Women participating in a workshop on developing a Village Agricultural Committee
	Martin is an Agricultural Specialist in Land Husbandry; right now he’s working on a Zambian government climate change project as the Head of the Resilient Agriculture Platform and Participatory Adaptation Advisor. Ursula, works for the GIZ as a Program Advisor for the GIZ Environment and Rural Development Program in the Philippines.

Even though they are many thousands of miles apart their course partnership is a strong one. Interestingly, they were able to meet in December in Durban, South Africa at COP 17. So, unlike many of our course partners who never get a chance to meet each other—they did!

Their project is an interesting one and has been in design and development for six months now. With Martin’s recent grant award they will be able to launch the first phase of the project. The project has four agricultural components:

• An Agricultural Income Generation Program
• An Animal Husbandry Program
• A Land-Use Management Plan
• A Climate Smart Agricultural Practices Program

Men in the Village Agricultural Committee workshop
	Follow this link to see the results of a participatory capacity and vulnerability assessment which Martin did with his community in February and  see an outline of the project which they have developed in 341, 342, and 343.

As their last assignment for course 343—which they just completed—they facilitated the development of a village agricultural committee to co-manage the four project components. Over the next few months, the committee will be working on structuring the committee, goal setting, and identifying training needs. Their first output will be to prioritize a list of income generation activities for the Agricultural Income Generation project component that just received the funding.

Martin begin engaging with this community starting in Assignment 1 of OL 341. This consistent engagement during project design and development creates community ownership of the project. During project implementation, members of the Village Agricultural Committee will learn how to manage and maintain the different project components. When Martin’s project commitment comes to an end, the community will not only have a sense of project ownership, they will know how to run the project long into the future.

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

Field Guides

Knowledge Transfer, Community Based Adaptation, and Field Guides

Knowledge to be transferred in community-based adaptation needs to be a two-way transfer. Experts and remote, rural community members have different positions and expectations. Bridging these requires mutual understanding—understanding that can be complicated by culture, language and experience.   Developing a short, concise field guide helps in a number of ways. It allows you to compile how-to information from diverse sources into a guide that best fits your community’s context, and gives you the basis for a workshop lesson plan.

Field Guide 1.	Participatory Capacity and Vulnerability Assessments
	CBA combines local climate knowledge and scientific climate knowledge in a way that will empower community members to take charge in an effective bottom-up campaign of adapting to climate change. Their project will be sustainable—as this bottom-up approach gives them project ownership. How do we learn about local climate knowledge? The first step is to facilitate a PCVA workshop for exchanging knowledge about the community’s vulnerabilities and capacities. You will learn from them about their coping strategies in the face of a changing climate.

Field Guide 2.

Participatory Mapping for Soil and Water Resources

Participatory mapping is an excellent way of learning in greater detail about a community, their resources, the hazards they face, and how the village, farm fields, roads, forests, water sources, and climate challenges interrelate. It’s also an excellent method for community members to see their assets and vulnerabilities through a new lens. Participatory mapping is an inclusive tool: all workshop participants can engage in the activity as it’s very visual—non-readers won’t be sidelined.

Field Guide 3.

Simple Techniques for Soil and Water Conservation

Subsistence farmers suffer not only from depleted soils but from challenges with water: too little water, too much water, and erosion from water. This field guide looks at different ways of managing water and conserving soil by developing barriers on farm fields for stopping the flow of water so that it can percolate into the soil and build up soil moisture. The barriers also reduce the loss of soil from erosion. Topsoil suspended in water settles behind the barriers creating level terraces. These low cost/no cost techniques can be incorporated  into their fields over the span of time.

Field Guide 4.

Developing a Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction Plan

It is estimated that over 50% of all disasters are now related to extreme weather events. Because of this, disaster risk reduction should be an integral part of adaptation projects. Community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) holds the same merit that community-based adaptation does: ownership and sustainability. This field guide presents a consciousness-raising overview for community members for establishing a CBDRR program in their community.

Field Guide 5.

Diversifying Livelihoods

Diversifying livelihoods is a good option for increasing resilience in the face of climate change challenges. There are many micro-lending and micro-enterprise programs in the developing world able to assist.   However, not everyone is an entrepreneur. Another challenge is that frequently people think of a product they can sell, begin making it, and have trouble finding customers. There are several simple techniques for addressing these challenges.

Routledge CBA Book:

A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation by Tim Magee

This how-to field course in a book is arranged in a step-by-step progression that leads readers through problem assessment, project design, implementation, and community take over. Chapters have the tools needed by field staff and their community partners to complete sequential, concrete steps in developing a real project from the ground up. Routledge has announced a December 1 book launch. In addition, the book includes a range of short field guides—like the five in this newsletter—containing activities complete with illustrations, how-to information, and workshop plans on universal climate challenges that communities face in water, food security, agriculture, disaster risk reduction, and livelihood diversification.

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?