VSO and Climate Change

VSO and Climate Change
©VSO/Simon Rawles
VSO and
Climate Change
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VSO and Climate Change
Contents
Introduction 1
Our vision for action on climate change 2
VSO’s approach to climate change work 3
Focusing on the poor, marginalized and vulnerable 3
Building adaptive capacity to climate change at the community level 3
Community-based adaptation 3
Working with government 4
Low carbon development 4
Reducing deforestation 4
Disaster risk reduction 4
Integrating climate change into existing programmes 5
Committing to gender sensitivity, gender equity, and gender equality 6
Bringing people together 6
Where we will see change 7
Strengthened communities 7
Empowered and effective partners 7
Enlightened government policy and action 8
A strong and responsible VSO 8
Case study: Nigeria, climate change and VSO 9
Case study: Addressing climate change impacts in Bangladesh 9
Case study: Community-based adaptation in Kenya 10
Glossary 11
Key sources 12
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VSO and Climate Change
Introduction
Human-induced climatic change is happening now. The scientific evidence for both
past and current climate change is unequivocal. Climate models predict a future
world which is warmer and it is very likely that the changes in the 21st century will
be greater than those which took place in the 20th. Tragically, it is the poorest and
most vulnerable people, communities and countries who bear the brunt of climate
change impacts. This is not surprising, since vulnerabilities caused by climate change
compound vulnerabilities that exist already due to poverty, food insecurity, degraded
natural resources, gender inequity, and disability.
Many of the impacts of future climate change are likely to be
devastating for populations in the developing world. Sea level
rise is eroding coastlines, inundating fresh water sources and
soils with salt water, and swallowing land in low-lying areas.
Entire nations in the South Pacific, such as Vanuatu, Tuvalu,
and the Cook Islands, are at risk from land loss and degradation
under rising sea levels. Precipitation patterns are predicted to
change, potentially making agriculturally-vital seasonal patterns
less predictable. In some cases when rains do arrive they are
likely to do so with much greater intensity. Likewise dry periods
are likely to increase in severity and frequency. More frequent
and more intense storms will lead to more devastating floods,
such as those experienced over the past few years in
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mozambique, Brazil, Honduras, and
elsewhere. Many arid and semi-arid areas, notably the Middle
East and the Sahel region of Africa, are getting hotter and drier,
resulting in direct impacts on already-compromised food
security and indirect impacts on human health and security.
Though the consequences are already serious for many, a lot
can be done to ensure that both the scale of the changes and
their impact on people and ecosystems are minimized.
Humanity still has a choice to experience a lot of climate
change or a little climate change, based on the amount of
greenhouse gases we collectively emit, and every country must
take responsibility and act to ensure that we confront this
global challenge. Those with the highest emissions will need
to reduce them significantly, those with resources will have to
assist others in their efforts, and all will have to ensure that
the poorest and most vulnerable people get the support that
they require to adapt to the changes they face. In other words,
global cooperation of a kind and on a scale never seen before
will have to emerge in order to tackle this challenge head on.
VSO will play a role in facing this challenge, by assisting those
most vulnerable to climate change. VSO and Climate Change
outlines the vision, principles, and approach to our work,
helping communities to be less vulnerable and more adaptive
to climatic changes that are happening now and predicted to
get worse over the coming decades.
The first section lays out VSO’s vision for a world where those
who are most at risk are supported to overcome their
vulnerabilities, where those who are most responsible for the
problem do their fair share, and where VSO plays a meaningful
role in implementing solutions. The second section describes
VSO’s approach to climate change work, in terms of target
populations, our method of developing programmes, the
priority activities to be undertaken, and the tools that allow
VSO to use its strengths and contribute its expertise. The final
section explains where we want and expect to see change—in
people, partners, and government policies as well as within
VSO itself.
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VSO and Climate Change
Our vision for action
on climate change
VSO’s vision is that of a world where all people, especially the poor and
marginalized, are able to fulfill their fundamental human rights to health,
well-being, and security, despite facing hazards from climate change. This means that
communities everywhere have the resilience to withstand climate change impacts
over the short term and the capacity to adapt to increasing or changing hazards and
impacts over the longer term. Necessary actions to realize this vision include not only
the provision of resources—social, financial, and technological—to communities at
the forefront of climate change impacts, but also efforts that contribute to a dramatic
reduction in the emissions that cause climate change.
