Civic Empowerment for Climate Action

Climate Change has always been a driver of community dynamics as it affects and influences livelihoods. It changes how communities live, interact, and behave. To effectively respond to the impact of climate change, civil society organizations need to acquire adequate knowledge and skills in climate change processes. Once these community catalysts are aware of what should be done, they can easily transfer the knowledge to their communities and ultimately empower them for workable solutions to climate change adaptation. This course will enable participants to be amongst the key actors in the region in supporting and addressing climate change adaptation at the community level effectively.

Introduction

Climate Change has always been a driver of community dynamics as its impact influence communities’ livelihoods and changes how communities live, interact, and behave. To address the impact of climate change on communities’ livelihoods needs a catalytic agent that can empower the community with essential knowledge and skills on what needs to be done and how. Since Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) and Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) work at local levels and often interact with communities where the impacts of climate change are greatly felt, they are the ones who can play a vital role in responding and addressing climate change impact at the local level.

NGO’s and CSO’s can create awareness on climate change to the community by showing its likely impact on their lives, their livelihoods, and the ecosystem which provides services such as food and water. Once aware of the situation, communities are likely to gain knowledge and skills on climate change and can undertake needed adaptive actions to reduce vulnerability, mitigate risks and build resilience.

NGO’s and CSO’s can at the same time be the advocates of communities’ interests during the formulation of climate-related policies and ensure that the policies address community issues as far as climate change is concerned. Not only that, but NGO’s and CSO’s can also mobilize resources within and outside the communities for funding projects that address climate change impact.

Despite all these catalytic roles in addressing climate change at the community level, many NGO’s and CSO’ have limited knowledge and skills in empowering communities to respond effectively to the impact of climate change. For communities to effectively respond to the impact of climate change the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) need to acquire adequate knowledge and skills in climate change processes. Once these community catalysts are aware of what they should do, they can easily transfer the knowledge to their communities and ultimately empower them for workable solutions to climate change adaptation.

It is from this ground that MS TCDC has developed this course on climate change, specifically for non-governmental and civil society organizations, with the objective of enabling them to be amongst the key actors in the East Africa region in supporting and addressing climate change adaptation at community level effectively.

Hence, this 5 days’ course, composed of 6 modules for NGOs and CSOs to empower them as catalysts of change on climate change to the communities.