Indo-Pacific Leadership Lab

The Lab is for those who are ready to listen sincerely, question profoundly, and learn from real-world experience and practice.

Each year, leaders in the Lab will focus on a specific complex and interconnected social issue. Alongside fifteen other rising leaders from across the Indo-Pacific, leaders will join a year-long program that includes three one-week, in-person seminars held in Honolulu, Hawai‘i; Suva, Fiji; and Tokyo, Japan. Together, leaders will critically examine current responses to the issue and explore community approaches and their connections to local and regional policy. They will identify critical gaps and explore and test responses in their home communities, with guidance from community leaders, topic experts, and leadership mentors.

The 2025 Lab cohort will focus on leadership responses to the challenges and risks arising from the climate crisis. The program will begin virtually in October 2024, and will launch in-person in Honolulu, Hawai‘i in late 2024, reconvene in Suva, Fiji, and close in Tokyo, Japan. Throughout the year, leaders will critically examine climate adaptation plans and explore local communities’ approaches to addressing vulnerabilities and meeting challenges.

Leaders who complete the 2025 Lab will be better equipped to support communities in articulating their adaptation goals and the vulnerability analyses they are rooted in, and in crafting transformative climate change action. Leaders will chronicle their experiences of testing community adaptation plans and build capacities and connections for inclusive, community-led climate change adaptation.

Financial Information/Provisions

• The Indo-Pacific Leadership Lab provides Fellows with round-trip airfare to/from the program locations, program fee and materials, accommodation, travel insurance, meals, and some applicable visa-related costs (if required).
• This program is subject to postponement/cancellation due to prevailing and unforeseen circumstances.

Desirable Qualifications

• Deep and ongoing involvement in a specific organization, business, educational institution, or community impact initiative with clear connections to climate change mitigation, adaption planning, natural resources or environmental governance, or related area
• Professional, public, and/or community leadership track record
• Willing to engage fully in a place-based, policy-focused, creatively- and strategically-demanding program
• Interest in collectively generating community-focused policy and impact initiatives connected to climate change adaptation
• Interested in working and learning alongside people from a diversity of places, backgrounds, sectors, and communities
• Demonstrated experience working collaboratively in small teams or in large groups

Eligibility Criteria

• 5-10 years of deep work or research experience in an area with clear connections to climate change mitigation, adaption planning, natural resources or environmental governance, or related area
• A citizen and resident of one of the following countries:
• Japan
  • United States of America
  • Pacific Islands: American Samoa, Australia, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Republic of Palau, Papua New Guinea, Independent State of Samoa, Solomon Islands, Kingdom of Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
  • South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan
  • Southeast Asia: Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
• Verbal fluency in English, with strong written English skills
• Demonstrable writing experience, including grants, Op-eds, articles in newspapers or magazines, blogs, and/or academic writing, etc.
• A current passport with validity through March 2026
• Able to commit to one week of travel in December 2024, April and September 2025, plus monthly virtual connections in between travel (estimated at about 4 hours/month)

For more information, visit East-West Center.