Assisting communities in building resilience and adaptive
capacity in the face of climate change is not sufficient. Many in
the developing world live in poverty and have no or inadequate
access to energy resources. These people have the right to
social and economic development, including a sufficient supply
of energy. These new energy sources, however, need to use
technologies that do not add significantly to increased
greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Otherwise,
paradoxically, widespread energy development risks making
the challenge of climate change even greater and the plight of
the poor even worse.
Those with a high standard of living have an important,
historical responsibility to uphold since their infrastructure
development and accumulation of wealth were achieved by
overloading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases that cause
climate change. Countries with the highest per capita
emissions must therefore take the lead in reducing them.
Industrialized countries also have the responsibility—and have
made so-far unrealized commitments—to provide resources for
the poor and vulnerable to adapt to the growing impacts of
climate change and to develop sustainable energy
technologies.
VSO will contribute meaningfully to this vision. We will
ensure that development activities we undertake today do not
inadvertently make communities more vulnerable to climate
change impacts tomorrow. Instead, VSO will enable climate
change considerations, present and future, to be integrated
into our programmes.
VSO will continue to work with and through partners to build
the capacity of those most in need so they are able to face
their challenges and overcome barriers standing between
them and social and economic security. We will use a
gender-sensitive approach to strive for gender equity and
equality in our efforts. And we will build global awareness of
the challenges of climate change, the responsibilities that we
all hold, and the solutions that are available.
Finally, VSO will take responsibility for its contribution to global
climate change. As an organization with a large staff and many
offices and one that relies on volunteers, staff, and partners to
travel extensively, our ecological footprint will be tangibly and
convincingly addressed.
©VSO/Simon Rawles
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VSO and Climate Change
VSO’s approach to
climate change work
In many ways, VSO’s efforts to address climate change will be very similar to
our existing development work. The values and principles that guide our work, the
expertise that the organization has gained, and the tools that we rely upon will all be
used to help tackle this new challenge.
Focusing on the poor, marginalized
and vulnerable
VSO’s overarching goal is to eradicate poverty. The challenge
that climate change presents is that its impact is felt most by
those who are already poor and marginalized. For example, the
rural poor live in environments of marginal natural resources
that are most susceptible to the impacts of climate change.
When human health is impacted by climate change-induced
heat stress or a higher incidence of certain diseases, the poor
and marginalized are least able to obtain the health services
needed for their well-being and have very little influence over
the way they are provided. When extreme weather events
occur, the poor are more likely to be living in areas prone to
flooding or drought and are less likely to have adequate
resources to recover from these events.
This is why the work that VSO undertakes will target
individuals and communities that are already the most
vulnerable. In different contexts, individuals who may be most
vulnerable include women, children and youth, people with
disabilities, ethnic minorities, and people living with HIV and
AIDS. Their vulnerability can stem from not having access to
decision-making or to resources that others in society do, or
because they are excluded in other ways. Vulnerability can also
exist at the community level due to inadequate access to water,
infertile agricultural soils, or poor infrastructure such as schools
and roads.
A participatory and inclusive approach is necessary to identify
and target the poorest and most vulnerable. At every stage of
project development—analysis, design, implementation, and
monitoring and evaluation—VSO and its partners will use
approaches that explicitly seek out and integrate the views and
experiences of those who are most vulnerable. This will ensure
that the issues faced by individuals and communities are well
understood and that solutions that are developed will be
appropriate and effective.
Building adaptive capacity to climate
change at the community level
Every developing country has significant challenges in
adapting to climate change and there are many activities
that can be undertaken to help address those challenges.
Programmes will be driven by country needs and partner
priorities. Priorities will be identified through analysis that uses
high-level science and policy, such as country-wide vulnerability
assessments or national adaptation strategies, informed by
community-based, participatory approaches that incorporate
local knowledge of how the local climate has changed, what
vulnerabilities exist at the local level, and what are the
potential solutions.
Many of VSO’s climate change programmes will be developed
in one country alone through its programme office. However,
common climate change issues and concerns exist across
regions and, as such, regional initiatives are being developed
by governments and civil society organizations, for example
in Southeast Asia and Central America. As appropriate and
strategic, VSO will contribute to existing regional processes or
develop our own regional initiatives.
Community-based adaptation
VSO’s priority will be to work on community-based adaptation,
work whose primary objective is to improve the capacity of
local communities to adapt to climate change impacts.
