During NIDWAN’s participation at the COP27 realized that the CSOs representing Nepal in the COP were not properly coordinated and informed of their own country engagements. Concerning which, NIDWAN organized a half day consultation workshop on “Journey of COP 27 looking through the intersectionality lens and preparation for COP 28” to discuss with Civil Society
Organization (CSOs), Organization of Person with Disabilities (OPDs), Indigenous Peoples Organization (IPOs) and relevant stakeholders for pre-COP 28 preparations on 14th March 2023 (Tuesday). Through this workshop, we aimed to build strategies and consensus among the CSOs and the government bodies for meaningful representation and a collective voice in COP 28. The workshop kickstarted with the sharing of NIDWAN’s work on climate change, engagements from COP 21, and updates from COP27 from the perspective of indigenous peoples and indigenous people with disability by Pema Wangmo Lama, Communication Documentation and Learning Officer of NIDWAN. Dr. Shree Kumar Maharjan and Dibya Devi Grurung also shared the study findings and the way forward from the research “Participatory Action Research on Climate Change” and rapid assessment on the “Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Women with Disabilities” respectively. Further, Pradeep Bhattarai, Program Coordinator of Prakriti Resources Centre presented on COP process, accreditations for Civil Society Organizations and CSO’s role in COP. Similarly, Prayash Adhikary, Program Officer of Digo Bikas Institute presented on “How can we all CSOs mobilize on various cross cutting issues (ensuring the issues of indigenous and disability) around COP 28?”. The session was followed by an interactive discussion where participants representing various CSOs discussed the possible engagement of CSOs in government mechanisms, network formation of CSOs, meaningful representation of CSO’s in COP, bridging the gap between mainstream CSOs and grassroots level CSOs, etc. Ms. Ganga Chhhantyal, vice president of NIDWAN concluded the workshop by emphasizing the crucial need for collaboration of CSOs to work together not limited to climate change and COP.
