AfricaAdapt

According to the coordinating organisations, the network seeks to enable communities in Africa that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change to draw on information shared within the network - both scientific research and indigenous knowledge - and use it to cope with or become more resilient to climate-change impacts. AfricaAdapt's activities use web-based applications, face-to-face interactions, and other media for: sharing resources, facilitating learning, and strengthening the African adaptation community.

The AfricaAdapt website includes a themes page organised around eight key climate change issues. Coordinators say these themes were chosen based on frequently discussed topics and in line with other online information and knowledge services to facilitate the sharing of information across platforms. The website also includes a community voices page, which has been designed to help highlight the contributions of local communities affected by climate change. This page features community perspectives communicated in a variety of ways, including video, audio, photos, and text.

The online activities are complemented by a range of offline activities and services, including:

• an innovation fund offering small grants for new approaches to knowledge sharing;
• radio-based programming and dialogues in local languages, developed with community radio broadcasters across the continent;
• face-to-face meetings bringing people together to exchange ideas and overcome challenges;
• a mobile alert service letting people without easy web-access know the latest news; and
• a CD-Rom and paper-based dissemination service for sharing network news and resources.

The Knowledge Sharing Innovation Fund is designed to enable Africa's most marginalised communities to share their experiences of adapting to climate change. The fund offers grants of up to US$10,000 to projects testing new ways of sharing knowledge, for example through theatre performances and radio broadcasts.

Climate Change, Environment