This community-level work builds on VSO’s experience and
strengths in assessing and working to reduce vulnerability.
Focusing on adaptation is an explicit recognition that those
in the developing world, and especially the poorest and most
vulnerable, face tremendous challenges in responding to the
escalating impacts of climate change.
It is clear that climate change has impacts across a wide range
of development issues (see section below: Integrating climate
change into existing programmes). However, there are certain
areas of VSO’s work where vulnerabilities are already
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VSO and Climate Change
significant and urgency is warranted. For example, water
availability is a challenge in many regions and predicted to get
worse due to a hotter, drier climate or less predictable rainfall.
Food security is a long-standing challenge in the developing
world and one that is exacerbated by climate change. And
climate change is having impacts on biodiversity and the
management of natural resources, including forests, especially
for populations dependent on them.
Working with government
A second priority will be to partner with and advocate to
in-country government agencies. Though the beneficiaries of
our work will be those at the community level, VSO has shown
in the past that real and sustainable change can best be
accomplished through work that is multi-faceted and occurs at
different political scales within a country. National, state and
local government are usually best placed to overcome systemic
challenges related to climate change, so it will be important in
some cases to work with government.
This will involve two main activities. The first will be working
directly with government, either by having a volunteer placed
within a government agency or having volunteers participate in
and support policy development or implementation. The latter
could be through an advisory committee or stakeholder group
or some other institutional body that gives guidance to
government agencies.
Second, VSO will also aim to build the capacity of local partners
such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or community
groups to advocate for climate change policy development or
implementation. Local representatives, if well supported and
empowered with the necessary skills and knowledge, can often
be the most effective advocates with local, state and national
governments for the needs of the community. VSO will
contribute to this support through, for example, the placement
of research or advocacy volunteers, funding for the production
of evidence, or knowledge sharing from other regions
or countries.
Low carbon development
Other activities, such as the development of sustainable energy
technologies, also called low carbon development, may also be
undertaken by programme offices with interest and expertise.
The focus of sustainable energy development will be to provide
(more secure) energy resources to those who presently do not
have access to them, thus ensuring that benefits reach
those most in need. In most cases, therefore, the intent of
developing sustainable energy sources will not be to replace
existing, higher emitting energy sources (often called
mitigation, since it involves a reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions) but rather contributing energy resources towards
the goal of social and economic development. Mitigation
should be a much lower priority for poor people in the
developing world, whose emissions are already very low and
therefore make virtually no contribution to the problem of
climate change.
Reducing deforestation
Activities that strive to reduce deforestation and otherwise
preserve biodiversity may also be undertaken by VSO as
adaptive measures. For communities that depend upon the
services provided by forests and other ecosystems, their
preservation is essential and a key factor in building those
communities’ adaptive capacity. These projects, whether or not
they generate credits or revenue, must be participatory and
transparent and benefit the poor. Community members need
to have a say in how the project is undertaken and the rights of
indigenous peoples and forest communities must be preserved.
Disaster risk reduction
Disaster risk reduction may also be a goal undertaken by VSO
programme offices to assist communities in becoming less
vulnerable to climate change. Disaster risk reduction involves
supporting communities to prepare in advance for impacts
that are specific to extreme weather events and implementing
mechanisms to reduce those vulnerabilities. In some cases, this
will involve building physical infrastructure such as shelters that
people can go to in the event of floods, landslides, or storm
surges. It may also involve developing early warning systems so
people know that storms or floods are coming.
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VSO and Climate Change
Integrating climate change into
existing programmes
VSO has a number of existing thematic areas of work and
climate change has the potential to undermine progress in
each of them. For example, climate change hazards add further
complexity to the range of factors that create vulnerability for
poor people’s livelihoods, particularly those dependent upon
agriculture and natural resources. Higher and more variable
temperatures, less predictability in precipitation patterns, the
potential for more frequent and intense storms and/or drought
in some geographical regions are disrupting agricultural
production and other livelihoods activities, exacerbating
poverty and hunger—unless communities are able to access
support required to adapt to the changing climate. Increased
competition for scarce water resources can also aggravate
other tensions within or between communities, potentially
leading to violence and insecurity.
Climate change also has direct and indirect impacts on human
health, such as an increase in vector- and water-borne diseases
due to changes in the amount or intensity of precipitation,
kidney disease due to heat stress and lack of water resources,
and malnutrition due to loss of agricultural crops.
