The 4th Roundtable Discussion on the Impacts of Climate Change on Urban Outdoor Workers
Event
Beyond Lip Service: Co-producing Knowledge and Action with Marginal Urban Communities under Climate Change
A UNESCAP-affiliated event showcasing Asian city case studies on community-led responses to climate change and urban inequality
Register
In parallel with the UNESCAP Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2026, NatCen and its partners will host a flagship event showcasing innovative, community-led approaches from Asian cities to address climate change, health risks and urban inequality. The event brings together Asian city case studies to examine how community-led knowledge and action can address the intersecting challenges of climate change and urban inequality
Aligned with the Forum’s mandate, the event seeks to inform, empower, and support Asia-Pacific countries, particularly least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing States, in advancing the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It does so by identifying regional trends and sharing best practices and lessons learned.
This event focuses on Asian cities at the frontline of climate change impacts and widening urban inequalities, with particular attention to informal and other precarious outdoor workers. Linked to Sustainable Development Goals 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), the session will explore the following key questions:
- How do climate change impacts shape the health and wellbeing of precarious urban outdoor workers and other vulnerable populations in Asian cities?
- What lessons can be learned from community-led adaptations by women agricultural workers, outdoor labourers, and other marginalised groups in sustaining livelihoods and protecting rights?
- How can inclusive partnerships among governments, academia, and civil society strengthen health resilience, disaster risk reduction, and social protection in contexts of urban inequality?
This event will feature case studies from Thailand, Hong Kong (China), Pakistan, and Vietnam. It will combine brief presentations with interactive discussion to foster dialogue across research, policy, and community practice, and to move beyond rhetoric toward genuinely co-produced pathways for just and climate-resilient urban development.
Speakers
-
Dr Anh VuResearch Director National Centre for Social Research
Dr Anh Vu is a political ecologist and interdisciplinary scholar with over two decades of experience at the forefront of both development practice and academic research. Anh currently leads a £1.3 million Wellcome Trust-funded research project examining the health impacts of climate change on precarious outdoor workers in major cities across Vietnam. She is Research Director/ Climate Change at NatCen International, National Centre for Social Research (UK). Her research focuses on three key areas that address critical climate challenges: the climate-health nexus, the political economy of climate change, and the sustainability of delta social-ecological systems. She has collaborated extensively with major multilateral and bilateral institutions (e.g., UNDP, UN Statistics Division, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung) while also providing expert consultancy to governments, and inter/national NGOs (e.g., Asia Development Alliance, Oxfam, Transparency International, Global Philanthropy Indices, Management and Sustainable Development Institute). Her scholarly work is widely published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals such as World Development, Sustainability Science, Contemporary Politics, Community Development, VOLUNTAS, World Development Perspectives, and International Development Planning and Review. In particular, her two decades of research on civil society and authoritarianism has been acclaimed by Southeast Asian scholars for making "high-order" contributions to the field."
-
Phoebe Weston-StanleyResearcher National Centre for Social Research
Since joining the Health and Social Care team in March 2021, Phoebe has worked on a number of projects using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Phoebe has a BA(Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Warwick and an MSc with Distinction in Gender from the London School of Economics. Her Master's dissertation explored the role of hegemonic masculinity in preventing men from making climate-positive lifestyle choices.
-
Zia RehmanAsia Development Alliance
-
Dr Giang Thu NguyenInstitute for Development and Community Health – LIGHT (Vietnam)
-
Dr Loc Duc NguyenSocial Life Research Institute (Vietnam)
-
Eva YeungHong Kong Red Cross
-
Dr Manlika SukitpaneenitDepartment of Geography, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University (Thailand)
-
Professor Jonathan RiggUniversity of Bristol
