SOUTH SUDAN

Training Farmers in Climate Smart Agriculture

Piotr Barczak (Poland/Belgium/South Sudan) took several community-based adaptation courses in 2012 but was called away to South Sudan in the fall. Poitr is an environmental lobbyist in Brussels—but also has experience working in the DRC. He has been working on a project for the past two months in Jonglei State developing an ecologically sensitive agricultural program for 60 farming families. He prepared a brief final report in English in March for those of us in the CSDi community to enjoy. Here is a link to his report so that you can learn more about his project and look at a greater range of photographs.

VIETNAM

Working With 192 Families in a Mainstreamed DRR Project

Teo Do is working with 192 Households in Cat Tuong commune to save their lives during natural disasters and improved family income through his CBDRR, Climate Smart Agriculture, and Improved Livelihood Project. Read about the project and see additional photos. His project includes: Community-Based Disaster Preparedness and Risk Reduction Program Alternative Income Generation Program Climate Smart Agriculture Program

PAKISTAN

Climate Change Related Extreme Weather Events Have Left Thousands of Families Homeless

In September 2012 floods hit Pakistan for the third consecutive year affecting more than 5 million people. In Balochistan, among the most affected provinces, high in numbers of Balochistanis were effected, their infrastructure destroyed, and their livestock and standing crops lost. The needs they identified include shelter, food, water and farming inputs.   Karen Giathi (Kenya), Stephen Yeboah (Ghana/Switzerland), Rehmat Durrani (Pakistan) are developing a project designed to combat these challenges for 100 families living in the open or in tents which includes an advocacy program for housing support, a climate smart agricultural program, and a climate based flood mitigation and adaptation program. You can read more about their project and see photographs here.

TANZANIA

Kilimanjaro: Extreme Weather Events and Recurring Drought Create Food Insecurity for 1300 Households

Since 2007 there has been severe drought and crop failure in the Kilimanjaro region—mostly in Moshi rural, Rombo, and Lower Hai and Mwanga districts. This has led to difficult livelihood challenges among community members; housing and food security are also challenges.   Minja Gileard Sifuel (Tanzania), Gemi Montecchi (Italy) and Ellen deGuzman (US) have been developing a project which includes a soil restoration program, a home gardening for nutrition program, and a soil and water resources management program. Read more about the challenges this community faces and the solutions that this team have come up with.

SURINAME

Extreme Weather Events are Flooding Homes and Croplands

Approximately 100 families of the Margaretha Plantation in the District of Commewijne are suffering from damage to their homes and cropland due to the intrusion of sea and river water. This is due to the lack of a water use management plan and extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall during La Niña periods that exacerbate the intrusion of sea and river water into residential and crop land during the spring tide. Gaitrie Satnarain (Suriname) and Wye Yee Yong (Malaysia/Thailand) have developed a project that includes a rainy season drainage and sanitation master plan, a water management plan, and a community-based flood mitigation program. Read more about the challenges this community faces and the solutions that this team have come up with – complete with photos.

MARCH FIELD GUIDE

Community Level Water Conservation and Management

Developing community watershed management as a component of a master water use management plan. A shortage of water or unreliable access to water is one of the biggest issues in development. Community water sources dry up during climate change related drought—or seasonally during the dry season. There is competition among different segments of the community for available water.   Discussing community water harvesting calls for stepping back from the immediate problem and looking at the relevant underlying causes for the shortage of water in order to begin developing solutions. Download the field guide.

CBDRR

Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction

Hanna Bartel (Germany/Canada) and Gillian Primas (Grenada) are working on a DRR project in Grenada where over the past 10 years rainfall has become increasingly uncharacteristic and unseasonable. There is insufficient drainage of the heavy rainfall and farmers are  suffering from flooded fields—which reduce incomes. Gillian just held a consciousness-raising meeting with the community’s DRR subcommittee who made the decision at the workshop to focus first on an early warning system (which Gillian will be presenting in a workshop in two weeks) and then focus on an evacuation plan, a search and rescue team, and a mitigation plan. Read more about this project here.

Spring Quarter	Are you interested in:
	A Diploma in Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change? A Diploma in Integrated Community Based Adaptation, DRR & Rural Development? Designing and Funding Sustainable Development Projects? Water Conservation and Management? Climate Smart Agriculture? Community Based DRR?

Would you like to learn how to develop Community Based Adaptation Projects?

South Sudan: Environmentally Sound Agriculture

Piotr Barczak (Poland/Belgium/South Sudan) took several community-based adaptation courses in 2012 but was called away to South Sudan in the fall. Poitr is an environmental lobbyist in Brussels – but also has experience working in the DRC.

I was very pleasantly surprised to get this note from him a few days ago and wanted to share it with the CSDi community at large.

He has been working on a project for the past two months in South Sudan developing an ecologically sensitive agricultural program for 60 farming families. He is also said in his note that he will prepare a brief final report in English in March for those of us in the CSDi to enjoy. I will include a few photos below but I will make a link to his report in Polish so that you can look at a greater range of photographs. I will let Piotr tell his story now.

Dear Professor Magee,

I wanted to write this letter long time before. I want to thank you for your lessons and courses that I did last months.

Indeed it helped me a lot in getting into a very interesting project in South Sudan. I have been here already over 2 months and in two weeks I will finish. I will write a small report in English and I will share it with the CSDi Community.