Climate change also increases vulnerability to HIV and AIDS.
Food insecurity, one of the impacts of climate change, can lead
people into risky survival activities. They may migrate to find
food; they may scavenge markets and industrial sites for food
and risk falling prey to sexual demands; they may exchange sex
for money or food; and children may be taken out of school
prematurely to gather food or to work. In the case of girls, early
marriages may be entered into to reduce the burden on a
family or boost household income. For people already living
with HIV, good nutrition is essential to slow the progress of
illness, increase effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs and allow
for greater resistance to opportunistic infections.
People living with disabilities can be particularly hard hit by
climate change for several reasons. Disability and poverty
are closely linked, and poverty is a significant contributor to
vulnerability from climate change. People with disabilities also
experience exclusion from services, including those related to
climate change impacts, because they are not provided in a
way that is accessible to that group. More specifically, people
living with disabilities (and HIV/AIDS) that restrict mobility are
also more vulnerable to climate-related disasters such as storm
surges or flooding that displace individuals or communities
and that are becoming more frequent in many places due to
climate change.
School programs can be disrupted by natural disasters, since
schools are often used as shelters when climate-related
disasters strike. Educational objectives can be compromised
by food insecurity and poor nutrition in children. Educational
retention and attendance rates are also adversely affected
when children have to spend a large part of their day collecting
water or working in the fields, or compensating in some way
for adverse climate change effects. However, both formal and
informal education can play an important role in raising
awareness of the causes of and solutions to climate change.
The school environment and a flexible approach to the
curriculum can be used as an opportunity for increased
interactive learning on climate change issues.
Active citizenship, the participation of communities and
citizens in decision-making on climate change programmes and
policies, can ensure those decisions help to build the
adaptive capacity of communities dealing with climate change
and better support the poorest and most vulnerable people
within those communities. The same is true of good
governance of civil society organizations and governments.
The reverse is true as well, that a lack of inclusion in decisionmaking
and poor governance at the community level and in
government can add to individual and community
vulnerabilities.
Because of this connection to VSO’s existing thematic
activities, many programme offices will focus on integrating
climate change into their existing programmes. In many ways,
this will be a continuation of VSO’s existing work, while adding
a “climate change lens” to project development by, for
example, including climate change-induced vulnerabilities.
Existing tools will be used to assist VSO and its partners in
undertaking this integration. Some programme offices, for
strategic reasons, will undertake programmes that are specific
to climate change and that are labeled as such.
The relative importance of climate change to each programme
area will vary based on social, economic and ecological
considerations. Programme offices and project proponents will
determine the relevance of climate change to the work and
what actions are necessary to integrate those considerations
into the work.
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VSO and Climate Change
Committing to gender sensitivity,
gender equity, and gender equality
Climate change affects men and women differently, because
of socio-cultural differences in gender roles and the differing
access to resources, including land, money, credit, education
and training. Climate change can often magnify gender
inequalities by exacerbating existing differences between men
and women in their vulnerability and their ability to cope. Men
and women will also be affected differently and will respond
differently to climate change policies, programmes and
projects. For example, early warning systems that are
intended to alert communities of an oncoming flood may use
technologies that are not accessible by women. Programmes
that attempt to make livelihoods more resilient may target
economic activities that are dominated by men.
For these reasons VSO’s climate change work will be gender
sensitive and strive for gender equity and equality. That is, it
will recognize the important differences between women and
men and take these differences into account when climate
change interventions are designed and implemented. The
success of climate change programming that is able to target
the poorest and most vulnerable requires a solid understanding
of gender roles, the varying impacts of climate change in regard
to gender, and the differing access to social, economic and
environmental resources by men and women. Success also
depends on the meaningful participation of both women
and men.
VSO is committed to gender equity and equality in the design,
delivery, and outcomes of climate change-related projects,
and to undertaking campaigns for greater gender equity
and equality and the enhanced participation of women in
discussions related to climate change and development.
Bringing people together
VSO’s effectiveness rests on its ability to bring people together
to share and exchange ideas, experiences, expertise, and
perspectives. Our work on climate change is no different.
One of VSO’s primary approaches to international development
is sending volunteers. Currently, VSO volunteers have
been effective at contributing their expertise to increase
communities’ capacity to adapt to climatic change impacts
in countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, and Bangladesh (see
case studies below). International volunteers will continue to
collaborate with partners and local communities to assist them
in their adaptation efforts.
