Training for Creating Project Proposals for Climate Adaptation in Thailand

Challenge

Climate change is straining water, agriculture, and inland fisheries in northeastern Thailand; adaptation projects and access to climate finance are needed.

Solution

Design and deliver training on developing project proposals for climate adaptation projects, for NGOs and government officials in the region.

Overview

Climate change has placed stress on water, farming, and inland fisheries in northeastern Thailand. Local planners need practical skills to design fundable adaptation projects.

This project, led by Lyan Baybay Villacorta (Asian Institute of Technology [AIT], Thailand) and supported by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), built hands-on capacity for officials, academics, and NGO practitioners to prepare climate‑adaptation proposals that align with national policies and donor requirements.

Activities

The Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP) at AIT ran a five-day training in Bangkok in May 2019. The curriculum combined short presentations, group work, and peer review.

Sessions showed how to build a climate rationale, map drivers and impacts, and convert problems into objectives and activities that funders recognize. Exercises included impact-chain analysis to trace drivers, hazards, pathways, and impacts, problem- and objectives-tree analysis to turn core problems into objectives, and a logic-framework exercise to organize inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impacts.

Participants and delivery

Participants came from Thai universities, civil society groups, and national and provincial agencies. Resource people and invited speakers contributed sessions on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Simplified Approval Process, environmental and social safeguards, gender considerations in project design, monitoring and evaluation, and Thailand’s adaptation planning context.

Delivery followed adult-learning principles, pairing expert input with hands-on group tasks and plenary feedback.

Methods and tools

Teams followed a clear sequence: use impact-chain analysis to establish a climate rationale, define an evidence-based project problem, flip problems into objectives, then map a results pathway in a GCF-aligned logic framework. The approach emphasized practical outputs, team products, and peer critique. Each team produced a draft concept note rooted in a real project idea, then refined its scope through peer critique and facilitator guidance.

Follow‑up and next steps

Participants outlined roadmaps to advance their draft concepts toward full proposals after the training. Organizers encouraged continued collaboration and guided teams on aligning proposals with national adaptation plans, Thailand’s funding channels, and GCF procedures.

The event also highlighted ways to connect local needs in northeastern Thailand with potential financing and to embed gender and safeguards early in project design.

Outcomes and results

• Held a 5‑day capacity‑building program in Bangkok in May 2019.
• Engaged a multi-stakeholder cohort: 23 trainees, 3 observers, and 8 resource people.
• Documented knowledge gains across 8 topic areas using pre‑ and post‑training self‑assessments.
• Produced 4 draft concept notes and refined them through structured exercises and mentoring.
• Shared training materials online to support continued learning and proposal development.

Project details

Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) under its Scientific Capacity Development Programme (CAPaBLE).