 Alright, so taking today's agenda forward. Next up we have a panel discussion, which will be focusing on how to foster inclusive knowledge co-production and policy engagement. How can we leverage best practices and practical experiences for strengthening our regional alliance. So for the next hour what we'll be talking about is largely going to focus on seeking your thoughts and ideas about our regional alliances and networks to collect best practices and practical guidelines for inclusive policy engagement and also to learn about any ongoing strategies to foster gender equality disability and social inclusion within our regional alliances. Let me welcome our panelists for this session. First up we have Dr. Ninh Chanreth, who's the director for Center for Natural Resources and Environment, CDRI. Can I please invite you to take a seat on the stage please. Next up we have Dr. Vijan Simachaya, who's the president of Thailand Environment Institute. So if you can take a seat on the stage please. Can we have the round of applause going so that we can, you know, keep that energy going while we get into the discussions. Also next up we have Dr. Fakde, someone at co-chair. Thank you so much. Dr. Ninh Pasun, director general, Love Women's Union. Can we have you on the stage please. Last but not least, Mr. Nguyen Hong An from Vietnam's Women's Academy. Can we have you on stage please. Alright, so we have all our panelists set in. Okay, can you please join us on stage. Thank you after you. Alright, so thank you so much for joining us on stage and we are now going to get this discussion started. So the first question that I would like to ask all our panelists here today is what are your experiences with inclusive policy engagement in the Mekong region. So I think we can go in a sequential way please. It is a very interesting but difficult question. Yeah, you know that research is very expensive, time consuming and resource consuming. And doing a regional study is even more, I think, resource and time consuming. Furthermore, to make research inclusive as we discussed right now is even more expensive. So time and resource consuming. But anyway, in Cambodia, CDRI, Cambodia Development Resource Institute has led a few regional research networks. And today we were pleased to share our experience in leading and managing these networks. I want to highlight a network that we have been leading called Network for Agriculture and Rural Development Sink Tanks for countries in the Mekong region. This is a network funded by IFA and it comprises researching tanks in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. So what we're doing in this network is that we want our partner sink tanks to do regional research, with a transparent focus on inclusive agriculture policy in order to improve the quality of the policy and strategies in agriculture and rural development, not only in individual countries but in the Mekong region as a whole. So we have a regional focus in this network. And the second objective is to facilitate the upscaling and institutionalization of good practices and innovative incomparable regional context. So our rationale is that normally when we do research, we do it individually in individual countries, agriculture policy in Cambodia, agriculture policy in Laos, etc. But within this work we have a regional focus and we have brought together policy sink tanks from Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam to work together in this network. Alright so is it inclusive? Inclusive research to some extent yes. In each country our partner has done their research based on participatory consultations with the key stakeholders, obviously the end users are the ultimate beneficiaries. For example in Cambodia we work with farmer organizations or we call them agricultural cooperatives in the co-design of the research objectives but also in ongoing consultations, consultation workshops, validation workshops and dissemination workshops to do our research and disseminate the findings. So this is an example of a regional network that we have been doing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much Dr. Trinad. Over to you Dr. Wicham. Okay thank you very much. It's my guest pleasure to be here to share my knowledge and experience especially for the research. I myself come from, I used to work with the pollution control department, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as well. But before that I work on the laboratory mostly on the research, water research. And I see Dr. Trinad and Dr. Thanapun. We also work together in Mekong River Commission, especially myself as director of environment tied to inclusive environmental agenda on water management in Mekong region. At the time we used our strategy, used modeling to apply for the basin management. And even myself in Thailand tied to use the, we call the size base to develop policy especially for water quality in the Tachin river basin in Thailand. Also used the scientific information to develop modeling. Recently, TI, Thailand Environment Institute, it's non-profit organization, we also work with the partner, especially for the transportation problem, plastic pollution. Another one also supported by Australian Embassy on the Mekong hub on the plastic. Recently our region facing with microplastic contamination. When we are going to stop plastic pollution in the ocean, we have to look for the source of the plastic. That's the very source, microplastic right now in our tissue, in our heart also contain of microplastic. That's the very important issue for the United Nations. They're going to develop new agreement similar to the climate change on the protection of marine plastic debris. That's one. Another example is the transportally hit pollution for the ocean, especially for the Mekong region. Also another one that we are facing very long period of time. I myself also asked, I'm not sure how many years ago, I worked with Mekong river region to stop the hit pollution. We set our target, we do some research and let's learn from practitioner on the ground. I think it's very important and come to research, we set our target this year. This year we are going for the zero burning for the region or something like that, but still not get that target yet. Last year also in the region we are facing with a really high problem for the transportally hit pollution. This kind of thing needs the scientific information. We have to identify the sort of hit