Where appropriate, there will also be a role for national
volunteers in climate change-related programmes. National
volunteering refers to VSO’s inclusion of people volunteering
within their own countries, e.g. Bangladeshis volunteering in
Bangladesh. National volunteers, given their knowledge and
understanding of local language and culture, can be invaluable
in undertaking community-based adaptation work. National
volunteers can be particularly valuable in awareness raising
campaigns, since they can have a better appreciation for the
methods of communication that would be effective, and since
they are often youth who have a lot of energy and passion for
environmental issues.
Diaspora volunteering can also be a powerful tool that can
be used for climate change-relevant projects. Similar to
national volunteering, Diaspora volunteers can bring cultural
knowledge to climate change adaptation work. Diaspora
volunteers may also be able to play an important advocacy
role upon return to their adopted countries, communicating
to their communities and to governments the importance of
industrialized countries contributing to climate change efforts
in the developing world. Similarly, south-north visits can bring
the experiences and perspectives of those living with climate
change in the developing world to citizens and governments in
the industrialized world.
VSO will also continue to explore knowledge partnerships
with universities and researchers who can bring academic
expertise on climate change science and adaptation practices.
This knowledge and experience will be important inputs to
the development of forward-looking adaptation strategies.
Knowledge partnerships can also happen in the field, with
practitioners from NGOs who have a long history of applied
experience in this field.
©VSO/Ben Langdon
Finally, VSO will bring people together in other ways to
exchange information about, perspectives on, and lessons from
climate change, including knowledge sharing initiatives, study
tours of climate-related work and different types of exchanges:
north-south, south-north, and south-south.
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VSO and Climate Change
Where we will
see change
Strengthened communities
The aim of VSO’s community-based adaptation work is to bring
multiple benefits to individuals and communities, especially
those who are marginalized and most vulnerable to the
impacts of climate change. Communities will have greater
resilience so they can absorb and recover from climate change
impacts as they occur.
More importantly, communities will also build their capacity
to respond to ongoing climate changes that will require
adaptation across many sectors and over time. Communities
will be able to look ahead and modify their behaviour in order
to be better prepared and less vulnerable to climate change
impacts, even as they intensify. Adopting a long-term approach
to climate change is needed to move beyond short-term coping
strategies to ongoing adaptation actions.
All of this will be facilitated by public engagement/sensitization
campaigns that will be undertaken as part of climaterelated
projects. Community members will be able make
the connection between the changes they experience and
the impacts predicted by climate change science. Increased
awareness will also help them understand that climate change
impacts are unlikely to go away, so that waiting for the climate
to “go back” to the way it was is not an option. With this
understanding will come greater buy-in from the community,
improved skills to foresee and prepare for future climatic
changes, and an ability to become more effective advocates
for the policies and resources needed from local and national
governments and other stakeholders.
Empowered and effective partners
Collaborative and strategic partnerships that address climate
change will allow both VSO and its partners to learn from
one another and build their knowledge and capacity to work
on climate change-related projects. Partners will benefit
from learning opportunities related to climate change such
as training sessions, workshops, study tours, and action
research—learning by doing.
work on community-based adaptation will become proficient
at integrating climate change into development projects and
mainstreaming gender into climate-related projects.
Second, VSO partners will also build their skills and capacity in
developing and implementing research, advocacy, and public
engagement campaigns on climate change. Partners need
specific skills on policy development and lobbying in order to
engage with decision makers, and need communications skills
to carry out public engagement activities on climate change at
the community level.
Other international NGOs who already have experience
and expertise working on climate change adaptation could
also benefit from partnerships with VSO. These strategic
partnerships would combine the strengths of partner
organizations to increase the effectiveness of adaptation work.
VSO can build its skills on climate change adaptation while also
contributing its vast experience in community-based projects,
capacity building at the local level, and the use of volunteers.
Partnerships between NGOs and within networks or consortia
are increasingly being viewed favourably by institutional
funders.
Finally, local, state and national governments can build their
capacity to implement climate change strategies at the local
level. By working with VSO, governments will have a greater
understanding of how programmes and policies can be
implemented so they benefit those most in need. They can also
learn from joint pilot projects undertaken with VSO in order
to effectively scale up their programmes and policies to other
communities, across states, or nationally
Capacity development within partners is already happening
in areas related to service delivery, financial management,
strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, and other skills.
