By Lindah Fatuma, Maureen Kabasa and Joel Onyango

Climate change is a global phenomenon, which has affected economies differently through high temperatures, droughts, floods among others.

For instance, developing countries are more vulnerable to climate change compared to developed countries¹. This is attributed to the fact that developing countries have limited capacity, technologies, and finance to tackle the eventualities caused by climate change².  Therefore, it is imperative to capacity build developing countries particularly institutional and resources to deal with the challenges of climate change.  In this regard, implementation of the Paris Agreement, Sustainable Development Goal 17.9 of agenda 2030³, regional and local climate change mitigation and adaptation plans emphasizes climate-related capacity building for developing countries and encourages the developed countries to support actions that build capacity⁴.

Climate change is also not gender-neutral where different ages and genders are disproportionately affected and this is due to the differential roles that society has gendered.  Youths and women are more vulnerable to climate change impacts posing extreme threats to the tasks and responsibilities women hold in households and society as a whole⁵.  Despite this, women play a crucial role in climate change mitigation and adaptation hence their interaction with males and the environment needs to be assessed and opportunities that can reduce their vulnerability explored to enhance their adaptive capacities⁶.  Therefore, to achieve climate-related capacity building for developing countries as well as strengthening individual, institutional and systemic capacity a gender-sensitive action plan is key. This encourages gender balance in decision-making on delivery and access to means and tools of implementation for mitigation and adaptation actions⁷.

This blog explores reflections following a webinar on Capacity building of technical institutions involved in climate change education, training, and scientific research (CAPCET) project in the COMESA region. The webinar brought together researchers, scholars, and climate practitioners to give their perspective on the training demands within the continent and reinforce findings of the needs assessment carried out in Ethiopian Environment and Forest Research Institute (EEFRI) and Environmental Climate, Sustainable Development Institute (ECSDI) at the University of Zimbabwe.  The assessments aimed to identify gaps in skills and competencies required to deliver relevant courses on climate change through a status survey on continental demand training areas and linking them with institutional (managerial and individual) needs to offer training solutions at the institutional, national and continental level.

This webinar aimed to not only make participants aware of the project as well as starting a discussion on approaching climate change differently from a demand perspective rather than just offering solutions because they have worked in other areas. Through presentations and plenary sessions, important ideas were presented to improve climate change education, training and scientific research in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe and the entire continent.

 

Climate change capacity building with a difference: The CaPCET initiative

Due to the limited climate change capacity in the continent, the CaPCET project gears to offer climate change education, training, and scientific research services in the COMESA region. The goal of the project is to enhance the capability of professionals and institutions in the area of climate change and to ensure they are better prepared for Climate Change Action, moving the climate change agenda forward. COMESA, the funding organisation of the project has commissioned the African Center for Technology Studies (ACTS), Institute Climate Change & Adaption (ICCA) at the University of Nairobi, and the Tetralink Taylor & Associates EA Limited (TTA) in collaboration with the two selected institutions (EEFRI and ECSDI) to implement the stipulated activities towards climate capacity building. The project approach is demand-driven capacity building development. It involves the following model: scoping through a landscape assessment to identify the target clients and the priority capacity gap;  Identification of partners where the EEFRI and ECSDI were identified and selected on a competitive bid; demand assessment to understand the continental market gaps; Needs assessment to identify the individual climate need; co-development and co-delivery of the curriculum; dissemination of the modules and manuals; and ensuring the sustainability of the curriculums even after the end of the project. Key messages emerged from the webinar that reinforced the CapCET project goal.

 

Climate change is contextual and the different contexts need to be understood and taken into consideration in space and time

Climate change has multiple dimensions such as context or spatial dimension and time dimensions. In terms of context dimension, climate change is a global, regional and local phenomenon where the developing countries are seen to be more vulnerable to climate change effects as compared to the developed countries. This is due to inadequate capacity among developing countries to address the evolving effects of climate variability. Different policies and strategies have been developed in global, regional, and local contexts to curb the impacts of climate change.  In addition, men, women youths, and person’s disabilities are disproportionately affected by climate change.  Global, regional and local efforts have also been made to mainstream gender in different policies for instance in the Nationally Determined Contributors (NDCS) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPS). However, gaps still exist in terms of gender dimension. Hence, understanding the context of climate change will enable the development of impactful and context-specific climate change actions.