pollution. We have to use like a technology like a satellite image, even geographic information system needs to apply for the region. We are also going to handle a new project, still developed with the three countries, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos PDR. Also how we try to use our scientific information to develop policy. Here also some example of the inclusive policy engagement. I think it's really important, especially the cyber policy, but how we can translate scientific information to the policymaker. I think it's very important. Somehow policymaker they don't aware of scientific information because what they said is really complicated one, but in our research side we have how we can translate to policymaker and also translate to public in general. I think it's really important issue. Network, I think it's really important we can work together. But some problem as I mentioned earlier is transportally in nature like a plastic, microplastic contamination in the sea or even the transportally hit pollution if they not work together similar to some of it, similar to the MTT that we are going to develop and work together by utilize research in the region. I think it's really important that thing. Thank you. Dr. Vijayan, it's good to know that things have been progressing for past couple of decades, but still there are new challenges coming up and there are new approaches that researchers and policymakers are taking moving forward. Thank you Dr. Phakthi for your response. Thank you Vidi. I think I will answer this question by actually sharing my own personal experience coming into the summer net about 10 years ago. So I actually first heard about summer net in 2013 when I was actually working on my PhD, but also at the time I was working for the UN Red Program in Asia and Pacific. So at the time there were specific questions that were being asked and that was actually how do we write the National Red Plus Strategy for countries in Asia and Pacific. So that also was my PhD at the time and then working for the UN Red Program at the time. I was working on Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand and so my advisor at the time who was at the UNDP here in Bangkok was suggesting that maybe I should look into this summer net program that I have never heard about, that there was like a call for proposal that maybe something that I can look into and see maybe we can do something with it in order to try to answer the question that we're actually working on in our workplace which is helping the countries in the Mekong to draft the National Red Plus Strategy. So then I started to look into summer net, the call proposal at the time and then was able to put together a team in Cambodia, in Thailand and in Myanmar coming together with this very specific question on how do we write National Red Plus Strategy in these countries and in the process what actually we can learn from each other because at the time 10 years ago Red Plus was really new and a lot of people don't really know what to do with it. Not much guidance is actually coming from the UNDPC so a lot is actually with the country to try to do themselves. So then we thought that this is actually a great opportunity then we put together a proposal, applied for summer net phase three and luckily we got the grant and we were able to actually carry out the research. So I think the context that I'm trying to set here is that we are actually coming into this with very specific questions that is actually asked by the government because the government is actually asking the UN Red at the time how do we draft National Red Plus Strategy that has all of these like very technical components. So we decided at the time that with the summer net support we will use the grant to look into how to write the National Red Plus Strategy but very much focusing on how do you address the safeguard component how do you address the revenue sharing or financing of Red Plus and overall how do you write the National Red Plus Strategy and we want to use summer net at the time as a way to try to learn how each of the country is doing this and then maybe as a way to share lessons so that's how I got involved in summer net about 10 years ago. In terms of the lessons learned or the experience that we have in this process is that I think it's super important that when we talk about trying to make the policy impact or trying to have engagement with policy we should really come from the position of actually working with the policy people themselves and actually understanding what exactly is the question that they are trying to answer like the contact that I'm trying to set here is that they do have a timeline that the country have to have a National Red Plus Strategy in order to move forward in order to request the financing so there is actually a really strong interest from the government to actually have a National Red Plus Strategy and then to get whatever support that they can get in order to help them move forward with this and so it was actually a very good opportunity for us because we have this context to work with and then we jump into it and then through the process with the five years that I was leading the research for this topic for summer net phase three we were able to actually work very closely with the government in the three countries we were able to produce several things that were actually used for example in each of the country because the researchers are from the Royal University of Penumbin USA University here in Bangkok and then the Yazan University the Faculty of Forestry in Myanmar we are all actually quite involved with the national processes in this country so we were able to produce what we call the briefing notes directly for the government using the local language so then it was actually picked up right away and they are actually discussing these topics during the time so it was very relevant for them to be able to see like what are the different suggestions that we might have for them we were able to actually write with the government themselves for actually not just like an academic article but also the summer net book chapter we also write several briefings for the UNFPCC and also the UNRED newsletters sharing the lessons from the research so I think my point here is that when it comes to inclusive policy engagement I would actually place the burden on the researcher themselves to really actually immerse themselves in the