What We Do
Taking “empowering knowledge” and “building human capital” as the priority commitments, the organization is devoted to enhancing knowledge-base, policy strategies, and human capital worldwide. Priority themes of research and policy advocacy include
Climate Risk
Vulnerability analysis and modelling, Risk mapping and resilience building, and Loss and damage analysis. The issue of socio-ecological aspects of handling disaster risk from natural hazards has been explored in disaster risk research. There, vulnerability and resilience are often interpreted as something under certain conditions unquestionably given. Particularly disaster risk research in Global South added socio-economical aspects, e.g. of, poverty, inequality, insecurity, lack of access to resources, social exclusion and deprivation, which are often used as direct indicators or as an explanation for social vulnerability
Climate Change Adaptation
Local-led adaptation; Livelihood resilience; Youth and development, climate-smart services. A society or an individual is often unquestionably vulnerable or resilient due to specific internal and external factors e.g. planning-institutional (e.g. legal frameworks and planning institutions) and socio-ecological (e.g. social, economic resources, natural and built environment) attributes. Based on past and present experiences with the social and ecological environment, communities at climate risks socially construct their own reality of vulnerability or resilience. This reality becomes a reality sui generis and has consequences for local problem perception and action strategies. Therefore, research on locally- led adaptation planning and its related cultures also must consider broader lines of research at the interface of environmental and cultural sociology as well as the sociology of knowledge.
Migration and Non-migration
Staying as adaptation, disaster-induced displacement, borders, refugee and integration; gender, Trans-gender and development: Equity and diversity, Diaspora and development.
Due to environmental stress, migration can happen forcefully (displacement) or voluntarily. World Bank (2018) forecasted by 2050 around 143 million people living in the three regions- Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America; will be forced to migrate within their own countries due to the increased drought frequencies, floods, sea-level rises, and desertification. However, the proportion of people who leave is relatively lower than those who decide to stay back, despite facing the same climatic risks. It is important to note that in academic and policy circles, the movement of people due to climatic stress receives much more attention than the stayers, and knowledge of immobility concerning environmental change is still underdeveloped.