Fwd - Overcoming Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation: Innovative Strategies Using ICTs May 22, 2011
Does this mean that there will be people in the research community who will be interested in what is known by our community? It has been Dadamac's dream for years that researchers and practitioners will make use of ICTs to work together more effectively. We have been looking for opportunities to feed in the kind of information that the Dadamac Community shares through Collaborators Connect and UK-Nigeria team meetings. Maybe that time is coming.
This forwarded post ends by saying "The potential -and risks- of ICTs in overcoming adaptation barriers is a topic that requires further exploration, particularly through empirical cases that shed light on their role informing decision-making processes, fostering resourcefulness and creativity, empowering youth as adaptation leaders, and facilitating capacity building and collaborative actions among the actors involved in adaptive actions."
Digging deeper there is reference to trust - "While at the onset of extreme events we are quick to recognize the importance of communication, we often fail to acknowledge the pivotal role of trust towards adaptation and resilience, as well as the potential of innovative tools such as ICTs to help fostering trust, strengthening networks and collaboration."
I find that encouraging too. Maybe it demonstrates an appreciation that ICT for climate change isn't just about the technology and the information. It is, above all, about communication. Communication is about people with a need to communicate and collaborate and that requires relationships and trust. All the information in the world, and all the technology in the world are useless without people who have the trust and capability to work together effectively.
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 | Overcoming Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation: Innovative Strategies Using ICTs Angelica Valeria Ospina | April 26, 2011 at 1:41 am | Tags: Barriers to Adaptation, Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Change and ICTs | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pCUn3-9A |
Effective communication
When faced with the many uncertainties posed by climate change impacts, the capacity to access, use and disseminate relevant information becomes crucial for vulnerable communities in order to better cope with and adjust to new climatic conditions -and to their social, economic and political repercussions.
In a recent paper, Moser and Ekstrom (2010) present a framework to identify barriers that may impede the process of adaptation to climate change, including a set of obstacles that can be encountered during the phases of understanding, planning and managing adaptation.