policy process and understanding what are the priorities that the I don't know the institution that you're trying to have impact on is really working on and not coming to them and say okay this is actually the topic that you should be working with well it might not be actually aligned with what they have in their work plan or whatever the priorities that they have at the time Thank you so much Dr. Fakbe so it's it's kind of that we need to follow what's needed right so it's going to be a need-based interaction and also that would facilitate more inclusive engagement with those policy makers as well so thank you so much for your response and over to you Dr. Nindvesant Yes, good morning or afternoon I'm not sure and thank you very much for inviting me to be a part of your really significant consultation and forum today this is my first time to be a part of your here but of course I don't have experiences with your project but since this morning I hear a lot of the inputs and outcomes that you did so far and been complete successfully but let me share with you I do hope also from this forum I will apply something to you and I also hope that we will have opportunity to accelerate some gender equality in your action plan and I do think is the question that you just raised to us that by the end of this panelist discussion we will have something talking about the next step of the GISP and how to accelerate the gender and disabled people in your programs but so far may I share the experiences that I have been done with the Love Woman Union actually I work with the Love Woman Union almost 29 years old since I was child, no no no single woman so today I have my son and my niece sitting and listen to my talk they sit over there they are not the participants but they are the organizing committee please allow my kids to listen to my talk and they will build some inspiration for them in the future but they are still in the school seven, not yet complete but still ok and then we have the Love Woman Union is a nationwide and that's what the other ministry of women affairs allows and of course talking about the policy and religions in this world for instance the crime chain for the gender equality and et cetera for instance that it allows right now we are engaged with the UN party especially the CEDAW and when we talking about the women and gender equality and also crime chain we are playing tensions on DR number 37 and we also play a crucial role in terms of implementing the parody discoloration especially the article number six and number seven that on the state and government should consider about how to improve the status and empower women in the society and also we are also the member of the UN FCCC I am the focal point for the gender equality allows maybe for the COP28 we will ask the Mekong Committee here to support all of us here to call the COP28 in Dubai coming next in December 8 to 11 and this one we are commit a lot on the gender equality and also we are also work very closely with the group of the adaptation and less land on crime chain and Love Woman Union itself right now we are successfully in comply and successfully apply the projects on how to support the rule of women in wash and sanitation use things and save water and we also are doing delicious that we will talk about how does the water and sanitation impact on the women before and after disaster as well this one we call the crime chain and less land adaptation and another work that we have here we will be the party very soon with the Mekong Lanzang a true China fund that allows Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia but this term is Cambodia is the host they are going to give the not too big grant about 50,000 US dollars to my department to learn the programs on how to assess less gender crime chains and water sanitation and we will help you soon and I do things also another thing really important that we work together because Mekong is our resources when we talk about the water consumption when we talking about the population in Mekong the female already engage about 50% if you left female behind it means that your program doesn't successfully 100% this is our leader's focus on the time gender equality something is really difficult to touch because you try to change the way of thinking of the people and plus the crime chain crime chain is daily but it's more difficult because gender could not touch crime chain could not change anything but you come by to subject together therefore we need to have a really big hand and working together thank you Lisa for my first question thank you so much thank you so much for sharing your inspirational journey of around three decades on how you are taking this agenda forward so we are very happy to hear that from you over to you Miss Nian thank you for giving me an opportunity to share some of our experience in this conference I prepare some something to say with all of you but I listened to many experience from the other countries very good so I think now I share with you one thing I am very certified about Vietnam Women's Union as you know Vietnam Women's Union is a social political organization in Vietnam and we have a strong strong network and statement statement in Vietnam so I would like to share about a special experience Vietnam government built national target program on social political development in minority Martinez area but the first time there are nine there are include nine projects on various area such as cultural education health healthcare and many things but without gender component and Vietnam Women's Union had to I want to use the word fighting to organize to government government member to include one component is gender equality in this national target program and after two years to advocate to lobby such as and the government and the national assembly ask Vietnam Women's Union to implement independent component on answering gender equality in the national target program so now we have a function to implement gender equality and seeking solutions to necessary issues of women and children and we have another function to monitor and evaluate gender integration into all activity projects of other ministries so I think gender equality is very important included in the national target national target programs so I think if our network developed many projects and proposal should be should be include gender component into our proposal so I think because I prepare many