Highlights of CJRF’s 2022 Solution Series
CJRF’s Solution Series aims to share the work of our grantee partners and learn how climate resilience is built and strengthened through the efforts of communities on the front lines of climate change.
In 2022, five partners took the opportunity to present to CJRF’s community and share their strategies for building resilience in partnership with vulnerable communities. Below we share clips that highlight key takeaways from these presentations.
Pawanka Fund is an Indigenous-led fund that supports people and organizations in the strengthening and revitalization of Indigenous knowledge. In their Solution Series session, they presented the work of two projects to highlight how Indigenous communities can leverage centuries of knowledge about their land and people to improve climate resilience.
Gideon Sanago shared how the Maasai people restored a water source that had been dry since 1995 through collaboration and community participation. Watch the short clip to learn more.
Watch the full session with Pawanka Fund.
Christian Aid has been working in Kenya since 1997 in four thematic areas: climate justice, inclusive markets, humanitarian response, and health and nutrition. They work within the arid and semi-arid region of Kenya, one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world. They operate under a decentralized model, working closely with county-level partners to link local agendas with national agendas and policies.
Christian Aid presented a multifaceted project during their Solution Series presentation. Working in Marsabit and Samburu counties, their project aimed to improve the participation of local communities in climate change-related policies and planning in these two drought-ridden counties. This project generated several positive results, including an improved policy landscape for rangeland management, livestock production, increased and more accurate climate information services, and the establishment of a new mechanism that places communities at the center of climate change decision-making in Marsabit.
Milton Ogada, emergency response officer at Christian Aid, shared Christian Aid’s key takeaways following the success of this project. Listen in!
Watch the full session with Christian Aid.
The Governance for Climate Resilience (G4CR) is a coalition comprised of the Center for Natural Resources Studies (CNRS), the Center for Climate Justice Bangladesh, and ICCCAD. G4CR works with vulnerable communities in Bangladesh to restore freshwater canals and water access.
Freshwater canals in coastal Bangladesh are a precious resource. Often, wealthy elites have greater access to these canals, leaving vulnerable communities without access to fresh water for growing crops and other income generation and survival. G4CR executed multiple projects to increase crop diversity, ensure water is available for farming year-round, and restore fishing access for vulnerable communities.
In this clip, CNRS Executive Director Mokhlesur Rahman shares how the partnership leveraged an unexpected encroachment on one rehabilitated canal to drive positive outcomes through their whole community approach and local advocacy.
Natural Justice is a legal empowerment organization that aims to give communities a voice in major development and infrastructure projects where climate resilience is at stake. By applying provisions in new Kenyan climate laws, they work on increasing the capacity of communities to challenge and hold projects accountable.
In their Solution Series session, Senior Community Environmental Legal Officer Justus Tsofa shared Natural Justice’s efforts with communities affected by the salt industry in Kenya’s Kilifi County. Salt companies in the region create embankments that disrupt river flow as well as destroy mangrove forests. These forests are key to healthy rivers that support the fish, prawns, and other animal life that fishers in the area rely on for food and income. They are also important in carbon sequestration.
To empower the communities affected by the destruction of the rivers and mangroves, Natural Justice has provided legal empowerment training to support local people to advocate for their interests with the Kenyan government. Tsofa shares the lessons that they’ve learned while working in partnership with communities.
Watch the full Natural Justice session.
Right Energy Partnership with Indigenous Peoples (REP) is an Indigenous-led, multi-stakeholder partnership with the goals of increasing renewable energy systems that respect human rights and leveraging the leadership of Indigenous communities to develop clean energy solutions. REP supports Indigenous-led campaigns that advocate for including Indigenous voices in energy planning, and they promote community-led renewable energy projects through various United Nations agencies.
Lulu Gimenez described an energy project in the Philippines that includes building five dams on the Apayao river. Communities in the region oppose the project, and in this clip, Gimenez gives an update and shares how REP has supported community advocacy against construction of these dams.
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Do you want to attend Solution Series sessions in 2023? Visit our Solution Series page to register.