Partners will build their capacity within two additional areas
related to climate change. First, partner organizations who
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VSO and Climate Change
Enlightened government policy
and action
Systematic and widespread adaptation to climate change
requires governments to develop and implement national
plans and policies. Without this, progress to build adaptive
capacity at the community level risks being piecemeal and
unsustainable. With national policies and plans, governments
will be better able to access and coordinate available
international funding and reallocate internal resources to
address climate change priorities. Therefore, VSO will provide
support to partners to develop in-country advocacy strategies.
Targeted and proactive advocacy undertaken by VSO partners
will engage governments to develop and implement pro-poor
climate change policies.
However, government policies and plans are not sufficient.
They also need to be implemented. VSO partners will strive
to play an important role in advocating to and supporting
governments’ implementation of climate change programs
to ensure resources and actions get to those who most need
them at the community level.
Changes in national policies are needed in the industrialized
world as well. As VSO builds its expertise on climate change,
it will be able to speak from experience about the need for
strong policies and action on climate change and share stories
about how to make communities in the developing world
more secure and resilient. A number of different advocacy
initiatives—often by VSO in coalition with other networks, or
through Diaspora and returned volunteers—will try to compel
governments in the global North to implement policies and
measures that reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases
and support the efforts of those in the developing world in
adaptation, mitigation, and low carbon energy development.
There may also be strategic opportunities to engage in
regional or international policy discussions or, in the future,
to undertake a global campaign as an organization. However,
these should be undertaken only where VSO has a niche
that allows both access and influence, and could therefore
have an impact on the outcome. Returned volunteers can be
encouraged to support international advocacy campaigns that
are undertaken by VSO or other international development
organizations doing climate change advocacy.
A strong and responsible VSO
Change will happen within VSO as well. It will be clear from our
programmes, communications, and day-to-day office policies
and procedures that climate change has been adopted as a
key priority. Efforts will be taken to clearly communicate the
importance of VSO’s climate change work, especially since
many interventions will be integrating climate change into
programme goal areas rather than developing programmes
that carry the climate change label. Stakeholders and the
general public must come to understand that climate change
work is an important part of VSO’s activities.
VSO will also build its knowledge and capacity on issues related
to climate change. This will include hiring staff that have that
expertise as well as providing training and resources to existing
staff and volunteers. Expertise will be built in areas related to
climate change impacts in countries where we operate, the
design and implementation of community-based, gendersensitive
adaptation projects, including the use of relevant
toolkits, and the development of public engagement initiatives.
VSO will also take responsibility for its impact on the
environment and, specifically, its contribution to climate
change in a more comprehensive way. We will measure our
ecological footprint and build on environmental initiatives
already undertaken by implementing policies to reduce that
footprint across the organization, reflecting our concern for
those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Various strategies will be used. VSO will build on the office
policies already implemented across the federation to further
reduce the use of energy and resources. We will investigate
opportunities to develop and use sustainable sources of
energy. We will undertake an analysis to identify strategies
that will reduce staff, volunteer, and partner travel, including
commuting. Initiatives could include building our national
volunteering programme (which is already providing volunteers
at lower environmental costs), expanding green travel policies
already in place in London, and developing an e-volunteering
programme. Finally, we will explore options for using highquality
offsets for those greenhouse gas emissions that cannot
be reduced.
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VSO and Climate Change
Case study:
Nigeria, climate change and VSO
One of the only programmes that VSO has undertaken to
date that explicitly focuses on climate change is Building
Nigeria’s Response to Climate Change (BNRCC), a partnership
between CUSO-VSO (the North American federation member
of VSO), Marbek (a Canadian consulting firm), and the Nigerian
Environmental Study/Action Team or NEST (the main NGO
partner in Nigeria). BNRCC, a programme undertaken between
2007 and 2011, has different components including academic
research on the socio-economic impact of climate change and
the application of climate change models to more local scales
in Nigeria; media and communications strategies to bring
climate change stories to journalists and the general public; a
policy contribution to the development of Nigeria’s national
adaptation strategy; and 15 community-based adaptation
projects in different regions of the country.
