Event2014 CBA learning event

Community Based Adaptation and Resilience in East and Southern Africa’s Drylands A Learning Event for practitioners, researchers and policy makers

Download the conference announcement

1-4 September 2014 Lalibela Auditorium, ILRI Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Outputs of the meeting:

Community-based adaptation and resilience in East & Southern Africa Drylands (Fiona Percy, CARE) Climate information services for community adaptation and resilience (John Gathenya, University of Reading) ESA Drylands Climate Knowledge & Projections (Jasper Batureine Mwesigwa, ICPAC) Future horizons - Pastoralism and climate change in Ethiopia (Adrian Cullis, Tufts University)

Vulnerability, Adaptation and Resilience (Emma Bowa, CARE)

Full notes available here.

The impacts of climate change are threatening the livelihoods of already vulnerable pastoralist, agro pastoralist and farming communities in East and Southern African drylands. In order to meet the scale and magnitude of these challenges, where extreme events and recurrent drought will be ongoing features, actors in development, adaptation, disaster risk management, social protection and humanitarian action are recognizing the need to focus on achieving resilient outcomes. Community based adaptation (CBA) to climate change is providing valuable practical approaches and evidence of use for drylands related programmes and policy decisions.

Aim of the learning event Bringing together stakeholders from a diverse range of disciplines working with dryland communities across East and Southern Africa, the aim of the event is to facilitate learning from experiences and evidence on climate change adaptation, in particular CBA, and resilience. Participants will co-generate new insights on the links between CBA and achieving resilient development.

The conference will explore:

What is the added value that CBA practical experience brings to achieving resilience in dryland communities?
How are climate change and related responses exacerbating the entrenched drivers of differential vulnerability among communities living in drylands? What are the barriers and drivers to change?
What would an integrated and coherent approach to achieving resilience in vulnerable dryland communities look like?

CARE Ethiopia will host the event together with CARE’s Adaptation Learning Programme (ALP), the CGIAR Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security programme (CCAFS) and the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE).

Target audience: Practitioners working with drylands issues (government, non-government and donors) and researchers, who have knowledge and experiences to share on adaptation and resilience in drylands. Policy makers concerned with East and Southern African drylands are also welcome to register.

Participation will be dependent on the relevance of information shared in the registration form. List of participants

Location: ILRI campus, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Date: 1st to 4th September 2014

Download the full concept note

File:ESA Conference Information Pack - CARE Ethiopia.pdf

Contact: Sylvia Miyumo [alp@careclimatechange.org]

Registration is now closed. Conference information will be posted to this link on an ongoing basis for those who would like to follow.

Detailed Working Agenda:

Expected outputs and outcomes:

Better understanding of the links between climate change adaptation and resilience in drylands with good practices, success factors, challenges and key lessons identified and analyzed to inform future actions and policy.
Participants strengthen their networks, coordination and ability to engage with resilience in their area of work.
A communique collectively produced by participants to share emerging recommendations for improved practice, policy and to inform decisions on adaptation finance and resilience programming in the region’s drylands.

The programme is structured to respond to the core learning questions:

What is the added value that CBA brings to achieving resilience in dryland communities which can be applied from CBA practice and evidence?
How are climate change and related responses exacerbating the entrenched drivers of differential vulnerability among communities living in drylands? What are the barriers and drivers to change?
What would an integrated and coherent approach to achieving resilience in vulnerable dryland communities look like? What synergies and trade-offs would be needed?

Agenda

Monday 1 September: Identifying a vision of integrated CBA and resilience

09.00 Conference introductions. Scene setting on CBA and resilience and how climate change and other stresses are influencing change
10.00 Playground and wall: approaching the issues we are grappling with (exploration and group work) and mapping them on the knowledge wall
11.30 Coffee break
12.00 Official welcome and introductions from key note speakers. Keynote address
13.00 Lunch break
14.15 Group discussion on key issues from the morning sessions
15.30 Coffee break
16.00 Group work reports and reporting important issues back on the wall
16.30 Introduction to and setting up of the Market Place
17.00 Close
18:30 Conference reception at ILRI compound

Tuesday 2 September: Identifying success factors, challenges and good practices

09.00 Video / recap
09.15 Plenary keynote: 3 guests to speak on key topics:

1. Climate information - a new resource for adaptation, risk reduction, early warning and resilience?
2. The future of pastoralism in an uncertain climate
3. How the most vulnerable can realise resilient and equitable livelihoods in an uncertain climate?

10.00 Coffee break
10.30 Group work: Collecting clues about these key topics: what are the issues and challenges, sharing good practices and success factors in addressing them, barriers and drivers to change and the link between climate change adaptation and broader development and resilience issues
12.30 Lunch break
13.30 Market Place (including coffee break) – sharing and learning from others on practical tools, approaches and more
16.30 Reporting back major insights from key topic group work and from the Market Place onto the knowledge wall
17.00 Close

Wednesday 3 September: Understanding synergies, complementarities, added value of CBA for resilience

09.00 Plenary keynote Fishbowl: Taking stock of our journey, realising the limitations of our work and understanding synergies, complementarities and the added value of CBA for resilience in drylands – towards a vision for future work.
09.30 Group work: Co-creating new knowledge towards achieving climate resilient development in East and Southern Africa drylands
10.30 Coffee break
11.00 Group work continued
12.30 Lunch break
13.30 Presenting back group work results and critical reality check from policy and donor perspectives
15.30 Coffee break
16.00 Presenting back group work (continued)
16.30 Filtering differences and overlaps and important building blocks for a communiqué
17.30 Close
18:00 Departure for social evening at Yod Abyssinia (cultural restaurant)

Thursday 4 September: Coming to a consensus

08.30 Video / recap
08.50 Plenary keynote: Live commentary on the knowledge wall: recommendations for policy and practice
09.30 Group work Open Space Technology: key actions for way forward, new partnerships

Round 1: Parking lot issues Round 2: Communique development,

(10.30 Coffee break over Open Space)
11.30 OST results - open gallery run and dot-mocracy wall for key recommendations...
12.30 Lunch break
13.30 Coming to commitments: Country group and personal (organizational)
14.45 Closing session: Recap, next steps and where to find documentation about this event; evaluation and vox pop; Thank you's and closing statements
15.45 Close

Background materials Concept note for the event: File:ESA CBA and resilience learning event concept note_v 1.docx

File:ESA Conference Information Pack - CARE Ethiopia.pdf

Participants

Outputs

Discussion notes

Read the full discussion notes