Climate change is a critical challenge for people of East Africa. Changing climate and weather patterns are predicted to have severe negative impacts on food production, food security and natural resources in East Africa.
Without appropriate responses climate change is likely to constrain economic development and poverty reduction efforts and exacerbate already pressing difficulties in a country like Kenya. Kenya is one of the countries whose economy is deeply rooted in climate sensitive sectors like agriculture, fisheries and forestry and Siaya County is expected to be hardest hit.
According to KWTA 2013 report, Siaya County has the least forested area at 0.42 %.This is caused by expansion of agricultural land, clearing of bushes for timber, charcoal and fuel wood, poor cultural practices.
Siaya County has a population size of about 842,304 according to the 2009 Population Census of which are 47% are males and 53% females living in 199,034 households. The county has a surface area of 2,530.38 sq km culminating to a population density of 333 people per km2. Therefore there is an urgent need for taking the challenge of climate change and the resulting impact of unsustainable development very seriously.
CAED through this workshop will bring together key stakeholders in the county to think carefully about the consequences of unsustainable consumer focused lifestyles and find ways on how to act in their local context, to avoid the worst predicted impact.
A planned workshop with the following objectives:
Course Agenda
Course | Course Content | Objectives of the course | Methodology/Approach |
Understanding Climate Change Science, Climate Change Scenario, Responses to Climate Change,and Basic terminology | Basic Climate Change Science: Global Warming, Greenhouse Gases and Consequences | At the end of this course the participant should be able to: •Understand the meaning of weather, climate, climate change, and global warming •Understand the source of greenhouse gases, consequences of GHG concentration in the atmosphere (mainly temperature change) |
•PowerPoint Presentations •Discussion •Question and answers |
Climate Change Scenarios | This session will introduce the trainees with the different climate change scenarios and their consequences such as: •Changes in temperature (changes in land Surface Temperature, changes in Sea Surface Temperature) •Variation in Rainfall and •Ice melting and Sea level Rise |
•PowerPoint Presentations •Discussion •Question and answers |
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Responses to Climate Change – Mitigation and Adaptation | At the end of this course, the participant should be able to understand: •The two key response measures to deal with climate change i.e. mitigation and adaptation- setting up tree nurseries, tree planting, sound agricultural practises, clean energy technologies •Carbon emission and compensation regarding carbon emission |
•PowerPoint Presentations •Discussion •Question and answers |
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Key Terminologies | •At the end of this course the participant should be able to understand key terminologies of climate change: Impacts, vulnerability, adaptation, mitigation, risk, hazards, shock, variability, trend, exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity etc. •The purpose of this session is to assess knowledge base of the participants on different terminologies of climate change and bring them on a common ground. |
•PowerPoint Presentations •Discussion •Question and answers |
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Understanding the Impacts, Vulnerability and linkage between climate change and disaster | Impacts of climate change on different regions of the world | This will cover impacts of climate change on different regions of the world under different climate change scenarios. | •PowerPoint Presentations •Discussion •Question and answers |
Link Between Climate Change and Disaster | The session titled “Link Between Climate Change and Disaster” is designed to provide Identification of area specific extreme climatic events or disasters; i.e. flood, cyclone, etc. Analysis of intensity and frequency of those events depending on temporal dimension |
•PowerPoint Presentations •Discussion •Question and answers |
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Adaptation to Climate Change, Link between Adaptation & Development, and Group Exercise | Adaptation | Adaptation science, types of adaptation, context specificity of adaptation etc This session will cover link between adaptation and development, where commonalities and differences exist. |
•PowerPoint Presentations •Case study •Discussion •Question and answers |
Vulnerability to Climate Change | Concept of vulnerability, vulnerability to natural, physical and social system, how vulnerability varies within societies etc | •PowerPoint Presentations •Discussion •Question and answers |
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Group exercise | In this session, the trainees will be segregated into groups and they will assess vulnerability of different sectors based on local knowledge. | •Group formation, •Deliberation of group works on work sheet •Group presentation •Question and answer |
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Field Visit | Visiting Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Kakamega, and a Clean Technology shop in Kisumu | The objectives of this visit is to expose the participants to tree nursery development, types of improved cook stoves and lighting solutions suitable for people at the bottom of the pyramid | •PowerPoint Presentations •Discussion •Question and answers |
Expected outcomes
Short term (6 months-1 year):
Visit to the county government office to establish progress made by county office on policy, 2 Tree nursery establishment in schools per sub county-school going children will plan trees on their birthday and take the responsibility of taking care of the tree, at least 10Trees planted per household, at least 100 trees planted per school, at least one clean technology adopted by 40% of households.
Long term expectations (1+ years):
County government to initiate environmental protection policy: Enforcement of tree planting legislation, solar lamps adoption, clean cookstoves,tree planting campaigns-biannual, organize agricultural shows to show best practices-annually.
Method of evaluation
Use of KAP (Knowledge, Awareness and Practice) survey which will help show levels of adoption and to know awareness levels and impact of the training
Working closely with stakeholders to access progress they are making on various proposed set of activities
Blogpost and photo by Simon Ogutu – CEO of Community Action on Environment and Development – CAED (Nairobi, Kenya) – simonogutu(at)yahoo.com
This post is entry nr #40 in our #WCA2014 blog competition. The five blogposts with the most and highest votes will receive a signed copy of the book "Trees for Life". The most popular blogpost will get an iPad.
This blogpost received 9 votes, with an average score of 4 (out of a max of 5).
Follow our #WCA2014 social reporting teamfollow our social reporting team via the #WCA2014 tag on Twitter, our blog and our Facebook page.
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11 People have left comments on this post
Public awareness is an important issue for climate change related development.
changing the lives of people bring a positive change to their lives and the environment kudos!
Very important comments from Dr Dwivedi and Ezra ,we must win the war!
thats a great idea and if implimented will give us a positive result.
thanks Monica for that uplifting comment.
This is a great idea. We must surely win the war against climate change
I am proud to see another African making a difference. Bravo! Voted for you!
All the Best
Good work simon. Keep it up
we have to save the place. keep going
A good mission with plan and clarity.
I think, a person is interested to listen, follow, do & donate, only when he has some benefits. I think presentations covers all.