SUMERNET PLUS: Partnerships for a long-term climate-resilient Mekong

• Enhanced capacities and inclusive collaborations of Mekong’s knowledge producers, policy influencers, and young professionals are needed to deliver credible research, solution-oriented knowledge coproduction, policy engagement, and communications that respond to the differentiated needs of local communities, women and other marginalised groups, and local leaders in addressing climate resilience challenges.
• Improved policy development and implementation by policymakers and practitioners that are inclusive, gender-responsive and grounded in human rights-based approach to deliver equitable climate resilience solutions in the Mekong Region.
• Adoption of just, equitable and sustainable practices by the private sector and other stakeholders, based on inclusive evidence from solution-oriented knowledge co-production, will contribute to climate resilience in the Mekong Region. 

For more details, please visit: https://www.sei.org/projects/sumernet-plus/

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Priority areas of work

• Climate change adaptation and mitigation

• Water-energy-food nexus

• Agriculture and food systems

• Forests and environmental degradation

• Women, youth, and climate action

Creating impact

SUMERNET PLUS will support a range of grants (from short-term rapid-response projects to multi-year innovations), dialogue and events, and research and policy outputs to deliver on the programme goals.

Grants – A total of 34 grants will be provided ranging from SEK 150,000 to 2,000,000 (approx. US$ 15,000-200,000).

• Scoping study grants: to identify existing innovative solutions and policy demands in the region.
• Rapid response grants: to respond to emerging issues and/or needs of regional, national or local policy or strategic partners.
• Joint study grants: to identify policy needs and entry points, which will be integrated in the call for joint study proposals that must address policy needs with relevant solutions.
• Seed innovation grants: that identify issues related to climate resilience and generate idea of innovative solutions.
• Innovation grants: The largest grant in terms of funding amount and duration under SUMERNET PLUS supports multi-year, multi-country action pilots addressing nexus issues to enhance climate resilience through innovative solutions.
• Fellowship grants: The grants for the individual early career professionals contributing to and learning from the programme that supports climate resilience in the region.

Capacity Building

• Training researchers, policymakers, practitioners, think tanks, young professionals, and communities in climate resilience, inclusive policy engagement, effective communications including media relationships, and financial management integrating ethics, monitoring and learning.

Policy Dialogues

• Amplifying local voices at regional forums (e.g. Mekong River Commission, Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, ASEAN) to shape inclusive policies that take into account the needs of local, grassroots and Indigenous communities as well as gender equality, disability and social inclusion and human rights-based approaches in the Mekong Region.

Themes

• Exploring nexus interactions and trade-offs in the Mekong Region. This theme focuses on existing dependencies, synergies, and trade-offs among key sectors (e.g., water, energy, agriculture, and forests) with the overall purpose of designing innovative solutions that address the existential threats of climate and unsustainable development using a transdisciplinary and inclusive approach.
• Building socio-ecological resilience across scales. Through practical and innovative partnerships (including public-private partnerships), this thematic area will maintain and enhance the resilience of socioecological systems to development and climate change.
• Just sustainable transitions. This thematic area will support the development of innovative, scalable solutions and evidence in key sectors (e.g., water, energy, agriculture, and forests) on a just sustainable transition for climate resilience. It will focus on defining the problem and solutions along with marginalized and vulnerable communities, women, youth, and local and Indigenous peoples.