Climate Resilience and Disaster Risk Management: Stories of Change from CDKN

"The process has been one of 'community-based, popular participation in policy communication, participatory awareness creation, targeted law enforcement, and community level ownership of policy processes.'" - Dr. Delali Dovie of the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS), University of Ghana

This brief presents results from projects supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) to assess vulnerability and to mainstream climate resilience into development planning. Case studies from several countries illustrate the importance of involving diverse social groups in defining and monitoring vulnerability and delivering adaptation solutions.

The brief highlights the use of techniques such as role-playing games to raise people's awareness of the challenges posed by decision-making in a changing climate. Pablo Suarez, Deputy Director, The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, explains that PowerPoint presentations and journal articles did not "engage people's brains" around climate risk. So, he has been pioneering the use of role-playing games with communities and policymakers in order to provide players with the opportunity to "test systems you wouldn't in real life. We can't have an experience of trying different strategies in any other way." In this vein, many developing country agencies have collaborated to run role-playing games that impress the seriousness of climate risk management on participants. For instance, CDKN has supported researchers from the Climate Centre and the African Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA), which is aimed at empowering decision-makers in Mozambique, Uganda, and Ethiopia, with information and tools for climate compatible development to assess how complexity theory and a framework for flexible decision-making can help African policymakers prepare for an uncertain future of climate extremes and disasters.

Selected case study examples from the document include:

• The Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan is an effort to protect residents of Ahmedabad, western India, from heat waves through common-sense measures. Having noted that there is only one weather gauge at the airport, where reported temperatures are actually lower than real temperatures in the city, organisers considered questions such as: How do you get the gauges in the town and get the word out to the media and to medical professionals that a heatwave is even happening? At the next level, how do you tell people what they should do about it? "Communications and awareness-raising start before the summer season is underway. The Plan calls for agencies to monitor the long- and short-term weather forecasts in order to spot prolonged hot spells on the horizon. Meanwhile, government agencies are instructed to identify which social groups are most vulnerable to heatwaves, and train community health workers and other leaders to distribute educational materials to them....When a heatwave begins, the Plan calls for government workers and community leaders to step up communications to the most vulnerable groups. Mass media such as newspapers, radio and television have a role to play, but leafleting in slum areas...and even microphone announcements from rickshaws may be necessary to prompt people to take action at the height of a crisis. When the heatwave is over, the city government has committed to collecting better data on heat-related illnesses at local hospitals and via community health networks."
• Ghana's Community Based Risk Screening Tool - Adaptation and Livelihoods (CRiSTAL) has the purpose of integrating climate risk analysis and disaster risk reduction (DRR) into coastal cities' development plans. The Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) has held capacity building workshops to train 40 local leaders in methods for climate vulnerability assessment and has brought participants on study tours to witness coastal erosion and livelihood impacts first-hand and discuss solutions. As a result, 3 of the focal communities have prepared rapid community-based disaster preparedness plans. Going beyond the local level, following the collection and validation of site-level information about climate vulnerability, government, non-governmental organisation (NGO), and civic representatives held district- and regional-level "platforms" to identify policy challenges. Finally, the inputs from these subnational assessments and discussions were "rolled up" into a national level policy roundtable in the capital, Accra.
• Working in 9 countries, the Partners for Resilience (PfR) - a partnership among NGOs and practitioners - is focusing in Indonesia and the Philippines to define minimum standards for climate-smart DRR that could be adopted widely by communities, at scale. The idea is to find practical solutions that are achievable for many communities with relatively limited support. Consultations with community leaders, as well as national and local policy-makers, led to a set of minimum standards that set out things such as requirements for information flow and capacity building. "Through the process of adopting the standards, communities should learn how to access policy support and resources, in their province, country or region. For instance, it's recommended that communities should be able to access resources from farmer groups, agricultural extension services, meteorological services, water management and health authorities."

This document is an output from a project funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) and the Netherlands Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) for the benefit of developing countries.