Vulnerability, Impact and Adaptation Analyses in the Caribbean (VIAAC)

Caribbean countries are particularly exposed to extreme climate-related events, which will be exacerbated by climate change.  

Individually, these countries have distinct and varying degrees of vulnerability due to their unique environmental, socio-economic and institutional challenges.  Since most of the countries currently struggle to deal with the negative effects of climate variability, developing pragmatic adaptation solutions to cope with present and future changes is an absolute imperative.

Vulnerability, impact and adaptation (VIA) analyses will therefore help countries in the region to better plan for climate change adaptation.  In this context, under the Regional Gateway for Technology Transfer and Climate Change Action in Latin America and the Caribbean (REGATTA) initiative implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the CARIBSAVE Partnership is conducting three [3] VIA analyses at the national and local scale in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and Haiti.

These VIA analyses are focused on water resources, agriculture, coastal areas and the tourism sector and provide an understanding of the countries’ and watersheds’ exposure to climatic events based on current climate variability and future change, such as hurricanes and sea level rise.  The VIA analyses also have an emphasis on evaluating the key ecosystem services that contribute to livelihoods in order to provide a clear understanding of their status and sensitivity to climate changes, as well as to identify opportunities to implement ecosystem-based adaptation options as part of an overall adaptation strategy.

The main outputs from this 12-month project will be (1) National and Watershed VIA documents; (2) Policy Briefs and (3) Community Adaptation Plans (CAPs) or Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPAs). The VIA documents will create a basis for the evaluation of actual and potential threats / risks to key sectors, activities and ecosystems in the countries and watershed communities; as well as identify corrective adaptive actions.

As decision support tools, these outputs will be developed based on the findings of the respective VIAs as their basis to support decision makers in determining where scarce resources should be targeted to address ‘high vulnerability’ areas..

The results will demonstrate, amongst other things, the importance of including non-climatic determinants of vulnerability to climate change of livelihoods and communities benefiting from ecosystem services in watershed areas. They will also improve the understanding of the main approaches to climate change vulnerability assessment and to what extent their findings are useful for implementing and facilitating adaptations at both the national and local levels.

[vc_message color="alert-info" el_position="last"]

For more information, contact the Project Manager, Dr Donovan Campbell at donovan.campbell@caribsave.org.

[/vc_message]

Employment Opportunity: Research Consortium Manager, ASSAR Project

The INTASAVE Partnership and CARIBSAVE, as a member of a University of Cape Town (UCT)-led consortium, are seeking an experienced and self-motivated individual for the position of Consortium Manger.

The African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) is a strategic initiative at UCT that coordinates and enhances research and teaching in climate and climate change across departments and faculties. From Jan 2014 to Dec 2018, ACDI will be leading a multi-partner, CAD$ 13.5 Million research project, ASSAR (Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions). ASSAR is a part of a larger multi-consortium research programme, CARIAA (Collaborative Adaptation Research in Africa and Asia) funded by IDRC and DFID.

The ASSAR project will be managed via a Consortium Management Unit (CMU) at ACDI, which will be responsible for coordination of cross-consortia activities: research, reporting, outputs, and interactions with external bodies such as the consortium advisory board and the CARIAA management team at IDRC.

For further information on the post, and instructions for submission of applications, kindly download the below Call for Applications. The details are also listed on the University of Cape Town's General Vacancies webpage here: http://www.uct.ac.za/about/intro/vacancies/external. Closing date for applications is Monday, February 10, 2014.

[vc_row] [vc_column] [vc_cta_button title="DOWNLOAD" href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/t1upg12h9xx7new/Science%20_ACDI_Research%20Cons%20Manager_Jan14.pdf" color="btn-info" size="wpb_regularsize" icon="none" target="_blank" position="cta_align_right" call_text="Research Consortium Manager, ASSAR Project - Call for Applications (PDF)" el_position="first last"] [/vc_column] [/vc_row] [vc_row el_position="last"] [vc_column] [vc_column_text el_position="first last"]

---

[/vc_column_text] [/vc_column] [/vc_row]

CARIBSAVE Awards UWI-IGDS Scholarship

We are pleased to announce that Ms. Georgia Marks-Doman of Jamaica is the recipient of our most recent scholarship award of US$9,000.

Ms. Doman-Marks will complete her full-time post graduate studies in the area of Gender and Climate Change at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies of the UWI, Mona campus.  Her research project will examine the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of women in agriculture in rural Jamaica.  This work is both timely and very important at a time when the Caribbean region is struggling with issues of food security.  And whilst the issue of gender and climate change has always been important, it is becoming increasingly more visible and extremely relevant to CARIBSAVE’s work in the Caribbean and Africa regions, thus creating excellent opportunities for South-South learning and knowledge exchange of stories of vulnerability and resilience.

 This award is indicative of the long-standing relationship between CARIBSAVE and the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies and in keeping with our mutual goal to facilitate learning and capacity building processes through research on gender and climate change. This collaboration will therefore:

• Build capacity in the area of gender and development research;


• Contribute to public awareness in the area of gender and climate change; and


• Facilitate the discourse on climate change and policy interventions that recognise the importance of gender mainstreaming.

We wish to congratulate Ms. Marks-Doman and look forward to her professional and scientific contributions to this important field.