Author and Institution:
Dr. Blane Harvey, Institute of Development Studies, UK
Dr. Tom Mitchell, Overseas Development Institute, UK
Outline:
Knowledge sharing tools and networks relating to climate change adaptation increasingly draw on Web 2.0 functionalities and user-generated content. These contribute to a shared evidence base upon which current and future adaptation planning and action (at a range of scales) can draw. They can help to build a community of practice around climate change adaptation; validate adaptation processes and information; and offer users a sense of potential options and outcomes from adaptation actions, based on others’ experiences, as well as space to document their own experiences (Hammill and Tanner 2011; Ecofys and IDS 2011).
AfricaAdapt is one such knowledge sharing network on climate change adaptation in Africa, established in 2008 and hosted by four partner organisations: Environment and Development in the Third World (ENDATM), based in Dakar, Senegal; the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in Accra, Ghana; IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) in Nairobi, Kenya; and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK. The network describes its aim as being “to facilitate the flow of climate change adaptation knowledge for sustainable livelihoods between researchers, policy-makers, civil society organisations and communities who are vulnerable to climate variability and change across the continent” (AfricaAdapt, n.d.).
