KNOWLEDGE SHARING ON CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT & ADAPTATION PLANNING TOOLS

BANJUL - THE GAMBIA

WORKSHOP REPORT- AUGUST, 2012.

For more information, contact giftyampomah@gmail.com

1

ADWAC

ContentsBackground............................................................................................................................................3

Specific Objectives.................................................................................................................................3

Workshop Approach..............................................................................................................................3

Expected Outcomes...............................................................................................................................4

Activities:...............................................................................................................................................4

Day 1..................................................................................................................................................4

Day 2..................................................................................................................................................6

Day 3..................................................................................................................................................8

Participant’s Evaluation:........................................................................................................................8

Next Steps After workshop....................................................................................................................9

Lessons Learned....................................................................................................................................9

Appendix 1: Workshop Agenda...........................................................................................................11

Appendix 2: List of Participants.....................................................................Erreur ! Signet non défini.

List of FiguresFIGURE 1: SUMMARY OF CASE STUDIES USED FOR TRAINING...............................................................................................5FIGURE 2: PARTICIPANTS MAPPING OUT IMPORTANT RESOURCES IN CASE STUDY AREA. GAMBIA, 28/08/2012..........................6FIGURE 3: PARTICIPANTS ENGAGED IN TREND ANALYSIS AND HISTORICAL DISTURBANCE MATRIX. GAMBIA. 29/08/2012..............7FIGURE 4: PRESENTING AN OUTPUT OF CAPACITY MAPPING. GAMBIA, 29/08/2012..............................................................7FIGURE 5: A SECTION OF GROUP WORK, GAMBIA. 29/08/2012........................................................................................7FIGURE 6: ASSESSING CLIMATE CHANGE PERCEPTIONS, GAMBIA. 29/08/2012.....................................................................7FIGURE 7: PARTICIPANTS EVALUATION 1 &2...................................................................................................................8FIGURE 8 : PARTICIPANTS EVALUATION 3, 4 & 5.............................................................................................................9

2

Background

Climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning (V&A) has gained great attention in least developed countries which are highly sensitive to climate variability and change. This interest has also created a need for knowledge, skills and tools to support V&A. While several tools for V&A have been developed, these tools are not readily available especially for local organisations and research individuals in these countries and there is a need to contextualize and tailor them to local realities. For this reason, through a joint collaboration between ENDA Energy (http://endaenergie.org/), SEI and local partners in Gambia; the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Agency for the Development of Women and Children (ADWAC), a toolkit for V&A has been co-constructed, tested and refined for its use by local practitioners in developing countries. Following these, ENDA organised a capacity building workshop to share knowledge on these participatory action research tools with stakeholders in the field of climate change V&A. This joint initiative is supported by UNITAR through the C3D+ project (www.c3d-unitar.org).

Specific Objectives

The aim of the workshop was to share the knowledge on these tools with stakeholders and to receive inputs relevant for its refinement. Specifically it was to train participants to undertake the following activities in V&A research projects:

Identify boundaries of a unit of analysis and map out available biophysical resources and their spatial distribution.

Identify various capacities, skills and assets in a unit of analysis/project site which could be built upon for future adaptation.

Identify events that have shaped development in the past as a basis to understand current vulnerability.

Establish the degree and range of impacts of climate hazards on resources, livelihoods and social groups.

Assess local perceptions on climate change Make a number of adaptation decisions and to Select most appropriate adaptation action from a pool of adaptation options.

Workshop Approach

The approach of this 2-day workshop was a participatory and iterative process of guided hands-on exercises which differs from the traditional training method where participants follow structured steps through a series of seminar-style training modules. The objective for first day was to engage participants in historical and current vulnerability assessments. The second day focused on tools for adaptation planning, screening and prioritization. Participants worked in groups to apply the tools to specific case studies. After the application, they were given the chance to provide a feed back on performance of each tool. The feedbacks were incorporated in further refinement of the tools making them more applicable in participatory action research cases.

3

Participants of the workshop were from various institutions NGOs/CBOs who are engaged in climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning. Some institutions within Gambia who benefited from this training were as follows:

National Environment Agency Agency for the Development of Women and Children(NGO) Ministry of Health and Social Welfare Association for Food and Environmental Security (CBO) Njawara Agriculture Training Centre Department for Community Development Children and Community Initiative for Development (CAID) Department of Fisheries Kanifig Municipal Council (KMC) National Disaster Management Committee of the Kanifig Municipality Concern Universal Department of Forestry

Expected Outcomes

It was expected that, at the end the workshop, participants would have been able to conduct research activities that will enable them to:

Understand project study areas; identify available resources and their geographical distribution as well as identifying of key factors that shape biophysical resources in a given study area.

Identify and understand available capacities, skills and assets in a case study area. Explore historical climate related events and coping strategies used in a study area. Identify and understand current climate and environmental related hazards that shape

vulnerability in case study areas Understand local perceptions on the climate change phenomenon Lead vulnerable populations to make appropriate adaptation plans Better understand different adaptation options that can be prioritised.

