Strengthening the Chain of Evidence, Policy Influence, and Implementation: Opportunities and Constraints in Climate AdaptationBased on ACCSAP Development Experience

This presentation reflected on the experience of developing the ASEAN Climate Change Strategic Action Plan 2026–2030 (ACCSAP) to examine how evidence can move beyond assessment and analysis to influence policy and support implementation. The ACCSAP experience showed that evidence becomes policy-relevant not simply through technical quality, but through credible processes of co-development, consultation, institutional alignment, and translation into decision-ready formats. In ASEAN’s consensus-based and facilitative governance context, evidence must be framed in ways that respect national circumstances while identifying areas of regional added value, including transboundary adaptation, climate-risk information systems, finance mobilisation, capacity-building, and cross-sectoral coordination. The discussion highlighted four pathways through which evidence can shape policy influence: formal policy drafting, consultation and negotiation, institutional uptake, and implementation/finance pathways. Key constraints include fragmented mandates, uneven institutional capacities, limited data readiness, policy timing, and weak links between evidence, finance, and implementation mechanisms. The ACCSAP process also underscored the importance of trust, sustained engagement, transparency in how stakeholder inputs are used, and the need for an institutional home such as AWGCC and the future ACCC. The central lesson is that evidence influences policy when it is not treated as a stand-alone product, but as part of an ongoing governance function linked to ownership, mandates, finance, learning, and implementation.