Second World Summit for Social Development | Side Event

Poverty Reduction and Climate Resilience: Achieving Both Simultaneously

6 November | 2025 13:15–14:30 (local Doha time) | Room 11, World Summit venue, Doha, Qatar

Second World Summit for Social Development, Doha, Qatar The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS), Republic of Zambia, invite you to join this Solutions Session on poverty reduction and climate resilience as mutually reinforcing goals. The event will take place as a side event at the Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha.

The event will bring together global experts and policymakers to explore how poverty reduction and climate resilience can be achieved together through coordinated policy, programming, and financing. It will advocate the adoption of poverty reduction and climate resilience as a leading joint theme post-2030. The event builds on a May 2025 regional conference in Lusaka, co-convened by MCDSS, the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN) hosted at IDS, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI), which generated actionable insights on accelerating development outcomes while addressing climate vulnerabilities.

Speakers will share lessons from international research, Sub-Saharan African and Asian experiences, and Zambia’s leadership in placing people in and near poverty at the heart of climate and social policy. On the latter, the discussion will draw out recommendations from CPAN’s national report on poverty dynamics and climate resilience in Zambia, and set out how these themes can shape global development priorities beyond 2030.

Programme:

Chair: Vice President of Zambia

· Poverty reduction: international lessons – Fernanda Pavez Esbry (UNDESA)

· Climate resilience: international lessons – Aditya Bahadur (Climate Centre, IFRC)

· Joining up poverty and climate resilience – Andrew Shepherd & Vidya Diwakar (IDS)

· National implementation experience, Zambia – Hon. Doreen Sefuke Mwamba (Minister of Community Development and Social Services, Zambia); Dr Brian Mulenga (IAPRI)

· Sub-Saharan Africa perspectives – Speakers from Rwanda/Senegal (TBC)

· South/Southeast Asia perspectives – Imran Matin (Bangladesh)

· Equitable food security – Stephen Devereux & Lídia Cabral (IDS)

· Donor response – Senior official, UK FCDO

For more details, please contact Andrew Shepherd (A.Shepherd@associate.ids.ac.uk)