Engaging community radio in climate change adaptation research and advocacy in Africa

Transcription

1 Engaging community radio in climate change adaptation research and advocacy in Africa Workshop on training on understanding and communicating climate change September, 2010 Radio Ada, Ada This write-up serves as a summary of the main discussions and outcomes of a two-day workshop, the first in a two-series training on understanding and communicating climate change. It aimed at providing participants with an opportunity to reflect on and challenge their existing interpretations of climate change. It also sought to present an overview of the concepts and issues related to climate change adaptation in and Africa, by building on participants existing knowledge. Furthermore, this training was intended to orient participants on the national policy framework and provide an initial mapping of key stakeholders on climate change policy formulation and influence at the community/district level. Ahead of this training, Station Coordinators and Producers of Radio Ada, Radio Afram Plains and Radio Tongu each completed a baseline assessment. The training was attended by seven producers and the station heads of Radio Ada, Radio Afram Plains and Radio Tongu. It was facilitated by Saeed Abdul-Razak, a Climate Governance Programme Officer of Civic Response and a Programme Officer of GCRN. DAY 1 We began day 1 by reviewing the baseline assessment checklist of stakeholders with the use of electronic voting tools. This session had a slightly larger number of participants. It was facilitated by a Consultant of INK (Institut Nederlandse Kalitat or Dutch Quality Institute) and a Co-director of the Participatory Development Associates (PDA) with support from two Financial Capacity Building Consultants, the Roving Facilitator and a Programme Associate all of GCRN. The participants voted on a number of questions on action research and climate change. Most of the questions were built on the baseline research checklist for stations. (This is attached as Appendix A) The tool generated discussion around responses that were split among participants and those that had very low or very high ratings. Following the e-voting, Saeed made a presentation on climate governance and this presentation sought to address the gaps and grey areas that were identified during the e-voting exercise. He began by establishing the basic definition of climate change and what climate change is not, and gave a diagrammatic presentation of the components of the climatic system, their processes and interactions. He also gave the implications of climate change on people s livelihoods and on development in general. His presentation is attached as appendix B. The following are some of the highlights of the discussions that followed his presentation:

2 Participants clearly distinguished between climate and weather. The underlying concept that Weather is the day-today state of the atmosphere in terms of temperature, moisture content and air movements whereas climate deals with statistics, such as the averages of all weather events, over a long period of time (normally 30 years) was clearly reiterated by all. On mitigation and adaptation, there was an extensive discussion as participants argued why developed countries had to adapt when they had contributed very little to the phenomenon. Most participants felt that developed nations should do more in terms of mitigation and also support developing countries with technology and funds to adapt. Participants recognized that adaptation is happening and instances include people living on the coast putting bags of sand against houses to prevent sea erosion from destroying their houses. Adaptation can be diversifying the crops farmers grow, using irrigation instead of relying solely on rain-fed agriculture. Participants concluded that at the international level, there was more mitigation and little adaptation, the reverse was found to be the case at the local/community level where there is supposed to be more adaptation, with average mitigation and adaptation at the national level. To further deepen the understanding of participants on what climate change is and the understanding of its impacts, participants were grouped according to the stations, to identify and rank the climate change issues they thought affect their communities. The following were the presentations of Radio Ada, Radio Afram Plains and Radio Tongu. RADIO TONGU: ISSUES: Irregular Rainfall Reduction in flooding Increasing frequency of drought Deforestation Lack observance of traditional taboos Bushfires RADIO ADA: ISSUES: Sea Erosion Reduction in arable land Deforestation Dust Bushfires Strange diseases (on animals and humans)

3 RADIO AFRAM PLAINS: Concrete data Tree planting Bushfire Chemicals Soil management The presenters also explained the reasons for their rankings. Day one ended with participants doing audio recordings of their responses to questions on climate. The questions are attached as appendix C. This is to serve as a baseline which participants will re- listen to at the end of the project. They would then reflect on how they might have answered the questions differently. The recordings are available on audio CDs. Day 2 Day 2 began with participants recapping the learning of day 1. It was obvious learning had taken place. Following the recap, participants were taken systematically through the draft National Climate Change Adaptation Policy (This is attached as appendix D) which is yet to be reviewed by parliament. We concluded by discussing the actors at the national, regional, district and community levels. Most participants were able to mention some decentralized departments and non-governmental organisations at the district level who are championing climate change in their districts. During the second session of day 2, participants were asked to go back into their groups to brainstorm on the following: (A) Looking specifically at your community, give 2 things (Sector, Geographical area, etc) that need Climate Change adaptation or that Climate Change affects. (B) What adoption measures (how do you reduce the impact of Climate change) can be taken for the issues identified? (C) Who do you think are the Stakeholders you will have to bring on board in order to achieve the above measure? Radio Tongu: Agric Crop & Non Crop Water / Energy Adaptation Measures: Tree Planting

4 Education against bushfire Water harvesting and storage Irrigation Stakeholders Unit committee Kpotane FBO s District Co-ordinating Director s Office Traditional Authorities School Authorities Youth Groups Opinion Leaders Churches NGOs Civil Society Radio Ada: Agriculture Sea Erosion Adaptation: Agriculture Irrigation Practice diversification i.e. diverse stock of crops and animals Growing drought resistant crop varieties Growing early maturing crop varieties Sea Erosion: Early warning Sea defense Resettlement Stakeholders: Unit Committee District Assembly

5 Traditional Authorities / Chiefs Agric Extension Officers GROWTH (NGO) Meteorology department FBOs (Crops and Livestock) Radio Afram Plains: Agriculture early warning system Stakeholders: Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) District Assembly Meteorological Department Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Agric Extension officers After plenary, there was another activity to participatory develop a line of questions for the stakeholders they had identified. These questions were put together and modified with inputs from Blane Harvey into a checklist which is attached as appendix E.

6 APPENDIX A APPENDIX B APPENDIX C APPENDIX D APPENDIX E Baseline research checklist for stations Presentation on climate governance Questions for audio recordings National Climate Change Adaptation Policy Baseline research checklist for Stakeholders

7 APPENDIX C Please introduce yourself and the station you are based at. What does the term climate change mean to you? Do you think climate change impacts or threatens people in your listening area? If so, how? What role do you think community radio can play in helping people address climate change in their communities? What are the challenges to playing that role?