things but I don't want to talk again something our college has raised opinions thank you so much we are happy to hear what has been going on in Vietnam and how we are motivating or trying to bring a change in the way things are happening in Vietnam especially with respect to gender inclusion so now we have heard from all our panelists and how they have been engaging with different stakeholders in the region how they have been involved in this engagement process so my next question would be to our panelists from CDRI and TEI specifically for us to know how this regional alliance can help strengthen the influence of existing networks or work you are currently involved with also there is a second part to the question any possibility for regional alliance to cooperate in supporting particularly if we want to involve young professionals so first I would like to welcome Dr. Chindra to please respond to the question thank you very much so since we are discussing a nexus alliance that focus on the nexus of water, energy and climate issues in the Mekong region I want to talk about it a little bit and how it can be linked to our existing work networks that we are doing leading actually we have a real nexus in this room, this room is freezing very cold to me and they gave us cold water and outside the climate is hot so it's a real nexus actually in this room so how can such a nexus alliance have strengthened the influence of our existing networks we just completed a regional research consortium not a network but it's a regional consortium on water diplomacy funded by the Mekong Lan Chang Corporation fund so we had partners from Vietnam, Cambodia Laos but they dropped and Thailand so in this research consortium we focus on the concept and principles of water diplomacy applied within the Mekong region but we just focus on water related issues only for example in Cambodia and Vietnam we examine policy and institutions that work on water related conflict resolutions including the MRC, the Mekong River Commission and other national Mekong committees in each country but also we discuss impacts of hydropower dams on local communities so we just completed this regional study consortium but we are not finished we are still in touch and we are still in discussion on emerging opportunities how we could work together again so I think a regional alliance like this that focus on the nexus of water, climate and energy could have find opportunities to work on the linkages of the issues as said we just focus on hydropower dams in our work but I think maybe a nexus network like ours could help us bridge discussions to find emerging opportunities to work on interconnected issues of water, climate and energy for example we know that hydropower dams are also impacted by climate change so how can we find out how can we discuss if our hydropower dams built in Mekong region could be more climate resilient if there are more climate resilient we believe their operations could be less harmful for example to local communities so something like this the multiple and sometimes conflicting uses of water by dams and by local communities and how climate change impacts not only on local communities but also on the builders of the dams the operators of the dams so if we could bring different stakeholders regarding hydropower dams together to discuss climate resilience I don't know how to reduce the impact of climate change on dams building construction and operation how they could work with local communities to discuss climate resilience not only on their livelihoods but also on the operations of dams to mitigate harmful impacts on different stakeholders so such a nexus alliance would help us find new ways to discuss emerging issues regarding nexus and to accelerate our influence in the Mekong region thank you thank you so much I would like to look for existing alliance or existing research topic what they have done so far in our region I would like to give you some example for Thailand right now we keep a very important issue on develop a hub of knowledge hub of talents hub of knowledge means we have enough knowledge to share with other countries with other universities and hub of talents means experts have to come together develop some issue or some subject need to do research more the government spend more 100 million baht for this year to develop hub of knowledge and hub of talents for the country and work closely with the librarian country in the Mekong region as well I myself also taking care of hub of knowledge and hub of talent related to environmental issues they have already support one hub of knowledge on the biodiversity in the Mekong region that initiate by the professor from Jular Longkorn University and he going to work closely with the university in the Mekong region that kind of thing how our project can cooperate that kind of thing I think is very important issue a lot of research a lot of information going on in the Mekong region how we even Thailand research council that I mentioned earlier one more point our country also set our target for the climate change next zero by the year 2065 carbon neutrality by the year 2050 we have to get there how we how we get there I think is very important right now on the process of develop the action plan for mitigation action plan for adaptation next water energy especially you mentioned about hydro power hydro problem is the sort of energy that produce less carbon emission but how we look for the climate change look for water look for energy together I already talk yesterday and the agency taking care of energy they also look for the one dimension of energy the agency taking care of water they even look for the water for water environment is to come at last they look for the development development first how we call the indicate such a development how to balance social, economic and environment I think it is a really important issue for the regional research I would suggest we have to look for the pillar or the dimension cover social, economic and environment as well for the young generation Thailand also right now we have committee to support young generation we call youth youth in charge committee youth in charge is mean youth in charge of our new agenda new national agenda BCG bioeconomy circular economy green economy and link to the ACG development goal we have the committee representative from the youth from various sector in the country to share their knowledge especially we