Communities are abound with a variety of climate action strategies that can enhance resilience. A broad list of context-specific strategies and interventions can be viewed in relation to the climate literate, scientific experts and climate knowledge brokers included, with the beneficiary centred training techniques, aimed at the laypersons or local communities.
By Peter Makwanya
The climate literate stable puts experts, knowledge brokers and opinion leaders at the fore-front of the training processes, while the beneficiary-centred techniques, which have communities at the heart of sustainable development, concentrate on communities and laypersons abilities, aspirations and experiences.
Action strategies allow communities as beneficiaries of climate services and information to occupy centre-stage as far as climate action learning and solutions are concerned.
The climate interactive and participatory techniques are community centred, engaging and people-centred. These are climate information centres and services, community libraries, adaptation groups, climate smart agricultural experts, online platform dialoguing groups, clubs and eco-prenueral bodies, existing together as syndicates for collaborative purposes.
As such, the climate-based best practices and initiatives are designed with the communities, laypersons and local populations at the centre of the processes, projects and programmes, in line with the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Climate-centred interventions are training strategies designed to nurture climate growth, knowledge hubs, world-views, cultures and allow communities to be masters of the empowerment and training programmes.
These can only be realised and come about as a sufficient community-based and people oriented needs analysis, engagement and consultations have taken place. Indeed, they are designed to empower, educate, conscientise, and not to stage manage.
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They are also methods that challenge communities and initiate them into new ways of thinking, centred on creativity, innovations and critical thinking abilities along the lines of new knowledge economies and life-long learning.
The beneficiaries are supposed to develop themselves independently, but with guidance, motivations and inspirations for the sustainable development that we all want. They are all designed with the intentions to bring out the best from the communities, for the communities and with the communities.
The effective interactive climate action strategies are not only community flavoured and cultured, but youth-oriented and gender main-streamed as well. The training strategies are also designed to bring fun and enjoyment, but without deviating from the seriousness they deserve. They will also lead to community and livelihood improvements, strengthening of their adaptive capacities, environmental stewardship, discovery, orientation and knowledge retention.
Communities always benefit from the need to learn through adopting best training strategies as the new and sustainable impetuses which will change the environmental landscapes, mind orientations, eco-freaky behaviours and attitudes.
The best climate action strategies would also include focusing on ideas and making them practical and empowering, not endless talk shows. These ideas should be goal oriented, nurture interactive and participatory methodologies. In this regard, what experts need to realise is that, climate action strategies are sufficiently engaging and inclusive, hence, the trainers and trainees have complementary roles to play in order to get the environment fixed and protected.
Among a host of these techniques, collaboration is key and paramount while accountability promotes co-operative engagements. The overall purpose is to network, link, outreach and share ideas, be it on online knowledge platforms, social groups and a variety of discourse communities.
In this view, community groups and members should be able to monitor, evaluate and report their progress, document information and keep records for future reference.
From these community-based best practices and sustainable endeavours, big ideas are born, nurtured and put into practice. The whole essence of climate knowledge brokers is to impart knowledge and foster solutions.
Solutions to land degradations, wetlands destruction, siltation of rivers, streams and dams due to illegal mining activities, spilling of chemicals and industrial effluents into community life-lines, should be discouraged and policed in strongest terms.
Therefore, climate experts need to plan adequately and effectively so that communities would know what steps they can take in reducing greenhouse gases and carbon emissions.
Peter Makwanya is a climate change communicator. He writes in his capacity and can be contacted on: [email protected]