So, I work for the Polish Humanitarian Action as an FSL Project Coordinator.  I am responsible for arranging a farmers community.

All is fine, I am amazed how much I could do here during these two months, I came in a right moment, dry season started so many people looked for work so it was easy to find subcontractors. Anyway, we are creating a nice community of farmers here. They will receive a big plot of land – 19 ha, already cleared and leveled, well drained – that was part of my job. Installation of irrigation is still pending. tomorrow we start a 3-day training on vegetable growing. All the beneficiaries (60 farmers) will receive know -how, seeds and tools to use their 40x40meters plots (more that enough to feed their families). so the farm will be provided with water during dry season, and will be drained during rainy season.

Stored Staples
	As we also do WASH programs the installation of toilets will be here as well. I have managed also to encourage local government to put one bore-hole deeper in the village so they could get clean water without walking over 45 minutes to the nearest well.

Water Pump
	An environmental approach is extremely important for me in this project. I made modifications in it in order to continue this farm without any tractor plowing, no pesticides and fertilizers. In place of that I am explaining to people here (beneficiaries, local government and even other NGOs who just think that any development is good, no matter if eco-friendly or not), that ever-green agriculture with agro-forestry and permaculture is actually a solutions for sub-saharians problems. It is not an easy job. I did not come here to lobby but to proceed! But apparently without putting all that in a good picture in the beginning the sustainable development in this country will be very difficult in the future.

Seeds
	Well, I am coming back in March to Brussels and I am very happy for that. I believe will leave the community here already well prepared and well   equipped so they could proceed on their own – their engagement is the key to all this project. So I believe I must leave, to search for another place where I could contribute. But still – almost one month to go! many challenges! The infrastructure here almost does not exist. I would say it is even worse than what I have seen in DRC.

Headquarters

Almost all the business is taken by Kenyans/Ugandans/Ethiopians and other. There is also little security here, local tribe fights for cows in Jonglei state (where I live) and of course continuous war with Sudan over the border and oil fields. But there is a light of hope! as everywhere. Those pastoralist communities are very eager to settle and start farming. They are tired of super high prices of food imported from neighboring countries.

They also understand that UN food distributions will not support them forever. So, this is where we start, and soon I finish, to check it next year how are they doing! fingers crossed!

So, After my coming back to Brussels I will continue a job as an environmental lobbyist but I wish to continue the course at CSDi online. Which one do you propose to me now?

Kind Regards

Piotr Barczak
Poland/Belgium/South Sudan

You can download his full project report here:
Piotr Barczak South Sudan Report

Would you like to learn how to develop Community Based Adaptation Projects?

A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation
	A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation By Tim Magee Foreword by Howard White Published December 14th, 2012 by Routledge – 248 pages Purchase at Amazon US: Now available in a Kindle editon Download a Kindle Sample Purchase at Routlege UK Read the Table of Contents and the Introduction

Go to bottom of this page to learn how to search electronically within the book.

‘Tim Magee, and his colleagues at CSDi, are to be commended for producing a book which should change the way development is practiced, and so directly contribute to the improvement of millions of lives around the world.’ – Howard White, Executive Director, 3ie, USA

‘A fascinating and informative guide to a subject of growing international importance. Tim Magee skillfully explains ways to combine external expertise and local perspectives on adaptation to climate change. This useful book should be read by development practitioners as well as students of climate change policy and international development.’ – Tim Forsyth, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

‘This is a most-awaited book for development practitioners who are increasingly confronted with the challenge of addressing climate risks in designing and implementing programmes and projects. This book will help them to do just that in a way that places the interest of communities at the heart of the process.’ – Kareff Rafisura, Climate Risk Management Practitioner, Ghana

‘This book provides an insightful and comprehensive field guide to community-based adaptation. Magee brings together an impressive range of tools, resources and case examples in a clear and systematic step-by-step guide, while ensuring that the concerns of local people are kept at the centre of the analysis. This book is a timely and welcome addition to the literature, and will be useful to experienced practitioners as well as newcomers to CBA.’ Lars Otto Naess, Climate Change Team, Institute of Development Studies, UK

The world’s poor will be the most critically affected by a changing climate—and yet their current plight isn’t improving rapidly enough to fulfill the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. If experienced development organizations are finding it difficult to solve decades-old development problems, how will they additionally solve new challenges driven by climate change? A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation illustrates how including community members in project design and co-management leads to long-lasting, successful achievement of development and adaptation goals.

This field guide provides a system of building block activities for staff on the ground to use in developing and implementing successful adaptation to climate change projects that can be co-managed and sustained by communities. Based on years of use in 129 different countries, the techniques illustrated in this field guide use a step-by-step progression to lead readers through problem assessment, project design, implementation, and community take over. The book equips development staff with all the tools and techniques they need to improve current project effectiveness, to introduce community based adaptation into organizational programming and to generate new projects. The techniques provided can be applied to broad range of challenges, from agriculture and soil and water challenges, to health concerns, flood defences and market development. The book is supported by a user-friendly website updated by the author, where readers can download online resources for each chapter which they can tailor to their own specific projects.

This practical guide is accessible to all levels of development staff and practitioners, as well as to students of development and environmental studies.

How to preview the electronic edition of the book—and actually search inside it.