talk about the climate change long-term commitment that going to impact youth that currently people already commissioned something but what happened in the future is really important youth have to in charge at the early state of the commitment action adaptation is also very important the climate water energy as well that's the kind of thing that we are helping in our country and our region thank you I will quickly recap first and then we will pass it to Dr. Fakbe we have to come up with unified vision we have to identify commonalities we have to take into account different aspects different approaches and then build something which takes into account all water energy climate moving forward so thank you very much for highlighting that since we are running short of time Dr. Fakbe if you can keep it short and sweet very quickly I actually just wanted to answer this question from the perspective of the MTT that is coming up but also the existing summit that we have had and as mentioned at the beginning that someone that has been in the region for 18 years so trying to answer this question from that perspective I think I would like to highlight four areas the first one I think Dr. Wies mentioned already that I think we still need to understand the synergies and the complementarities between the two because to be honest myself and I assume a lot of the members in the summit still have not so much idea in terms of what MTT is trying to do and so I think we still are trying in the face of trying to understand like where are the synergies where are the complementarities between the two programs for example and then the second point is I think there is a need to actually establish clear expectation between the two programs and then the third point I think I would like to highlight this there need to be some sort of a positive feedback between the alliance between the network I don't know what that positive feedback would look like but I think it's important to discuss like how do the two actually apply to each other but first after understanding if there is even synergies between the two programs we also have to talk about expectations what do someone expect from MTT what is MTT expecting from summit that I think that needs a discussion the two actually reinforce each other that's what I'm trying to say with the positive feedback and then the last point I would like to make from summit that would be I think we need to identify also what are the proper collaboration tools between the network and the alliance because I think this is an example of that collaboration tool but I think it has to go deeper than this so in short I feel like from summit perspective we need to have a bit more engagement with MTT so that we understand a little bit better the synergy complementarities we understand a bit better what are the expectations and we understand a bit better in terms of how do we reinforce each other and finally how do we work together what are the tools that we can use in order to collaborate okay thank you so much for that I think it's somehow directing us where we want to move from here as well and how to keep the dialogue on between different networks and alliances in the region as well so since we are short of time I'm going to ask the next question and would request our panelists to please respond in around 30 seconds if possible so that we can have some questions from the floor as well so my next question would be to Dr. Ninpasant it's how can your network collaborate with the proposed regional alliance to achieve common goals your reactions and response to it yes thank you very much I think there are two main points that I would like to answer first one we should think about the ASEAN scope first and then the next is we talk about the Mekong scope for the ASEAN scope if you are familiar with the ASEAN committee on women and this year luckily we are the chairperson for the ASEAN committee on women or ACW and next week we will hand it over to Malaysia but Malaysia will have the big election but whatever in the plan of the action from now to the 25 they have a really clear picture on the how to support the climate change and less land adaptations especially we talk about not only the disaster but also the how to adapt and mitigate that and if you have opportunity please look at the ASEAN framework especially the under article number three they're talking about gender as a related in the climate change and less lands it is they have the really good clear and really clear statement among that and the second thing is talking about how the way forward for the moving forward for the really good network collaborations in terms of as a related gender and disabled people from my observations I have three things that in my mind one we should have a strategic environment impact assessment that one this morning we already heard from the really good input of your resources and assessment but unfortunately we don't have any single show about the gender equality and I know that the question is coming up from our speaker or from the floor the second thing is that we should have the study on the data gender and study especially we will focus on the gender or vulnerable groups vulnerable groups we include the poor people include the disabled and vulnerable group of the people and also techniques and that one and the most important things here we should have the desecrated data from the beginning because desecrated data or gender responsive or planning is very important from your plan of action you put it from the beginning and then you will see the input later but if you don't consider now it might be difficult for us to make a very outstanding evidence and my third is I think it's very important we should have a really great picture on map identification what the country need for instance Laos, Bien Ma, Thailand and other countries we need differently from the interests of using the main or we are the partnership or networking so different country has a different potential but not the same things that we need so for instance Laos what do we need Bien Ma and maybe Thailand will release among the region here and especially the really good networking and your government will release have a lot of money Laos Vietnam and Cambodia will stand in the step of doing that but Vietnam better than us but Cambodia and me maybe Cambodia faster but Laos stand behind something like this therefore we need to have a really clear map