The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in its vision statement on Climate Resilience states that by 2050 we will live in a 1.5-degree warmer world where all regions, countries, cities, business communities and individuals thrive in the face of multiple risks, uncertainty and threats posed by climate change. This vision of climate resilience, the UNFCCC says, is to be achieved through three interdependent outcomes-resilient people and livelihoods, resilient businesses and economies, resilient environmental systems. The theme “Building Local Resilience in a Changing Climate” chosen by India for the third session of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) – 2023 reflects a pragmatic approach. Panchayats and other local bodies, community organizations will have high stakes in building local resilience but the central and state governments putting in place a robust decentralized mechanism to facilitate quick decisions, implementation and dynamic participation of the local people will be crucial. This will also require climate experts to decode the climate change impact for the lay person to build awareness why building local resilience is important to sustain agriculture and livelihoods through innovative practices, cut down fossil fuel use, conserve the ecosystem, and adopt climate resilient technologies. Empirical and traditional knowledge of indigenous communities in the Northeast living in harmony with nature can be tapped to explore carbon-neutral solutions. Some hill dwelling communities in the region, for instance have innovated traditional practice of using flowing water to grind millet, maize and other food grains without using electricity. As the entire world has been observing this year as the International Year of Millet under the aegis of India to promote sustainable agri-food system adapted to climate change, it brings an opportunity to promote such traditional grinders along with revival and boosting production of millets in the north-eastern region. Promotion of millets worldwide as a global staple food and as an alternative to imported cereal is expected to create a new market for small farmers engaged in millet production. Rapid spread of digital technology has brought the market closer to small farmers. Local governments need to play the role of facilitator in providing the connectivity and building the market value chain in terms of storage, transportation and onboarding every village on the physical highway and information super highway. Once empowered with such accessibility the communities encouraged to evolve innovative ways of blending traditional knowledge and practices with modern technologies will be essential to build the resilience against climate change impact. Panchayat and other local bodies adopting this model of development instead of a model that is entirely dependent on modern technologies which are found to be unsustainable in different geographies and pose grave threat to fragile biodiversity like that of the Northeast and end up adding to more carbon emissions. Communities getting access to quality education, healthcare and market support in villages is also important in making cities sustainable by checking migration of people in search of new livelihoods. Cities with limited space grow vertically which requires extraction or sands, limestone, and other minerals for meeting the ever-growing demand of construction material. Indiscriminate extraction of sand has destroyed the ecosystem of many rivers, resulted in destruction of hills in the Northeast, which in turn, have led to loss of livelihoods for a large number of people dependent on fishing and aquaculture, minor forest produce. Empowering local bodies and local communities to monitor and conduct evaluation of such mineral mining projects and bringing to the notice of the state and central governments for prompt corrective measures before it reaches an irreversible stage. The idea is not to put an end to commercial and scientific extraction of mineral for development needs but to mainstream the village panchayats and communities in ensuring checks and balances for climate-resilient development model. While mining permits stipulate conditions of scientific and sustainable mining and stipulates the quantity that is allowed to be extracted but staff strength of the departments concerned, such as Forest Department or Mining and Mineral Departments do not match the pace of development and growth in number of mining sites which make it difficult for enforcement of the stipulated norms and take punitive action when violations are brought to the notice of the authorities. Often market forces create a vested force of commercial interest who do not have livelihood stake in the mining areas and a lobby of unscrupulous contractors, corrupt officials take advantage of lack or any role by local bodies or communities to indulge in plundering of natural resources. The NPDRR-2023 addressing such gaps will be vital to pushing climate resilient actions beyond exploring and evolving alternative technologies, resilient infrastructure and services and resilient food and agriculture systems. Building local level disaster risk reduction platforms on the lines of NPDRR at village, town and city level through informed participation of local communities and local bodies can be the first crucial step of a long journey.