Monthly Archives: March 2012

Kulima undertakes climate capacity building needs assessment in Mozambique

Posted by on March 29, 2012 Comments Off on Kulima undertakes climate capacity building needs assessment in Mozambique

Last week Dr Katharine Vincent was in Maputo to meet with government and non-government representatives to assess the needs for climate capacity building in the country.  The needs assessment is a key component of the USAID-funded project on Climate Risk and Vulnerability in southern Africa, where customised training will be designed and run to promote the use of weather and climate information in decision-making.  As well as Mozambique, the project will take place in Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Kulima paper presented at Planet Under Pressure conference in London

Posted by on March 28, 2012 Comments Off on Kulima paper presented at Planet Under Pressure conference in London

Building on their recent collaborations, Kulima and CSIR are presenting a paper at this week’s Planet Under Pressure conference in London.  The paper, entitled “Bridging the Gap: Experiences of communicating climate information between producers and end-users in southern Africa”, highlights our experience in communicating information around climate change to humanitarian actors, through the development of a two-way dialogue highlighting needs and opportunities.  The paper forms part of a parallel session on “Making climate science useful: effective dialogue between climate scientists and humanitarian and development ‘end users'”.

FAO and CCAFS release gender, climate change and food security training guide, with Kulima inputs

Posted by on March 25, 2012 Comments Off on FAO and CCAFS release gender, climate change and food security training guide, with Kulima inputs

FAO and Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (a research programme of CGIAR) have released a new training guide entitled “Gender and Climate Change Research in Agriculture and Food Security for Rural Development”, on which Kulima commented during its development.  The manual sets out to provide users with resources and participatory action research tools for collecting, analyzing and sharing gender-sensitive information about agricultural communities, households and individuals who are facing climate changes.  It then provides some techniques for understanding and promoting climate-smart agricultural techniques.  Participants from Bangladesh, Ghana and Uganda have already been trained in the techniques and applied them in their own countries.  Their experiences were recently reported in the CCAFS blog.

2nd Nordic International Conference on Climate Change Adaptation announces Call for Papers

Posted by on March 21, 2012 Comments Off on 2nd Nordic International Conference on Climate Change Adaptation announces Call for Papers

The Second Nordic International Conference on Climate Change Adaptation: “Adaptation Research Meets Adaptation Decision-Making” will be held in Helsinki, Finland on 29-31 August 2012. The Call for Abstracts (deadline Friday 30 March 2012) and Registration details can be found at the Conference website.

The Conference seeks to identify common ground between adaptation research and adaptation decision-making by comparing experiences, reporting new insights and revealing key gaps in knowledge. Some of the other questions being asked include:
  • Many countries have developed climate change adaptation strategies, but do decision-makers really have the appropriate information, expertise and tools available to them to implement adaptation decisions?
  • What adaptation research is underway and where is information currently lacking?
  • Is it more sensible to wait and see what happens, or to implement adaptation measures right away?
  • How should adaptation policies be targeted – where are they needed most and who should be responsible for implementing them?
  • Do the adaptation decisions of today need to be effective in 30 years time? In 100 years time?
  • What is the cost of climate change to the environment and society, how do we measure that cost and who foots the bill?

Kulima undertakes climate capacity building needs assessment in Zambia

Posted by on March 12, 2012 Comments Off on Kulima undertakes climate capacity building needs assessment in Zambia

Last week Dr Katharine Vincent was in Lusaka to meet with government and non-government representatives to assess the needs for climate capacity building in the country.  The needs assessment is a key component of the USAID-funded project on Climate Risk and Vulnerability in southern Africa, where customised training will be designed and run to promote the use of weather and climate information in decision-making.  As well as Zambia, the project will take place in Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.