identification of the need of the country and the next is we should also consider about the how to we have a good direction so where we do go where we gonna to go because in strategy you have long term short term and immediately sometimes some work especially about the climate change gender water sanitation and energy you could not success immediately we can put it in long term input therefore we should have a really clear direction and don't forget the gender associated in all programs and I think is a measure level the next one is we should have a specific measure level indicators and the goal activity this morning we hear really clear about your goal but not clear yet well activity how many what how many activity every country you have and of course it depends on your application successfully but sometimes you can you can put a really good direction where shall we go because consensus we have the five country in the Maykong we have the same data because data is very expensive and information very expensive and this is also super expensive why because in the final of the list is very value on a recommendation that one everybody will use the recommendation to fill it up in the plan of action in the future therefore I admire that I noted that which is really important and value and the next is I do think it's really important two main things that we should consider about the when we talk about the gender and climate change, resilience, adaptation, mitigation we should think about how to avoid on the kinds of the on types of the violence against women and also how to empower many economic empowerment on women because we would not talk about the big empowerment big economic empowerment but the majority of women are engaged with the SME and talking about the water talking about energy and climate change is that women can contribute a little bit but don't forget the women are the half of the population in this world so therefore it is a very important and key measures that you support to put over there and the last point we should consider some because this morning the expert Dr. Ting are talking about how to integrate the economic empowerment now therefore in here we should think about the first is about the decent work for the women and it should be divided into part one is we talk about the care work care work you could not have the value of money but the contribution another thing is the empower you cannot provide any ties of the financial support without the big interest or just create the microcredit in the place etc because climate change water work is a very big deal and the most important is the final point of mind is that we should have the step by step leashes because leashes you could not keep it up information after three years you could not use this because it's not relevant already and therefore the leashes in the specific teams that we need to carry on and we need to put it in a very specifically and the final point is a talking about the disabled is the rune because Australia government not only support the Mekong Legion but they also support another programs like Laos right now I am the leader for the parenting programs parenting program is a VR teaching the parents on the community or allow the country so this year I successful in doing work more than 600 villages allow the country and last year I success in 252 parenting programs we have the indicators about the gender about violence against women about how to be a really good help on the woman how to use water and sanitation how to avoid the people to violence against the disabled people and etc this one we have a really good successfully and please come back if you remember on stage here especially the Mekong country we engage with the international conventions on the human rights with the human with the disabled people at UNSCR something like this so thank you very much this is my experiences I would like to share with you but I do hope in the future if I successful in the Mekong application project submission I will have more experience like the doctor team sitting next to me or and then because this year Laos a non-lawful man union we don't have any single project with you yet but I do things that I will do up the apply the project proposal with you and receive some initiatives and small grant from the Mekong or someone said thank you so much thank you thank you so much doctor for sharing your viewpoints and how you also highlighted some of the key points the key strategies that can be taken up to include gender and also disability and social inclusion when we are designing our programs what stages to consider so thank you very much for sharing your experiences and also guidance and directions on these lines so without you know waiting anymore I would now like to open the floor to our very intrigued audience if they have any questions to any of our panelists so any questions you can raise hands all right I see one hand there Nan can you pass to Mike please please let us know your name your affiliation and then your question and please let us know who are you asking this question to thanks thank you my name is Sangrawees Veerakan I'm from Upper Cook River Basin thanks for WWF and SEI that let me join this meeting yeah I would like to know from all this the speaker according to my experience I have been have chance to attend the meeting some meeting and on environment issue and I see that almost that there are no representative from indigenous people and the community who are affected from the development project and yeah I would like to know from all the speaker that how the indigenous people involved in the discussion platform and decision platform how any especially from Thailand thank you thank you so much for your question any of our panelists would want to react I see Dr. Wijian please go ahead actually Dr. Wijian it should maybe add more for Thailand the development project already includes the opinion from indigenous people for our project for example we accept the gender issue we also look for the indigenous people even the civil society right now we got the sponsorship from government via I can't remember the name in English so support us for develop network of the civil society in the country right now we have all together allow 50 civil society organization around the country work together how we can work balance between our work some organization taking care of environment issue some organization taking care of indigenous