Every community project in Nigeria has unique challenges,
but there have been common themes. For example, water
availability is currently an important challenge in the semiarid,
central part of Nigeria, and even more so in the arid
north. In cooperation with NEST and seven local partner
organizations, VSO volunteers have supported communities in
becoming less vulnerable to water scarcity. In one community
alone, rooftop water harvesting systems were installed, water
storage tanks were built, water filtration systems were set up,
and the capacity of local micro dams was increased. These
interventions brought important benefits to this community,
especially for the women, who are responsible for water
collection and previously had to walk long distances to supply
water for their households.
The BNRCC’s community-based projects undertook a number
of other initiatives, all driven by the stated priorities of
community members and the vulnerabilities and impacts
they were facing. New drought-resistant and early-maturing
varieties of sorghum, millet, beans, maize, cassava and rice
were introduced to address changing climatic conditions. More
efficient, wood-burning stoves were distributed to women to
decrease wood usage, improve indoor air quality, and reduce
cooking times. Alternative livelihoods, such as fish farming,
snail farming, and small-scale irrigation, were also developed.
The lessons learned in Nigeria have been shared with the
Ministry through a policy dialogue based on expertise gained
at the grassroots level, and this has been able to influence the
development of climate change adaptation policy in Nigeria
at the national level. Lessons are also being shared with other
programme offices and their partners in order to inform the
development of their climate change programmes.
Case study:
Addressing climate change
impacts in Bangladesh
Bangladesh faces several hazards related to climate change,
many of them related to water. Significant portions of the
country flood every year due to more intense precipitation
events and increased river flows due to melting glaciers in
the Himalayas. Along the coastal belt, sea level rise and storm
surges from more frequent typhoons have caused salination of
soils and water sources.
These hazards are likely most severe for Bangladesh’s
agriculture sector and, with 80% of its citizens dependent on
agriculture for their livelihood, climate change poses major
problems for the country. VSO-Bangladesh understands these
vulnerabilities and is working to assist communities be more
adaptive.
Shahana Hayat, country director for Bangladesh puts it
this way:
“People who are already vulnerable and food
insecure are likely to be the first affected.
Agriculture-based livelihood systems that
are already vulnerable to food insecurity
face immediate risk of increased crop failure,
new patterns of pests and diseases, lack of
appropriate seeds and planting material, and
loss of livestock. People living on the coasts and
floodplains are most at risk.”
VSO-Bangladesh is working to help communities by making
research accessible to smallholder farmers at a local level
through ‘living laboratory’ approaches to action research. The
increased salination of agricultural land is increasing poverty
levels.
Recognizing that local communities need to develop alternative
sources of incomes, in 2010 a VSO volunteer worked with
these communities to identify viable options, which included
adapting the cultivation of sweet water fish species to
cultivation in salt water. The volunteer then worked with local
fishermen, youth club members and the Fisheries Department
to develop a model of cultivating sweet water fish in the saline
water, which was appropriate to the local context.
Eighty community and youth club members have now been
trained on this model and are able to pass on skills for fish
cultivation to other communities also affected by salt water
intrusion.
9

VSO and Climate Change
Case study:
Community-based adaptation in Kenya
VSO’s current work in the Kajiado District of southern
Kenya highlights our potential contribution to communitybased
adaptation. Though not labeled “climate change”
the work of the volunteers and partners, undertaken since
2009, is community-based adaptation since it is supporting
communities and citizens groups to adapt to the increasingly
frequent droughts in this semi-arid region.
VSO volunteers are using their skills and knowledge to build
capacity in a number of ways in the farming and pastoral
communities and the partner organizations that support
them. Conservation agriculture—producing high crop
yields while conserving soil fertility—is being used to make
agriculture more productive in the face of hotter, drier
conditions. Fermented fruit juice, made using the stalks of
banana trees, is getting great reviews as a natural fertilizer for
crops. Intercropping traditional crops such as maize with cash
crops like tomatoes has brought multiple benefits: the maize
provides shade for the tomato plants and is used as a food
staple, its stalks are fed to cattle, and the tomatoes provide a
revenue stream for farmers when sold at the local market.
©VSO/Ben Langdon
Nitrogen-fixing trees are being planted alongside agricultural
plots. The nitrogen increases the fertility of the soil and the
trees provide shade for the crops during the hot, dry season.
Volunteers are also supporting the introduction of alternative
livelihoods with local community members, including citizens
groups. These include beekeeping and honey production;
breeding and raising goats; camel herding; and fish farming.
