Africa Talks Climate (ATC): Briefs on Climate Change in Africa

"Our climate is changing - the way we talk about it needs to change too."

Africa Talks Climate (ATC) is a research and communications initiative undertaken by the BBC World Service Trust's Research and Learning Group (R&L) in partnership with the British Council. The African-led research explores the public understanding of climate change in Africa. It is founded on the belief that those particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change - such as ordinary African citizens - must be better informed in order to understand and effectively respond to their changing climate. It also aims to ensure that their voices are heard within national and international climate debate. It has been launched ahead of the United Nations (UN) climate change summit in December 2009 that seeks to broker a new global climate treaty.

The research was guided by a global advisory network of representatives from research and academic institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and donor organisations. Fieldwork was carried out in two phases between May and October 2009. Researchers conducted focus group discussions with more than 1,000 citizens from all sectors of society across 10 African countries, as well as interviews with nearly 200 policy-makers, business people, religious leaders, journalists, and civil society representatives. Within each country, fieldwork locations were selected to represent environmental challenges that have been linked to or are predicted to be exacerbated by climate change. In all cases, selection of focus group participants sought to ensure appropriate geographic, ethnic, linguistic, and urban/rural diversity. The focus groups were single-sex, and contained around eight participants. Within each group, participants were of a similar age and socio-economic class or profession. Moderators were the same gender and spoke the same language as participants. Research participants ranged from rural pastoralists to cabinet ministers, urban town dwellers to fisherfolk.

Research briefings for five countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, and Uganda) were released in September 2009. These briefings provide a snapshot of the findings emerging from the full research reports. Ten country reports and an executive summary were also published as part of the Africa Talks Climate series in early 2010. An October 2009 policy briefing, Least Responsible, Most Affected, Least Informed: Public Understanding of Climate Change in Africa [PDF], draws on the research from the citizen focus groups across the five aforementioned countries and Nigeria, the pilot country.

A summary of some of the key insights emerging from the country research briefings to date:

Ethiopia - "Ethiopia is not a country that 'talks climate' a great deal..."

• Knowledge of climate change and global warming is very low; most recognise neither the terms nor the concepts. Despite being the most profoundly affected by climate change and keenly aware of local environmental problems, the predominantly rural population knows very little about the subject.
• The rural population is already struggling with the challenges put on the land by a growing population and ongoing environmental degradation. While in urban areas it is not yet a matter of life and death, climate change could soon push rural communities to breaking point.
• Most Ethiopians, regardless of their religion, feel that God alone has the power to change the weather. This could pose an obstacle to their understanding of the science of climate change.
• Traditional community and religious leaders are the least knowledgeable about climate change. In contrast, climate change is an emerging concern for many opinion leaders based in Ethiopia's urban centres. Despite relatively high knowledge of the subject among policy-makers, and a prominent role in international climate change negotiations, Ethiopia is still formulating its response.

Ghana - "As one NGO representative explains, people 'don't think 'climate change', but they know that something is happening with regards to the weather."

• There is very low awareness of both climate change and global warming in Ghana, although the latter appears to be a more accessible concept. Nevertheless, global warming is often incorrectly conflated with ozone depletion.
• Trees feature prominently in the way Ghanaians understand their changing weather. However, this is explained through the impact of tree-felling on local weather systems, rather than the role trees play in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.
• Few people discuss strategies to cope with their changing weather. Instead, most focus on tree-planting as a solution, because they see it as a way to encourage rainfall. For rural Ghanaians, unpredictable rains and variability in planting seasons are causing their yields to decline. Some consider migration to urban areas to be the only option.
• There is high awareness among opinion leaders of the implications of climate change for Ghana's population. Despite this, there is no coordinated national response. Their comments suggest that government plans are in their early stages and are still constrained by a lack of funds. Both media and government are seen to be reactive to climate change, and have not yet framed the issue as a priority.
• A representative from a community organisation says that people need to "evolve the concept [of climate change] themselves rather than you evolving it and imposing it upon them". Others say the focus of climate change information provision should be on issues pertinent to the lives of people who depend on the land. A media representative explains that "messages should be tailored to suit specific communities", before emphasising the needs of rural communities: "if you go to the village, you either talk to them in their dialect or show them a video....A good picture is worth a thousand words and they tell their own stories".

Kenya - "'We still think of it [climate change] as a foreign concept. We can't relate it to the high price [of food]. We can't relate the high electricity cost. We can't relate water rationing to climate change' [says one opinion leader from the media]."

