Center for Sustainable Development
May, 2011 Newsletter
1000 Visit New Free Courses | Climate Change Injustice | New Diploma-Adaptation/DRR
1000 Visit New Free Courses | Climate Change Injustice | New Diploma-Adaptation/DRR
OL 341. Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change 1
OL 101. Designing and Funding Sustainable Development Projects
Advanced Courses:
OL 343. Community-Based Adaptation 3: The Community Focus
OL 303. Food Security, Nutrition, and Starting Home Gardens 1
OL 303. Food Security, Nutrition, and Starting Home Gardens 1
THIS MONTH’S NEWS
| New Online Diploma Program: Integrated Community Based Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction, & Rural Development | |
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A diploma program of online field courses integrating community-based adaptation to climate change, disaster risk reduction, and rural development. These courses begin by introducing climate change and adaptation, participatory disaster preparedness, and mainstreaming them with rural development. Participants identify local community vulnerabilities, risks and hazards, investigate appropriate solutions, develop full projects, launch and manage them.
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| To earn the diploma simply complete four sequential foundation courses, then select four elective courses of your choice for a total of eight courses. With a wide variety of electives, you are able to tailor the diploma program to meet your needs and interests. The program starts May 17. | |
| Free ‘Online Lite’ Courses Off to a Good Start: Week 2: What’s your Theory of a Solution? 1,000 People/week get installments |
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Each week, running parallel with a live course, we have been posting a discussion sheet about community-based adaptation, and an example of the week’s homework. This is to give you the opportunity of seeing what these courses are like from the student’s perspective. Check in each week on our Facebook page to get the latest installment. Follow this week’s installment:
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| Week 2: Developing a theory of how you plan to solve the problem identified last week. You concluded Assignment One with a set of community identified problems organized into a unique project outline. You also wrote a short and concise problem statement. Now is your opportunity to develop a theory of how to solve this problem, and to begin exploring specific project activities that will fulfill your theory. | |
| Is influencing communities in making behavioral changes paternalistic? | |
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Projects can only influence communities in making positive behavioral changes. For example, we can introduce the concept of hand washing, but it is ultimately their decision to incorporate it into their daily lives. Positive outcomes are behavior changes in partners – changes that contribute to the long-term sustainable improvement in people’s lives.
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| Outcomes need to begin happening on a new level of development that depends on sustained behavioral change. And how do we insure sustainability? How do we insure our communities will incorporate these behavioral changes? Through community buy-in. Through the community’s sense of ownership of the project. | |
| Climate Change Study in Injustice: 10 Million Additional African Children Malnourished by 2050 | |
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The World Food Program estimate that globally, 10-20 percent more people will be at risk of hunger by 2050 than would be without climate change. Of these, almost all will be in developing countries, with 65 percent expected to be in Africa. This has severe implications for nutrition, particularly for children. In sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that 10 million more children will be malnourished as a result of climate change. |
| Prem Goolaup: Participatory Mapping. Will It Help Mauritian Farmers Adapt to Climate Change Hazards? | |
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Prem Goolaup, of the island state of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, has been developing a community based adaptation project for the past eight months. The adaptation components of his project include a Soil Restoration and Water Management Program.
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| He’s using a participatory mapping technique to not only learn more about the specific challenges the farmers face, but by including them in the research and drawing of the map, they are better understanding their current challenges and also developing a sense of ownership for the project. | |
| Become the Solution | |
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Are you a donor, a development practitioner, in a job transition, or a student who wants to learn more about what works in designing impact-oriented projects? Online course participants are using our courses to develop real, on-the-ground projects with real communities—both individually and through North/South student partnerships.
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| Our online courses use each class assignment as a concrete step in developing a real project within a real community. You will take an assignment into the field and use it as a solution-oriented activity that you do together with community members—thereby finishing one component of the project you are developing in the class. And there you have it: an online field course with tangible, concrete results. | |
Consider helping more students provide positive impact for a community-in-need by sponsoring a scholarship—it’s easy!
What’s happening in the region where you live?
Please write us with your stories, thoughts and comments through Online.Learning@csd-i.org or post them at the Development Community, at our Facebook Page, or on the Center’s Blog.
Please write us with your stories, thoughts and comments through Online.Learning@csd-i.org or post them at the Development Community, at our Facebook Page, or on the Center’s Blog.
Be sure to visit CSDi’s Development Community. Join 450 colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online.
Like us: CSDi Facebook.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Tim Magee, Executive Director
To learn about student projects in real time, please visit our Facebook Page or CSDi Development Community to see their postings—or our Field Projects page for in-depth project information.
The Center for Sustainable Development specializes in providing sound, evidence-based information, tools and training for humanitarian development professionals worldwide. CSDi is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
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The Center for Sustainable Development specializes in providing sound, evidence-based information, tools and training for humanitarian development professionals worldwide. CSDi is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.