January 2013 CSDi Newsletter
CBA Book Launch | Community Based DRR | DRR Field Guide | Adopt a Village | Designing & Funding Projects | Grenada | Kenya
CBA Book Launch | Community Based DRR | DRR Field Guide | Adopt a Village | Designing & Funding Projects | Grenada | Kenya
THIS MONTH’S NEWS
BECOME THE SOLUTION. Are you a donor, development practitioner, or a student who wants to learn more about “what works” in development? Join students world-wide to design, fund and launch a community based project. Student projects have utilized 215 different kinds of solution-oriented activities to address community need. Scan the list to see which would work best for your project.
Development professionals from 450 organizations in 143 countries have used our online field courses to develop projects impacting over 275,000 people.
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Worldwide over 1 billion people suffer from hunger. 2.6 billion people don’t have access to decent sanitation. 1.1 billion people don’t have access to safe drinking water. 1.3 billion people live on $1.25 a day or less.
How can you help reverse this trend? How would you like to connect with a village in a developing nation and provide meaningful support in helping them rise out of the cycle of poverty?
ADOPT A VILLAGE
In our online field courses students actually develop real projects with real villages in developing nations. Adopt one of these villages by supporting development staff to help them design and launch an impact oriented project. When we match your donation to a student we will send you a their bio and information on the village and the project. See examples of student projects.
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| NEW COURSE |
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It is estimated that over 70% of all disasters are now related to extreme weather events. Because of this, disaster risk reduction should become an integral part of adaptation projects. Community based disaster risk reduction holds the same merit that community based adaptation does: ownership and sustainability.
This past year CSDi participated in a number of DRR partner projects worldwide. We are seeing similarities between the projects: disasters caused by extreme weather events, flooding—and a lack of knowledge of effective techniques for disaster risk reduction. The disasters seen in student projects have lead to reduced harvests for smallholder farmers, reduced incomes, reduced food security, the destruction of homes and assets, and the displacement of families. See student solutions and a full course syllabus. |
| BOOK LAUNCH | Routledge/Earthscan Release ‘A Field Guide To Community Based Adaptation’ |
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‘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
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‘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
| 2012 TOP COURSES |
Designing and Funding Sustainable Develoment Projects |
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The course will lead you through the development of a real project, in real time, and leave you with the practical field tools to sustain it. Become the solution. Full Syllabus
OL 341: Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change
Over 50% of student projects in our original courses worked to solve problems linked with climate change. In response we developed 341—tailored to the needs of those of you helping communities adapt to a changing climate. See a full course syllabus.
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Learn to design projects and develop management and funding tools. Tim Murungi just received the go-ahead from his NGO in Liberia to begin presenting his course documents to donors this week. Martin Sishekanu in Zambia received funding for his course project this summer. Loraini Sivo in Fiji received $40,000 from the GEF for her course project.
EXEMPLARY 2012 STUDENT FIELD PROJECTS. Follow links to learn more and to download project updates and photos.
| GRENADA | Climate Smart Agriculture Training Workshop: Dual Challenge—Drought and Flooding |
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The team developed a project outline to increase crop production, and then identified highly specific sub activities to target highly specific in-field challenges. Last month they led a CSA workshop.
“The workshop introduced six different types of agricultural techniques that would be useful for the community, based on our research of results in similar contexts. As such, the materials we have gathered so far should be enough for this introductory workshop, and we are relying on the extension agent to know all the details! We have developed a lesson plan to guide the workshop.”
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| KENYA | Climate Smart Agriculture Practices for Extreme Weather Events and Changing Seasons |
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Joyce Onyango (Kenya), Aramide Adebola (Nigeria), and Natalie Macawaris (Philippines) have been working for the past year on a project in Kenya. Extreme weather events began 30 years ago in 1980 with a major drought. Recently they conducted a participatory vulnerability and capacity assessment with the community. The team developed a project outline to increase crop production, and then identified highly specific sub activities to target highly specific in-field challenges. They held an agricultural workshop on these activities: • Making compost for increasing soil organic matter • Planting Napier grassfor conserving topsoil in farm fields • Seed bed establishment • Mulching for retaining soil moisture |
| JANUARY FIELD GUIDE |
Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction |
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Developing a DRR plan will include each of the activities in the field guide—and maintaining them in perpetuity. This will involve a plan for consciousness-raising among community members about DRR challenges, connecting with an early warning system, organizing teams, training teams in evacuation and search and rescue, and prioritizing mitigation strategies. Download.
Frequently community members don’t have a clear picture of how and why disasters happen. They also may not know how to react when a disaster is building. Workshops and simple posters need to be developed to help them understand these concepts and to learn that there are things that they can do to reduce the risk caused by disasters, and to mitigate the severity of the disasters.
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| PROJECT RESOURCE |
Best of January Project Resources for Community Based DRR |
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1. Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction – Good Practice. Mercy Corps Nepal. This handbook looks at 10 easy for communities to understand DRR field practices such as early warning systems, and evacuation and search and rescue teams.
2. Good Practices for Community Resilience. Practical Action. 2009. Comprehensive overview of building community resilience as a major component of risk reduction. Excellent graphics.
3. Flash Flood Risk Management. A Training of Trainers Manual. Very well developed professional manual. Shresth, A. B., Chapagain, P. S., Thapa, R. International Center for Integrated Mountain Development. 2011 |
ADDITIONAL PROJECTS. To learn about other partner projects in real time, please visit the Adopt a Village page, our Facebook Page and visit the CSDi Development Community to see their regular postings—and join 750 colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online.
Learn more about design and implementing Community Based Development Projects.
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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.