Activities:

Day 1

Activities of day one started with a welcome statement by Mr. Faburama Fofana of ADWAC, followed by a round of introductions of all participants. A formal opening of the workshop was made by Mr. Lamin Samatey of NEA on behalf of the Executive Director. He highlighted on the climate related hazards in Gambia and the importance of making vulnerability assessment as well as developing appropriate adaptation actions. For this purpose, he identified the importance of getting knowledge on the right kind of tools which are more user friendly for researchers at all levels. The project co-ordinator Mrs. Gifty Ampomah, gave a background information of the C3D+ project and its activities in Gambia from 2009 to 2012.

4

After the introductory process, participants were introduced to the two case studies which were to be used for the training. These were the Mandory and the Duntumalang case studies. Synopses of these case studies are presented in figure 1.

After the presentation of the two case studies we then started the business of the day by training participants on the resource mapping tool. They were taken through stepwise hands-on exercises through this tool. This tool was designed to help researchers identify boundaries of a unit of analysis and map out available biophysical resources and their spatial distribution. During this exercise, discussions were generated around issues like land tenure, resource allocation and management, use and benefits obtained from the resources and relationships between the different resources within the two case study situations. After the activity, participants gave feedbacks on the use of the tool and provided inputs.

5

Mandory case study:

Mandory is an agrarian rural community in the North Bank Region of Gambia with a population of about 800 inhabitants. Production of rice, millet and groundnut is done in the rainy season predominantly by men. Women are normally engaged in vegetable production (onion, cabbage, tomatoes, egg plant, pepper, lettuce) mostly in the dry season. The case study was conducted by ADWAC to assess the impacts of climate related hazards on these agricultural activities and also explore various coping techniques employed by the population. Some of these techniques have been improved for usage within and outside the community.

Duntumalang Case study:

Duntumalang is located in the Upper Badibu District of Gambia with a population of about 200 people due to high out-migration. Major livelihood activities are rice production, fishing (by men) and oyster harvesting (by women). In recent years, these livelihood activities have been severely impacted by climate change. Rice fields became infertile due to excessive salt infiltration. A case study was then conducted by expects from selected national institutions led by the KMC to make an assessment of the situation, provide control measures and further develop adaptation actions.

Day 2

Activities for the second day started very early with training on five tools. After going through the exercise on each tool, each working group was allowed to present their outputs in a plenary. This generated very interesting discussions on the findings. After the presentation of the outputs, participants were also given the opportunity to assess the applicability of the tools and provide inputs. This was with the objective of making each tool to be very user friendly. The following were the tools in which participants were trained during the second day:

Capacity  mapping:  With this tool, participants were trained on how to identify various capacities, skills and assets in a unit of analysis which could be built upon for future adaptation. This tool enhances a better understanding of available capacities skills and assets of a study area. An output of this activity is shown in figure 4.

Trend Analysis  and Historical  Disturbance  Matrix:   -  With this participants were able to identify events that have shaped development in the past as a basis to understand current vulnerability. They acquired shared knowledge on past issues/events/disturbances in the site and how they were solved. Figure 3 shows participants engaged in a trend analysis.

6

Figure 2: Participants mapping out important resources in case study area. Gambia, 28/08/2012

Current   vulnerability  Mapping – Participants were then engaged in the assessment of current vulnerabilities of case study areas to establish the degree and range of impacts of climate hazards on resources, livelihoods and social groups. This activity enhanced a better understanding of the main climatic hazards affecting each project site.

Assessing   Climate   Change   Perceptions   –  To engage community members to develop adaptation actions, it becomes essential that researchers assess their understanding on the climate change phenomenon before proceeding with coming up with appropriate adaptation plans. Participants were therefore taken through this exercise to enable them assess local perceptions on climate change in a simple manner. Figure 6 shows participants actively engaged in this exercise.

Participatory Scenario building –  This activity equipped participants to be able to engage community members in developing adaptation decisions based on their past experiences, current capacity and available assets. Activities of day 2 were ended by closing remarks from Mr. Peter Gibba from the Department of Water Resources and finally a vote of thanks to all participants and organisers by Fatou Gibba from the Department of community Development.

7

Figure 4: Presenting an output of capacity mapping. Gambia, 29/08/2012

Figure 3: Participants engaged in trend analysis and historical disturbance matrix. Gambia. 29/08/2012

Figure 4: Assessing climate change perceptions, Gambia. 29/08/2012

Figure 3: A section of group work, Gambia. 29/08/2012

Day 3

There was no much time during the two days to undertake a training on the final tool which is the Adaptation Decision explorer (ADx) –  A third day was therefore added for  training our two major partners (NEA and ADWAC). ADx is a decision support tool to screen adaptation options and provide guidance on appropriate options. Users are able to access several methods to select the most appropriate adaptation options for their site.

