. While learning and improving collectively, we discover our positions, develop new methods, test prototypes, discard old practices and step into our highest potential future.
