June 30, 2025
/
People in marginalised groups – women, girls, people with disabilities, the elderly – often bear a disproportionate share of the negative impacts of climate change and disaster risks.
“Often, people in marginalised groups are the most affected by climate change. But not because of their gender, disability or age, but due to social and infrastructural inequalities,” explained Dr Kien Nguyen-Trung, Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) and Research Lead at WSCA.
Several recent outputs highlight the challenges people from marginalised groups face in dealing with the impacts of climate change.
The first output is a research paper published in Disasters (a Q1 ranked journal) that identifies 8 key challenges people with disabilities face in managing the impacts of climate change:
- barriers to accessing disaster risk information and warnings
- difficulties in understanding emergencies
- challenges in communicating needs
- evacuation and mobility hurdles
- decreased sense of belonging and isolation
- increased risk of getting sick
- increased risk of developing mental health and behavioural disorders
- disrupted livelihood and loss of income.
The research paper drew on a collaborative research project by WSCA, the Hanoi Association of People with Disabilities (DP Hanoi) and BehaviourWorks Australia that aimed to build DP Hanoi's capacity to collect and use data to influence policies and initiatives that benefit people with disabilities. An important part of that project was a rapid evidence review of 33 studies, key informant interviews with 26 local stakeholders and 52 interviews with people with various disabilities in Hanoi and Nghe An province, Viet Nam.
READ THE PAPER
The second output is an episode of the SUMERNET podcast, where Kien shared his insights on making climate communication in the Mekong Region more inclusive.
Key to developing inclusive climate policy is rethinking how we frame disasters.
“A flood doesn’t automatically become a disaster. A disaster only happens when the affected community lacks the capacity to cope. For example, social barriers – like inaccessible weather alerts in rural areas – worsen disaster impacts,” he explained.
Shaping inclusive climate policies starts with genuine collaboration, where affected communities co-design the research and messaging.
“Policymakers are people, and they’re moved by real stories, real struggles and real solutions. So if we want to influence policy, we must not only speak to the head, but we must also speak to the heart,” Kien said.
The SUMERNET 4 All Podcast series is produced by the Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET), a research and policy engagement initiative that brings together research partners working on sustainable development in Mekong countries: Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. SUMERNET is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE
Building on the success of our research in Viet Nam, we are expanding our GEDSI program to mainstream equity and human rights approaches to urban sustainability transition, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction in Southeast Asia. Stay tuned for more details.