Participant’s Evaluation:

After the workshop, each participant was taken through an evaluation process. Most participants indicated having a better understanding and knowledge on the tools and are well prepared to undertake vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning. More than half of the participants were satisfied with how the workshop was facilitated, however, most participants reported that, they did not have much time to interact with each other. Figures 7 and 8 show outcomes of the evaluation:

Figure 5: Participants evaluation 1 &2

8

Figure 6 : Participants evaluation 3, 4 & 5

Next Steps After workshop

After the workshop, ENDA and SEI are refining the tools. Upon completion, the final tool kit will be submitted to UNITAR after which it will be shared with all partners, stakeholders and uploaded on websites for public use.

The National Environment Agency of Gambia has planned to train its staff on the use of these tools in their work. They are further planning of extending the knowledge of these tools to the nation’s Agriculture and Natural Resource- Working Group (ANR-WG) as the tools are very much relevant to their work.

The Agency for the Development of Women and Children is the leading NGO in the North Bank Region and it implements series of livelihoods activities with participation of target communities. It has also developed keen interest in climate change and its impacts the environment. The Agency would extend its knowledge on these tools to its staff through hands-on training and also include the national Multi Disciplinary Facilitation teams (MDFT) and other community-based organisations in the region.

Lessons Learned

This workshop was very useful for the development process of the ‘Adaptation tool kit’ which has been produced. As participants were taken through each step of each tool, they

9

were able to give feedbacks on how to make the tool more applicable in different contexts and user friendly.

The hands-on training was a very good approach to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of each tool. It gave the participants an opportunity have a firsthand experience with the tool kit. It also enhanced a deeper understanding of the tools making it possible for the participants to train others in the future.

The approach of this workshop was very much time consuming as participants had to try each tool, make a presentation of its output in a plenary and after assess each tool. As interesting discussions came up on the outcomes, more time was spent on each tool than what was estimated. Due to this a third day was added in order to offer training on the final tool (ADx). And because this third day was not part of the original planned days, the training was offered only to our two major partners (NEA and ADWAC) but not the entire participants. To avoid this time limitation, a 5-day workshop will be ideal whenever there is the need to replicate this type of training on the ‘Adaptation tool kit’ elsewhere.

There is the need to make each participatory tool less prescriptive and flexible in order to make them easily applicable in different the local contexts.

10

Appendix 1: Workshop AgendaDay One ( Tuesday, 28th August, 2012) : Historical and Current Vulnerability Assessment

Time Activities9:00 – 9: 05 Welcome and round of introductions9:05– 9: 15 Formal opening9:15- 9:30 Highlights on objectives and expectations of the training workshop9:30-10:45 Presentation of case studies10:45-11:00 Coffee Break11:00- 11:45 Tool 1: Resource mapping11:45 –12:15 Feed back12:15- 1:00 Tool 2: Capacity mapping1: 00 - 1:30 Feed back on activity1:30- 2:30 Lunch2:30-3:15 Tool 3 :Trend analysis and historical disturbance matrix3:15-3:45 Feed back3:45- 4:30 Tool 4: Current vulnerability mapping4:30- 5:00 Feed back5:00 Closure

Day Two ( Wednesday, 29th August, 2012): Adaptation Planning9:00- 9:30 Reflections and feedback from day 1: activities and highlights on

expectations of day 2.9:30 – 10:30 Tool 5: Assessing local perceptions on climate change10: 30- 11:00 Feedback11:00 –11:15 Coffee break11:15 –12:15 Tool 6: Participatory scenario building12:15- 1:00 Case study presentation : Enhancing adaptive capacity to climate

change in Banjul1:00- 1:45 Lunch1: 45- 3:00 Tool 7: Adaptation Decision Explorer (Introduction and application on

Banjul case study)3:00 – 3: :30 Case study presentation: Climate change Adaptation Decision Explorer:

Example Application in Greater Banjul Area.3:30 – 4:00 Workshop Evaluation and general feedback discussions4:00 Vote of thanks and closure

11

Appendix: 2 List of ParticipantsNo. Name Organisation Area of specialisation1 Lamin Samatey National Environment Agency Environment2 Faburama Fofana Agency for the Development of

Women and ChildrenCommunity Development

3 Gifty Ampomah ENDA Researcher- Climate change V&A

4 Amie Njie MOHSW Health5 Abubacarr A. Sisawo AFES Community

Development6 Assan M.S. Dukureh NATC Environment7 Fatou Gibba Department of Community

DevelopmentCommunity development

8 Kalilu Banja CAID Children and community initiatives for development

9 Lamin A. Njie MOH & SW Community health10 Lamin Dampha Department of Fisheries Research and

development11 Mama M.K. Manneh NATC Agriculture and

Environment12 Musa O. Mendy Kaninfig Municipality Council/DMC Disaster Management13 Mustapha Dumbuya ADWAC Environment14 Pa Madou Kunbally Freelance Agriculture and social

development15 Peter Gibba Department of Water Resources Meteorologist (Early

warning systems)16 Saidou Sidibeh Concern Universal Horticulture17 Sarjoh Fatajoh Department of Forestry Acting Director of

Forestry

12