Browse by Theme: Climate Change

This document explains CARE’s role and position at the 40th annual meeting of the Committee on World Food Security. It is intended as information for CARE’s partners and interested parties, on a focal area of CARE’s international advocacy work on food and nutrition security (FNS).

Participants from 12 West African countries confirmed the urgent need for community based adaptation to respond to the adverse effects of climate change at a West Africa Learning Event in Cotonou, 3-6th September 2013. Seventy two participants from a diverse range of 36 NGO and research organisations, and 14 government organisations shared and reflected on their experiences, successes, challenges, opportunities, questions and future perspectives across the region.

This communiqué is the collective product of these deliberations conveying strong messages on the crucial need to develop effective adaptation practice and policies to secure livelihoods and realise resilient development and economic growth in the face of an uncertain and changing climate.

This briefing note sets out detailed recommendations for the UN High level panel to consider as they begin to consider what might replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire in 2015. CARE calls for a strong emphasis on gender and social equality, an integrated approach to poverty and climate change, and much much more!

Significant progress has been made among the negotiators so far this year on the system for providing information on REDD+ safeguards, however there is still much work to do as Parties consider text by the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) for a COP decision.

"To reduce people’s vulnerability to climate change, CARE focuses on building adaptive capacity and, in some cases, reducing exposure or sensitivity to its impacts. We are also taking steps to ensure our development programs and projects contribute, whenever possible, to strengthening resilience and that they don’t inadvertently worsen vulnerabilities. These processes are often called “adaptation to climate change.
Adaptation is defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as: Adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities."

"Adapting to climate change is about reducing vulnerability to current and projected climate risks. Vulnerability to climate change is determined in large part by people’s adaptive capacity. A particular climate hazard, such as a drought, does not affect all people within a community - or even the same household - equally because some people have greater capacity than others to manage the crisis. The inequitable distribution of rights, resources and power – as well as repressive cultural rules and norms – constrain many people’s ability to take action on climate change.

This is especially true for women. Therefore, gender is a critical factor in understanding vulnerability to climate change. CARE’s approach to adaptation begins with comprehensive analysis, including an examination of differential vulnerability due to social, political and economic inequalities."

This case study analyzes the results, lessons learned and recommendations emerging from the application of the Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (CVCA) methodology in the context of the PRAA project. First, it presents an overview of the project, the areas of intervention by country, the results of the analysis itself, and lastly, the main lessons learned and recommendations that arose from the application of the tools contained in the CVCA Handbook in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

The CVCA methodology is a tool developed by CARE to delineate the socio-‐economic aspects of vulnerability to climate change, particularly those factors that make women and other marginalized groups especially vulnerable. The results of the analysis provide a solid foundation for identifying practical strategies to enable community-‐based adaptation to climate change.