Advancing Disability-Inclusive Climate and Water Governance in the Mekong

The Australian Water Partnership is coordinating the development and delivery of a training curriculum on disability inclusion in the Mekong region. On December 1–2, 2025, AWP partners held a Regional Learning Event: ‘Towards Disability Inclusive Climate and Water in the Mekong’ at the Fairfield by Marriott Hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The event brought together 54 participants from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, including government officials, Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), and non-government organisations to gather input for the design of a disability-inclusive climate and water curriculum for local authorities.

People with disabilities are persistently among the most vulnerable to climate change. In the lower Mekong region water-related climate events such as seasonal and flash flooding, droughts and cyclones regularly disrupt lives and livelihoods. Yet, the specific needs of people with disabilities are rarely considered in disaster risk management or emergency response planning.

In 2024-25, AWP partnered with WaterAid, Monash University Water Sensitive Cities Australia, Cambodian Disabled People’s Organisation and the Disabled People’s Association of Hanoi (Vietnam) to better understand the daily experiences of people with disabilities in relation to climate change and water security. In 2025-26 this collaboration expanded to include the Lao Disabled People’s Association, to co-develop and test the curriculum.

“Through this event, we can observe that everyone is doing a lot of work to contribute to the same goal, from government, from civil society and even from the persons with disabilities.” said Ms. Nuon Makara of Care Cambodia.

“Persons with disabilities could not engage in decision making. This not only happens in Cambodia. Our colleagues from Laos and Vietnam also work to address the same issue.”

The Regional Learning Event was aimed at three key areas: facilitating peer learning between OPDs and water and climate actors in the Mekong region; providing a forum to share preliminary findings from the curriculum development; and to lay the foundation for the successful roll-out of the disability inclusion curriculum in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Day 1 – the focus was on knowledge sharing among OPD partners from the three countries, identifying priority changes that local authorities need to make to improve disability inclusion in disaster risk management. Representatives from each organisation had the opportunity to outline the current context in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, highlighting common barriers such as low disability awareness among local authorities, inconsistent participation of OPDs in disaster risk management decision-making, and limited accessibility. Alongside these concerns, enablers such as existing national policies and government willingness to realise the rights of people with disabilities were shared.

Day 2 – formal remarks from OPDs and government representatives were delivered, including presentations from the OPD partners about the lived experience of people with disabilities in each country. A panel discussion of government representatives was facilitated by Vibolratanak Mean from the Cambodian Disabled People’s Organisation (CPDO), in which participants reviewed the draft curriculum outcomes and provided input on priority topics for the training.

Mr. Sok Chanthol from the Cambodian Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSLVY) observed the importance of advocacy groups and governments coming together.

“I want to encourage to bring the key messages from the workshop today to share with wider community and persons with disabilities and let them know that persons with disabilities are not left alone.”

He went on to praise the potential of this happening regionally. “So, government, NGOs and private sectors work together with partners from Vietnam and Laos countries is great. We can create a network to find solutions supporting persons with disabilities, for both in the country and across the countries.”

Improving her own skills in advocating for inclusive practices as an author and journalist, Ms Mao Samnang observed, “From today’s workshop, I reflect for myself what I can implement and support through my daily work. We can see that their (persons with disabilities) representation is still limited through the presentations shared by the three countries. Their voices are still limited and not being heard. So, what I can do as a journalist is to promote more contents capturing voices of marginalise and persons with disabilities to relevant stakeholders.”

Participants agreed that increasing the knowledge and capacity of local authorities to practice disability inclusion would respond to priority gaps in how disaster risk management is equitably undertaken in the lower Mekong region. They reinforced the need for lived experience and OPD leadership to underpin the curriculum being developed together and the importance of practical, activity-based training.

A significant outcome was the commitment that beyond the current AWP project, further systemic change is needed to: improve data on the prevalence and needs of people with disability, ensure inclusive planning and budgeting for water and climate resilience services, and prioritise accessibility in early warning systems and disaster communication from national to community levels, so that no one is left behind.

Confirming this in his closing remarks, His Excellency So Munyraksa, President of the School of Local Administration at Ministry of Interior, Cambodia, observed the following:

“What I have heard from the hearts of people with disability is that they want to live with dignity, they don’t want to be treated as fragile porcelain, they want to be treated like a normal person with equal rights. They just need additional support to do so.”

* delivery in partnership with WaterAid and Monash University Sensitive Cities Australia.