Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) considers the empowerment of farming communities at the forefront of agricultural production as the most sensible way to making local seed systems resilient. Thus, SEARICE projects include the development of community-managed seed systems as a key outcome of its various projects. For the purposes of this documentation, however, we describe only the initiative implemented in the project ‘Building Resilient Community- Managed Seed Systems towards Climate Change Adaptation’ in the Philippines and Cambodia (2013- 2015), in collaboration with government units in each of the participating countries. It made significant contributions towards the technical empowerment of farmers in 55 project communities in seven (7) and nine (9) provinces in Cambodia and the Philippines, respectively. The capacities of 1,546 men and women (832 or 53%) farmers to manage crop genetic diversity and strengthen their local seed systems to adapt to the changing climatic conditions have been enhanced through Farmer Field Schools on community-managed seed systems. Previously disadvantaged farmers, they too have been organized to gain social and political influence, actively assert their rights and interests and pursue activities collectively to develop further their resilience to the impacts of climate change.