Alternative sources of income decrease the vulnerability that
the community faces from more prevalent droughts.
Capacity is also being built within the local partner, a savings
and credit co-operative. A VSO volunteer has supported the
partner in its strategic planning and set up computer systems
and a network for its branches, making the co-operative more
efficient and effective at providing financial and technical
support to its members, mostly farmers and pastoralists.
10

VSO and Climate Change
Glossary
Adaptation: Adjustment in natural or human systems to
moderate the harm or exploit beneficial opportunities
associated with climate change. Adaptation is usually a
longer-term livelihood strategy, as opposed to short-term
coping activity, and is a continuous process where results are
sustained.
Adaptive capacity: The potential of individuals, communities,
and societies to be actively involved in the processes of
change, to minimize negative impacts and maximize any
benefits from changes in the climate.
Climate change: Any change in climate over time, whether
due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.
Current global concern is focused on climate change
resulting from human activity, and specifically from the
release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the
atmosphere.
Climate change impact: The effect of a climate change hazard
on people or ecosystems, e.g. crop failure, lack of access to
clean water, increased incidence of disease.
Climate change vulnerability: The degree to which a system
is susceptible to the adverse effects of climate change.
Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude, and
rate of climate variation to which a system is exposed, and
that system’s resilience and adaptive capacity.
Community-based adaptation: Activities whose primary
objective is to improve the capacity of local communities to
adapt to climatic changes.
Gender equality: A situation where men and women have
equal opportunities to realize their individual potential –
both to contribute to their country’s economic and social
development, and to benefit equally from their participation
in society. Gender equality does not mean that men and
women will become the same, but rather that the interests
and needs of women and men are weighed equally, as both
sexes are valued equally.
Gender equity: Being fair to both sexes by recognizing
different needs, interests, and power and addressing them.
Gender equity asserts that different treatment may be
required for men and women, and believes in the necessity
of redistributing power based on past disadvantages and
injustices.
Hazard: An event with the potential to cause harm. Examples
of climate hazards found in the literature include tropical
cyclones, droughts, floods, sea level rise or conditions leading
to an outbreak of disease.
Mitigation: The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that
cause global climate change.
National volunteering: Encouraging people to understand,
influence, and own the development of their own
communities and countries through volunteering.
Resilience: The ability of a system (human or natural) to
resist, absorb and recover from the effects of hazards in
a timely and efficient manner, preserving or restoring its
essential basic structures, functions and identity.
Conservation agriculture: Resource-saving agricultural crop
production that strives to achieve acceptable profits together
with high and sustained production levels while concurrently
conserving the environment.
Diaspora volunteering: The linking of members of a
Diaspora community with their countries of origin through
volunteering.
Ecological footprint: A measure of the environmental impact,
including greenhouse gas emissions, of an organization
or entity.
11

VSO and Climate Change
Key Sources
Adams, Barbara and Gretchen Luchsinger. 2009. Climate Justice for a Changing Planet: A Primer for Policy Makers and NGOs.
UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service. Geneva and New York.
Aguilar, Lorena. 2009. Training Manual on Gender and Climate Change. International Union for Conservation of Nature and the
United Nations Development Programme.
CARE International. 2010. Toolkit for Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Development Projects: Digital Toolkit,
Version 1.0.
Ensor, Jonathan and Rachel Berger. 2009. Understanding Climate Change Adaptation: Lessons from
community-based approaches. Practical Action Publishing. Warwickshire, UK.
Hahn, Marlene and Alexander Frode. 2010. Climate Proofing for Development: Adapting to Climate Change, Reducing Risk.
Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).
Jones, Lindsey, Eva Ludi, and Simon Levine. Towards a characterisation of adaptive
capacity: a framework for analysing adaptive capacity at the local level. Overseas Development Institute.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2009. Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Development Cooperation:
Policy Guidance. OECD Publishing.
Parry, M.L., O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson (eds). 2007. Contribution of Working Group II to the
Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007. Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge, UK.
REN21 Renewable Energy Policy Network. 2005. Energy For Development: The Potential Role of Renewable Energy in Meeting
the Millennium Development Goals. Washington, D.C. Worldwatch Institute.
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. 2007. Climate Change: Impacts,
Vulnerabilities And Adaptation In Developing Countries.
UN Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. 2005. Hyogo Framework for Action
2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters. World Conference on Disaster Reduction,
January 2005, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan
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Published 2011
12
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