May Sengendo, ENERGIA regional network coordinator for Africa, with CCAA program leader Fatima Denton at the roundtable "Strengthening African leadership on climate change adaptation in Africa: The role of research" in Nairobi, November 9, 2006. - IDRC photo: Karen Flanagan McCarthy

Side event

A near-capacity crowd attended IDRC’s official side event at the UN Climate Change Conference in Nairobi on November 8 to hear more about the new Climate Change Adaptation in Africa program.

A UNFCCC web broadcast of the side event, “Introducing Climate Change Adaptation in Africa,” is now online. Visit http://www.un.org/webcast/unfccc/archive.asp?go=106#061108 to see program leader Fatima Denton, senior program specialist Anthony Nyong, Jessica Troni of the UK Department for International Development, and CCAA advisory board chair Prof. Shem Wandiga present the program’s aims and start up priorities.

• The importance of documenting and using indigenous knowledge of coping and adaptation, and ensuring research reflects community perspectives;
• The central role action research can play in bringing different perspectives to bear;
• The need to package and share information in ways that are accessible to both communities and policymakers;
• The need to address infrastructural deficiencies to reduce vulnerability to climate impacts; and
• The importance of tackling adaptation within the wider context of sustainable development