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CBA6

Connecting the dots: youths, climate adaptation and indigenous knowledge

Submitted by Vanessa on 2nd May 2012
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It's time to start considering a youth-centred approach to climate adaptation in

by Maxwell Mkondiwa, reporting from the 6th Community Based Adaptation Conference in Vietnam

What is a community? Practitioners often implemented "community" development projects based on their perception of a community or village as a unified unit consisting of various individuals who share various common resources and institutions. However, this concept of community was challenged during the Sixth International Conference on Community Based Adaptation (CBA6) held in Hanoi, Vietnam from 16th to 22nd April 2012 as participants called for realistic assumptions when reporting the achievements of various adaptation projects. Participants acknowledged that while we need simple ways to consider community-based adaptation to climate change, we also need to understand the power relations, statuses and structure within communities. Thus a disaggregation of this so called “community” is necessary.  While a community may also entail a community of practice,  indigenous communities should also be understood as a special case in all CBA work. Read more »

Participatory approaches give women a voice in climate adaptation

Submitted by Moushumi on 23rd April 2012
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Not all men and women face the same kinds of climate vulnerability. Participator

By Moushumi Chaudhury, reporting from the 6th Community Based Adaptation Conference in Vietnam

The session on gender at the 6th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA6) provided an opportunity to share experiences on how gender is being integrated into CBA planning in places such as Vietnam, Micronesia, and Nepal, as well as countries where the CGIAR Climate Change program works, such as Bangladesh, Uganda, and Ghana. A common theme in the papers presented in this session was the use of participatory action research (PAR) tools. In the case of Vietnam and Micronesia, the World Bank and The Nature Conservancy respectively have been using participatory mapping to give women their voice, as well as to collect data on gender, which is rather scarce. Participatory mapping shows not only how men and women perceive risks and disasters differently in Vietnam, but has given women confidence to use three dimensional maps to speak up in cultures where it is difficult to for women to publically engage in discussion in Micronesia. Read more »

Growing more rice with less water in a changing climate

Submitted by Vanessa on 22nd April 2012
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The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a cultivation technique which optimi

by Maxwell Mkondiwa, reporting from the 6th Community Based Adaptation Conference in Vietnam

It is now recognized worldwide that agricultural and farming systems need to be improved beyond their capacities if the human race is to avert the catastrophe that may result as population growth exceeds food production. Catastrophe seem likely when you consider the billions of people who will be food insecure in 20 years time if we take the business-as-usual scenario in farming systems.

Scholars and practitioners have quickly come in to suggest various high input technological investments in the agricultural systems that shall allow us to produce enough food. These include increase in fertilization, use of improved seeds, use of GMOs, use of herbicides and mechanisation of developing country agriculture. While these pathways promise enough food production, questions of ecological sustainability have been asked. Agricultural intensification has been proposed by some scholars as the only route for energizing developing country’s production systems to deal with the global challenges. Some methods for agricultural intensification appear to be taking root in Vietnam. Read more »

Local communities need alerts, not jargon

Submitted by Vanessa on 19th April 2012
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Arame Tall, one of the CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) gender grant recipients, is currently at the 6th Community-Based Adaptation conference in Hanoi, Vietnam. In a video interview with IIED, she speaks about the similarities in local coping mechanisms between Asia and Africa; the gap between local adaptation needs and national policies; the need for clear and useful weather alerts for farmers; and her vision for the future of community-based adaptation. Learn more about Arame's work on agricultural climate change adaptation, gender, and climate information services.

 

CCAFS scientists are at the Community Based Adaptation conference all week. More updates will be posted on this blog, on twitter @cgiarclimate and the CCAFS facebook page.

What do HIV/AIDS and Climate Change have in common?

Submitted by Lisen on 18th April 2012
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Rice field in Vietnam

By Moushumi Chaudhury

For most of us, the obvious answer to this question is nothing. However, a field trip that I went on as part of the Community Based Adaptation 6 (CBA6) conference held in Vietnam has made me think about this question in a different manner. To gain a better understanding of community based adaptation practices, I travelled northwest of Hanoi to the Mai Hich Commune in the Mai Chau District. In this very green and mountainous part of the country, a group of CBA6 participants were exposed to the activities taking place through the “integrated HIV/AIDS prevention program for rural sustainable poverty reduction” project in the Mai Hich Commune led by Center for Community Health and Development (COHED), a prominent NGO. We were told by COHED that the largest environmental threats to the Commune are flooding, landslide caused by soil erosion, and water shortage. Agriculture is the major economic activity that many of the 30,000 people in the Commune depend upon.

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Unleashing the potential of rural women as active agents of change

Submitted by Cecilia on 17th April 2012
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Are there gender-specific needs within climate information services?

edited by Cecilia Schubert. This story features the work of Arame Tall, who is currently participating in the 6th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation (CBA6) in Hanoi, Vietnam.

In an effort to understand how men and women adapt to climate variability and change to maintain food security, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) initiated a small gender grants program last year. The selected female grant recipients are now performing research in a vast variety of areas, on topics that relate to the linkages between gender and climate change. The idea was to bring forward gender-responsive research within CCAFS priority areas, while at the same time build research capacity among women scientists and increase their representation in agricultural research. All recipients therefore perform their research in one of the program benchmark sites - East Africa, West Africa or South Asia. Read more »

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