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Climate Change & Impact Training Workshop with Community Volunteers in Mamre, Cape Town, South Africa
2010/09/13
A training workshop facilitated by ICLEI Africa and hosted by the City of Cape Town was held in the Mamre Paradise Way Hall, north of Cape Town, with the Mamre community volunteer committee on the evenings of 30 June and 1 July 2010, respectively. The purpose of this workshop was to encourage and facilitate ongoing community participation within ICLEI Africa’s Five City Adaptation in Africa project, build capacity around climate change and initiate the gathering of associated information relating to risks and impacts felt at the community level associated with climate change.
The first session was aimed at strengthening community members’ understanding around climate change and the associated risks at the local level.
Examples of the Mamre community’s understanding of climate change prior to the workshop:
‘I have heard about climate change... I used to work for a petrol company and had to attend a workshop where they told us that the company is changing from butane gas to a pentane gas in order to reduce the affects of climate change... I don’t really understand it, but would like to know what it is all about. I am excited to learn and get involved in this project.’ - Cecil Dirks
‘I was very interested in reading and enjoyed geography at school which is where I heard of climate change.’ - Wayne Arendse
‘I used to work at a bank and the managers used to speak about climate change. ’ - Dalene Dirks
A Climate Change Toolkit was developed by ICLEI Africa for the community members, using a poster format to demonstrate global climate change. The explanation by Lucinda Fairhurst, ICLEI Africa’s Adaptation to Climate Change Programme Manager, took the form of a story telling technique, describing climate processes and the current scientific understanding of climate change. The group discussed climate variables being researched during this project, namely sea level rise and sea storm surges, rainfall, drought, wind and variability in temperature. The group was encouraged in this session to interact and describe different impacts that they were aware of or had personally experienced.
The second session on 1 July 2010 began with the showing of a DVD produced by the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) Program. This DVD provided examples and case studies of how different parts of Africa are currently being affected by climate change and a number of different adaptation options that have been implemented by community members, in order to strengthen resilience in an increasingly harsh and changing environment.
The aim of the second session was to carry out a pre-prepared Livelihoods and Risk Assessment questionnaire in order to capacitate the group and enhance their knowledge and confidence whilst undertaking a questionnaire survey within the community. The volunteer group was tasked with undertaking surveys with other members of the Mamre community in order to increase the community sample size and improve statistical viability during data analysis. This will ensure greater community representivity of the understanding of impacts relating to climate change. The information gathered from this exercise will form part of the Risk Assessment Report for the City of Cape Town, South Africa; a component of the “Sub-Saharan African Cities: A Five Cities Network to Pioneer Climate Adaptation through Participatory Research and Local Action” Project.
On completion of the Climate Change and Impact Training Workshop, a certificate was awarded to each of the volunteers.