• Current climate change terminology fails most Kenyans. Most do not recognise either the term or the concept of "climate change". While Kenyans have noticed their weather is changing, most do not understand these changes in a global context.
• Global warming is a more accessible concept than climate change to most Kenyans. They have noticed recent increases in temperature and have connected these changes to human activity.
• Kenyans attribute changes in their weather principally to deforestation. They link this to their understanding of the impacts of tree-felling on the local environment and weather. Most do not recognise the important role that trees play in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
• Kenyan citizens and opinion leaders alike see tree-planting as the primary way to restore the country's natural resources and counteract the impacts of climate change.
• The comments of opinion leaders suggest that the Kenyan government's response to climate change could be developed further in terms of scope and implementation.

Senegal - "...the Senegalese people do not know what the work of [the environment ministry] actually relates to… its actions are not visible, even for us as media."

• There is low awareness of climate change and global warming among most people in Senegal. Many people explain changes in weather with reference to their existing knowledge of ozone "holes", or depletion.
• Most are aware of the transformation in the natural environment and the depletion of food and water sources over their lifetimes. These are largely attributed to human activity and understood to be impacted by changes in the weather.
• People in Senegal generally link changes to the environment and in their weather to local human activity. There is little recognition that these problems are likely to have causes that extend beyond their own continent.
• Most opinion leaders from outside government and NGOs feel that climate change is an expert topic about which they know very little. All opinion leaders agree that there is a need to improve the provision of information and communication on climate change at every level of Senegalese society.

Uganda - "As one NGO representative proposes, 'because climate change is a new term....you have to interpret [it] into the local reality or peoples' understanding of seasonal changes".

• Neither the term nor the concept of "climate change" is recognised by most Ugandans. Although there is equally low awareness of the term global warming, it appears to be a more accessible concept but is frequently confused with depletion of the ozone layer.
• Ugandans think deforestation can affect their weather. This is explained with reference to the impact of tree-felling on local weather. Most do not recognise the important role trees play in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
• There is low awareness among the Ugandan public that the environmental problems they face are likely to have causes that extend beyond their own continent.
• Yet most Ugandan opinion leaders consider climate change a global problem which needs a global solution. In many cases they suggest that the impetus for this solution should come from developed countries.
• Ugandan opinion leaders are concerned that the public is ill-informed about climate change. They stress that communication around climate change needs to be relevant to people's lives and their understanding of their environment. 

Other communication-centred observations from Uganda:

• "The fact that people often use visual imagery to make sense of ozone depletion suggests that visual explanations of global warming - for example a "growing blanket of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere" - could be used to convey the science of climate change in a way that is accessible to many people."
• "Although at present people's understanding of trees centres on their role in the water cycle, the widespread public appreciation of trees could provide an opportunity to inform people about trees and carbon, and so introduce the concepts of global warming and climate change."
• "One journalist stresses the effectiveness of using images to report on climate change. "I believe one thousand words can be told in a single picture", he says, "and in a way people really understand." There is a consensus among most opinion leaders that communicating the meaning of climate change is not simply a case of translating the term into local languages. Instead it requires an interpretation that corresponds to people's understanding of their environment, and addresses the reality of their everyday lives.
• "The Ugandan government is responding to climate change. As well as participating in international negotiations, it has developed a National Action Plan for Adaptation (NAPA). This process engaged civil society and identified raising awareness of climate change as a priority."

A summary of the recommendations from the country research briefings:

Recommendations:

• The information and communication needs of citizens must be at the heart of Africa's response to climate change.
• A successful information provision strategy should recognise that that citizens' response to climate change will be determined by the availability and quality of information.
• Of immediate concern are the needs of information-poor rural communities already struggling with the challenges posed by climate variability and poverty. For them, climate change represents a tipping point. If these communities are to survive, there is a need for targeted information and resources that will enable them to cope with the impacts of climate change.
• All evidence suggests that international climate change discourse is inaccessible to most Africans. There is a need for information and debate that harness people's understanding and experience of their changing weather and environment, to create a relevant discourse that promotes citizen engagement in Africa's response to climate change.

The following individual reports are available in PDF format:

Research Briefing. Africa Talks Climate: Ethiopia

Research Briefing. Africa Talks Climate: Ghana

Research Briefing. Africa Talks Climate: Senegal

Research Briefing. Africa Talks Climate: South Africa

Research Briefing. Africa Talks Climate: Kenya

Research Briefing. Africa Talks Climate: Uganda

Research Briefing. Africa Talks Climate: DRC

Research Briefing. Africa Talks Climate: Tanzania

Research Briefing. Africa Talks Climate: Nigeria

Research Briefing. Africa Talks Climate: Sudan