Capacity building is considered a pathway to improving climate change vulnerabilities among developing countries and across different genders. International agreements and regional strategies such as the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the Paris agreement (2015) are emphasizing the capacity building of individuals, institutions, and systems. This is through approaches such as developing relevant climate change aspects of education and public awareness; and communication of relevant climate information, motivating better climate actions and capacity-building initiatives. In this regard, emphasis on gender-sensitive as well as interactive delivery and dissemination of climate information should be encouraged to achieve gender equality by allowing both males and females to make an informed decision on the different climate spaces and ideas while appreciating their different roles and responsibilities inclusively. Therefore, it is important to have contextual climate action, ensure inclusivity and deliver climate change messages in different possible ways to reach all audiences regardless of their gender, age, or physical ability. This will intern lead to coherent policies, contextual solutions and contribute to gender mainstreaming to reach the climate goals.

 

Demand-driven climate change is the solution to the different climate-related problems

Different countries have varied climate needs that have to be solved individually. The CapCET project saw a need to not only give any training on climate change but build capacity on what is needed by the technical institutions and demanded by the market. The capacity building encompasses the individual, institutional, and systemic levels. Incorporating all three levels addresses the climate change challenges effectively to achieve the goals sustainably. Of importance is ensuring capacity support is given to the priority areas by doing a gap analysis. In this regard, the CAPCET project conducted a climate change training needs assessment at EEFRI and ECSDI whose was to identify gaps in skills and competencies required to deliver relevant courses on climate change through a status survey.  

The presentations highlighted from both Ethiopia and Zimbabwe recognized the fact that most individuals have already received some form of climate change education through training or research. However, they still lack the practical skills to implement climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Through this, the CapCET project identified gaps in practical skills that it seeks to fill. In Ethiopia, climate modeling, climate policy, leadership, and climate finance were identified as key training gaps while in Zimbabwe climate mitigation and adaptation and climate finance were the top training needs. Climate finance was common in both countries because most of the individuals have not received training on financing options, which is important for climate implementation and sustainability. In addition, the deliberation in the planetary discussions also highlighted nature base solutions, development of bankable proposals financial strategies, and Technology Need Assessment (TNA) to be one of the critical training components that institutions and individuals require, to foster the achievement of climate actions that countries pledge under Paris Agreement.

The webinar appreciated that there are multiple delivery models (formal and informal) for the training and education of climate change. However, to ensure inclusivity in climate change capacity building, a blended delivery model is sufficient coupled with considerations of the needs of the target audience, therefore, giving demand-driven climate awareness

 

What next

Climate change has been a problem for decades. However, efforts have been made at different spaces to address the phenomenon. Even with this, there is still more to be done and recognition of the different contexts of climate change is a great start for context-specific solutions. The CapCET project recognizes that there is no one size fits all solution as the needs of different countries are varied on different levels, what works for one may not work for the other. Therefore, assessing the needs of different countries and individuals is key for demand-driven solutions.

With the climate context and the needs in mind, the CapCET project will co-develop and co-deliver the demand-driven climate modules together with the selected institutions. The outline is based on the general context and case studies using relevant tools. Dissemination of the key messages and the modules will be done through different platforms including dialogues touching on relevant climate issues to inform policies. Sustainability is key and ensuring that the CapCET demand-driven model is viable even after the end of the project is important. Fundraising strategies will be co-established and documented in the sustainability plan. In summary, the CapCET project will ensure the development of context/need-specific modules, ownership through co-development and co-delivery, and continuity through co-documentation of a sustainability plan. Throughout the process, inclusivity has been and will be at the core of the implementation. As emphasized in the presentations and the plenary sessions “co-development and co-delivery of modules build partnerships and ensure effective climate mitigation and adaptation.”

 

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References

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