A Coordinated Regional Platform for Locally Led Adaptation in the Caribbean
Caribbean Climate Week (CCW) is a regional initiative led by The Cropper Foundation under the Generating Ambition for Locally Led Adaptation (GA-LLA) in the Caribbean programme. Operating across Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, CCW creates a coordinated regional platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange, storytelling, and advocacy centred on locally led adaptation (LLA).
Locally Led Adaptation is an approach that empowers communities to take a leading role in addressing climate change impacts. By placing local knowledge, priorities, and decision-making at the centre of adaptation efforts, LLA helps ensure that climate solutions are relevant, inclusive, and responsive to community needs.
Learn More: Introduction to locally led adaptation | International Institute for Environment and Development
Through nationally led Climate Week events, shared tools and resources, and coordinated advocacy, CCW strengthens civil society leadership, gives greater visibility to community priorities, and builds regional cohesion around climate resilience and climate justice. By connecting local experience with regional and international climate discussions, CCW helps ensure that Caribbean voices, knowledge, and adaptation priorities shape climate action rather than sit at its margins.
Background and Challenges
Across the Caribbean, communities, civil society organisations, youth groups, Indigenous Peoples, and local adaptation practitioners are developing innovative responses to climate change. From coastal erosion and flooding to water insecurity and ecosystem degradation, locally led solutions are already strengthening resilience and protecting livelihoods.
However, opportunities to share these experiences, coordinate action, and influence climate policy remain fragmented across countries and sectors. Adaptation work is often carried out in isolation, with few structured channels through which local experience can reach regional and international decision-making spaces.
As a result, the region’s vulnerabilities and innovations are frequently narrated by others, and Caribbean priorities can sit at the margins of climate fora designed elsewhere.
CCW responds to these challenges by creating a coordinated regional platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange, storytelling, and advocacy, giving the Caribbean an arena of its own in which regional priorities, evidence, and people are placed at the centre.
Our Approach
CCW supports the establishment of Local Organising Committees (LOCs) in each GA-LLA country to design and deliver nationally relevant Climate Week events rooted in local adaptation priorities.
Working within a shared regional framework, Climate Week activities bring together community leaders, civil society organisations, youth networks, Indigenous groups, researchers, policymakers, media practitioners, and private sector stakeholders to exchange knowledge, showcase adaptation solutions, and strengthen climate advocacy.
The initiative also develops shared tools, resources, and communications platforms to support coordination, storytelling, learning, and sustained engagement beyond individual events.
A Soft Launch will be held to introduce the Caribbean Climate Week brand to the different audiences, thereby building recognition ahead of the national Climate Weeks in 2027.
Goal
To strengthen regional cohesion, visibility, and collective advocacy on locally led adaptation across five Caribbean countries through coordinated Climate Week events that amplify community experiences and elevate Caribbean climate priorities in public and policy spaces.
Objectives
The initiative aims to:
- Deliver coordinated Climate Week events in the five Caribbean GA-LLA countries that engage civil society, communities, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and other key stakeholders;
- Establish CCW as a recognised regional mechanism for climate dialogue, storytelling, and advocacy;
- Increase the visibility of locally led adaptation experiences and priorities across the Caribbean;
- Strengthen regional collaboration and knowledge exchange among climate actors; and
- Contribute community-informed evidence and recommendations to national, regional, and international climate discussions.
Expected Outcomes
By 2028, the initiative is expected to:
- Deliver coordinated Climate Week events across the five Caribbean GA-LLA countries;
- Establish Local Organising Committees in each participating country to lead national planning and delivery;
- Produce a Climate Week Toolkit, an Event Portal, and an Adaptation Anthology documenting locally led adaptation across the region;
- Increase the visibility of Caribbean adaptation priorities in regional and international climate spaces; and
- Build partnerships and secure co-financing that support Climate Week activity beyond the programme period.
Key Activities
Strategic Partnerships: Build a network of key external partners to champion the CCW initiative within and beyond the region, raising its profile and securing project co-financing.
Regional Coordination and Governance: Establish GA-LLA country-level Local Organising Committees (LOCs) to guide the planning, coordination, and implementation of Climate Week activities.
Climate Week Toolkit and Resources: Develop shared planning tools, communications resources, governance standards, safeguarding guidance, and implementation materials to support consistent and inclusive delivery across participating countries.
Climate Week Events: Support the design and implementation of Climate Week events, including the CCW Soft Launch at New York Climate Week 2026, that showcase locally led adaptation, facilitate dialogue, and promote collaboration among diverse stakeholders.
Storytelling and Public Engagement: Collect and amplify select adaptation stories curated from the Citizen Environmental Journalism (CEJ) workstream through media campaigns, exhibitions, cultural programming, community showcases, and digital engagement activities.
Advocacy and Regional Influence: Strengthen the visibility of Caribbean adaptation priorities through coordinated messaging, policy engagement, regional exchanges, and participation in key climate forums.
Key Stakeholders
CCW engages a diverse network of stakeholders, including:
- Civil society organisations and community groups;
- Youth networks and youth leaders;
- Indigenous organisations and local community representatives;
- Environmental and climate practitioners;
- Regional adaptation and development partners; and
- Policymakers and decision-makers involved in climate resilience and sustainable development.
- Caribbean diaspora;
- Academic institutions and researchers;
- Private sector partners and donors;
Contact us to learn more about Caribbean Climate Week and how you can support it:
The Cropper Foundation
Tel: 1-868-221-5751