people and we come together to share our knowledge our experience and to balance the how we can happy with our work with our life this is the project that we are working on and some project especially the project we call success support by European community also we work on the climate at the community on the ground work together we have to listen from them especially they really close to the environment and they going to impact especially for the climate we have to listen from them and develop a policy submit to the government that kind of thing even the environmental impact assessment right now in Thailand even they have some project in the like mountainous area they have to taking care of indigenous people as well that already incorporate the Thai agenda. Thank you so much Dr. Wajan for responding to this question because you have something to add none can you find. Thank you very much for your question really excellent question how we can really make sure that we consider otherwise and really reflecting the need of people who actually affecting from any projects whether it's supposed to be really helping them or supposed to be helping others but we actually consider this seriously and I would say is that when you come to engagement with indigenous people and minority and others and how how to say is that the activity that is really suitable and also the activity that they feel comfortable to engage and I want to highlight actually there are several examples but maybe one of the examples that we completed earlier is through the research project research policy and practice that really help improving their local livelihoods especially linking with hydropower development and settlement earlier and I feel very happy today we have Dr. Uthai being with us here Dr. Uthai working closely with other research team members from to Aung Korn University Dr. Uthai from Laos and then we also have Ajan Carl Bidinton and Ajan I think Ajan Kenokwan also so others and also I think that we have Ajan Kien so three countries looking on addressing the issue linking with hydropower link with the wetland settlement earlier and I'm really proud to really invite Ajan Uthai to talk about how your project engage with indigenous people and what are the impact on the south at the end. Good morning my name is Ajan Uthai from Northern Arctic Country and Forestry College this morning I really appreciate when you are talking about the water energy and climate change so actually our research that we have boundary partner with Vietnam, Thailand Laos and Cambodia but we focus on the indigenous people because before we conduct our research we also conduct the scoping survey because we are thinking that the one day they will finish so that how to continue by themselves so that we have to think about what existing activity that the farmer have and the experience that the farmer have so that it allow it from the recover project from the hydropower so that we focus on the organic rice production so that the activity that we engage with the farmer we just see what the farmer experience what the knowledge and the participation and responsible from the farmer so that the outcome of our project is really significant because not only the organic rice farming and also the mushroom and in order any fundraising that we are integrated to our project and the outcome from now the farmer the steam continue from our organic rice production this is the product from the summoner phase 3 phase 3 and also when I attend this meeting I would like to share some experience from Dr. Ninh Pasat from Laos Women Union now a day the Laos women try also encourage and to hear the voice of the researcher because now the GCA the name the full name they call Green Community Alliance they organize the national dialogue before the national assembly start so that the outcome of the researcher from different field from different aspect leaving invite the ministry that related to our research so that the research will be effect to the national assembly so that I see the importance of the transition before in Laos we don't have such kind of the national dialogue so that if the voice from the researcher can be effect something before the national assembly open start so that and one thing that from the prime minister and the ministry they also really impasses that on the researcher on the research outcome should be application and useful so that as Dr. Ninh Pasat see address this morning now our country try to open and to receive the voice from our researcher so that is the kind of the transition is the positive transition so I think it's my contribution and I really happy to come back and to listen and to contribute to this meeting thank you very much. Thanks Dr. Tai. Just to add also as part of our intention to be much more inclusive and although this is not yet being articulated very well yet into the design but I can't imagine MTT and SummerNet to be not be advised by two important principles on the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples which are in the first one is the right to self-determination and the second one is free prior informed consent on activities that we're going to undertake so I'm sure I don't think there's any intention at all to go against this key basic principles on the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples thank you very much. Thanks Albert thanks for adding and raising that while we are taking studies and developing this alliance and program ahead so without waiting anymore I would like to ask my colleagues if we have any questions from online audience okay not any questions from online audience anyone else here wants to ask a question we can just have one more question accommodated before we break for lunch thanks Albert for passing the mic again if you can just introduce yourself quickly and who are you addressing your question to which of the panelists you want to resume good afternoon everyone my name is Millie I'm a freelance journalist based in Vietnam it's a pleasure to be here and I'll try to keep my question short so please lunch will come so my question is that we're talking about how to create how to co-create knowledge in terms of collaboration between countries but my question is that how can the regional alliance do to promote inclusiveness in the member country is that clear yes thanks thanks for your question I'll just check with our panelists anyone who wants to respond alright Dr. Fagde