Building Climate Solutions Through Trustful, Ethical, and Localized Co-Development

The Small Island Developing States (SIDSs) in the Latin American and Caribbean region remain among the most vulnerable to climate change, as increasingly frequent and severe disasters threaten infrastructure, human life, and progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing these risks requires urgent regional and localized approaches grounded in coordinated climate risk assessment, anticipatory action, and Earth observation science-informed modeling with key support from a strong global community of practice. However, barriers remain to achieving local adaptation measures, including global action measures that conclude before local uptake of climate resilience practices are realized, reinforcing cycles of project impermanence. In this paper, we detail a Jamaica-focused case study that articulates such barriers impeding science and data-informed disaster risk reduction strategies, policies, and durable project implementation. The case study was a longitudinal co-development initiative led by a team of Jamaican and international interdisciplinary, cross-sector experts on climate-related disasters in SIDS. Using principles of co-design, discourse analysis, and systems thinking, the study underscores the need for a place-based framework that centers relevant sectors of society and often-marginalized voices as foundational to bottom-up climate resilience. The resulting Relationship and Place-Based Framework offers a model for localized climate science and technology development and ethical international collaboration for climate action that emphasizes local ownership and self-determination, as bottom-to-top feedback loops are key for managing multi-hazard dynamics and residual risks.