Hanoi, Viet Nam | 9 June 2026
Representatives from ten ASEAN Member States, alongside development partners and regional stakeholders, had come together for the 11th Annual Meeting of the ASEAN Climate Resilience Network (ASEAN-CRN), not merely to take stock of what had been done, but to decide what must come next with a sense of urgency.
The stakes were clear from the outset. Across the region, agri-food systems face mounting pressure from erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, and increasingly severe weather events. For millions of farmers and rural communities, these are not abstract policy concerns; they are daily realities. It was this backdrop that lent the meeting its sense of purpose.
“The challenges before our agri-food systems are complex and increasing,” said Mr. Dinh Pham Hien of Viet Nam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, welcoming participants on behalf of the host country. “But so is our capacity to meet them when we work together.”
From Policy to Action
Thailand’s Department of Agriculture (DOA), chairing ASEAN-CRN this year, set the tone for the discussions. Director General Mr. Rapibhat Chandarasrivongs was direct about what the Network must now deliver: “Regional cooperation is essential to strengthen resilience, advance sustainable agriculture, and create long-term opportunities for farmers and rural communities across ASEAN.”
The centrepiece of the meeting was the continued rollout of the ASEAN-CRN Five-Year Programme Framework (2026–2030), a strategic roadmap aligned with the ASEAN Food, Agriculture and Forestry Sectoral Plan. Country reports from across the ten member states told an encouraging story: the region is moving, at last, from designing policies to implementing them. Climate-smart agriculture, adaptation planning, and sustainable investment are no longer aspirational talking points — they are active work programmes in member states’ national agendas.
Yet the reports also carried a candid message: implementation is outpacing the regional support structures designed to sustain it. Countries need stronger mechanisms to turn national efforts into measurable, lasting outcomes, particularly in building agri-food systems that are both resilient and low in emissions.
Unlocking Climate Finance
One of the meeting’s most concrete discussions centred on money, specifically, how to get more of it flowing to where it is needed most. Two financing instruments took centre stage: the Agri-Risk Financing Facility, developed under a Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness Grant, and the Regional Agricultural Insurance and Sustainable Economies Facility (SEADRIF-RAISE). Together, these mechanisms represent the region’s most significant effort yet to give agricultural stakeholders practical access to climate finance and risk management tools.
Partners were candid that ambition must now be matched by architecture. Strengthening investment pipelines, building MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) systems, and improving transparency were identified as priorities — not as bureaucratic exercises, but as the foundations on which long-term climate action depends.
Looking beyond the region, participants also discussed ASEAN’s voice at COP30, the previous UN Climate Change Conference, with broad agreement that Southeast Asia’s experiences and perspectives deserve a stronger presence in global climate negotiations.
A Network Finding Its Feet
The meeting heard a proposal to establish the Mekong Institute (MI), currently serving as Interim Secretariat, as the Network’s permanent home. The decision was deferred to ASEAN-CRN Focal Points for further consideration, but the direction was clear: a network that has grown in ambition needs an institutional base to match.
For Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, MI Executive Director, the moment carries particular weight. “The Mekong Institute has been proud to support ASEAN-CRN as Interim Secretariat, and we see this as a natural evolution of our long-standing commitment to regional cooperation,” he said. “A permanent secretariat would give the Network the institutional continuity it needs to deliver on its ambitions — for member states, for farmers, and for the region’s food future.”
Development partners, including FAO and GIZ, signaled their continued commitment to the Network’s evolution. Their message was pointed: the region must move beyond one-off projects and build a programmatic, enduring mechanism capable of delivering generational change in how Southeast Asia feeds itself under a warming climate.
Learning in Practice
The annual meeting was held alongside two regional workshops. FAO convened a closing workshop on GCF-supported initiatives, drawing out lessons from years of climate finance work across the region. GIZ brought together stakeholders to align ASEAN-CRN’s work more tightly with the regional food security and nutrition agenda, a reminder that climate resilience and hunger are two sides of the same challenge.
The outcomes of the meeting were subsequently noted by the ASEAN Technical Working Group on Agricultural Research and Development (ATWGARD), which recognised ASEAN-CRN’s growing contributions across climate-smart agriculture, sustainable agri-food systems, and the financing structures that underpin them.
Hosted by DOA of Thailand in its capacity as Chair of ASEAN-CRN, the meeting was supported by MI, serving as Interim Secretariat of the Network, and key development partners, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The Asian Farmers’ Association (AFA), Clim-EAT, and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) – Thailand also graced the regional meeting.
The meeting reinforced that the frameworks are in place, the partnerships are deepening, and the urgency is undeniable. What remains is the harder work of turning commitment into change, season by season, farm by farm, across one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions.
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About ASEAN-CRN
The ASEAN Climate Resilience Network (ASEAN-CRN) is a regional platform under the ASEAN Technical Working Group on Agricultural Research and Development (ATWGARD), promoting cooperation, knowledge sharing, and capacity building on climate resilience in agriculture. It supports ASEAN Member States in advancing climate-smart agriculture, sustainable agri-food systems, and resilient rural livelihoods across Southeast Asia.