please go ahead thank you thanks so much I think I would just ask the question when you ask inclusive what exactly do you mean by inclusive and who are we trying to include I think that's also a clarification first can I just intervene so Dr. Fagde is asking how do you define inclusiveness and which aspects of inclusiveness are you talking about that should be catered to through co-creation of knowledge if you can expand on that and then you can provide an answer to your question maybe also just do you mean inclusiveness in terms of like having gender perspective having indigenous people considerations like are you referring to that kind of inclusiveness yeah so so my concerns is that how can we we how can we promote the local people to raise their voice about their benefits and their concern and that that knowledge can can be delivered to the the bigger scale of the alliance I fully got the question thank you I think I would just answer that just based on how we have been working with Summonet specifically with the support from CEDA I think the example I'd like to use would be the fact that in CEDA funded projects or through the Summonet projects there is a really big focus on gender inclusiveness but also the human rights based approach to the different types of gender inclusiveness. I think that is a good starting point because for example speaking from my own personal experience with Summonet Phase 3 when I was trying to implement the project in Cambodia Thailand and Myanmar and having to actually conceded this I would say requirement from CEDA how is my project actually addressing the human rights base but also the gender sensitivity design and implementation for us the experience was that it actually did take a lot of learning and we appreciated the trainings that were given by Summonet at the time through the different resource person and actually explaining what it actually means the human rights base approach, the gender sensitivities and all that kind of thing so the answer I'm trying to get is that I think yes it has to come also from the requirement from the donor or the funder that is actually giving support to the project I think if it's not even asked by the funder then why are we addressing it because these things actually take resources and efforts and time so if it is actually in the requirement of the call for proposal then it is actually the responsibility for the researcher to actually make sure that we address this in a way that is consistent with the guideline or the guidance that we see from for example like a CIDA requirement and the other point I'd like to make is that these things it's not easy to address and that it does take a lot of support that's why I think earlier when I was asking questions to MTT is that when we talk about co-production of knowledge inclusiveness and also that kind of thing how is actually that built into the call for proposal are you actually allowing resources for researcher to actually address these questions and not just having it as a burden I would say without the resources to actually make it happen maybe I'm a bit long winded here but I'm just trying to say that yes two things first it has to come from the requirement for the project to be funded but also are there actually sufficient support from the funder in order for the researcher to be able to take all of these inclusiveness question into account and actually report on it I think whenever doing the reporting for Cheyannis at the time as a researcher we also have to answer all of these questions like how are we addressing the gender sensitivity questions but also the human rights base approach so it has to be also built into the reporting that is required by the funder thank you very much thank you I just want to have a quick response to the question it's very a good question inclusiveness is catchy but also controversial if we want to discuss inclusiveness in research I think we need to ask three questions at least who do we include and how many of them and how do we include so the targets and the process are equally important in our research based on our experience whether inclusiveness is like requirement a mandate is it a true inclusion or co-option so that's why the three questions are very important whether our research is really participatory or maybe it's exploitative you know extract information and data from the people that we are asking so who we include is very important depending on our research objectives and how many of them whether we include a few representatives or there could be elites in their you know in their groups so it could be not representative so we need to be careful with this and how the process itself is quite important as our colleagues here mentioned do we have any grassroots or indigenous organization in our network or not in our allies or not and who represents them is also important and how you know do they want to engage with us not how we want them to engage as it is also important and regarding knowledge co-production is quite important when they can engage with us is it just only through consultation, through validation or disseminate workshops or do we engage them from the start of the research design it's also important so we need to include these criteria in our work so based on our experience and we mentioned we work on inclusive agricultural policy in Canada we focus on farmer organization or agricultural operatives and we focus on public private and partnerships so we work with farmer organization including indigenous organization working in contract farming especially in rubber plantation throughout the research process from the design of the research questions and how they could contribute to the discussion of findings based on their local knowledge so we have different sources of data so we include their local knowledge their local ideal their empirical experiences in their work but also other different sources of data from other stakeholders and etc so thanks a lot. Thank you Thank you so much Dr. Chandra so I think we can keep the conversation going and I apologize that we are already a little behind schedule because of the interactions that we had and the detailed responses that our panelists had to the questions that were framed for this panel so if you can join me in thanking our panelists for the first panel for an engaging session and for you know interacting with our audience thank you so much it was a pleasure to have you.