This blog post originally appeared on Climatelinks. Thanks to aggressive interventions in recent decades, remarkable progress has been made across sub-Saharan Africa in reducing child mortality, malaria deaths, and stunting rates, and improving overall health. But these gains may be lost as climate and weather variability put more people at risk of infection and death…
The work that BioREDD+ produced in the Colombian Pacific region was designed to achieve USAID’s development objective to strengthen Colombia’s efforts to sustainably manage the country’s environmental resources, by addressing climate change, biodiversity conservation, and environmental governance objectives. The BioREDD+ climate change component focused on mitigation and preparing Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities along Colombia’s Pacific…
The landmark 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) Paris Agreement recognized the need for a multi-pronged approach to reach the ambitious development goals set by 195 countries, 34 of which are in Asia. With one-third of the world’s total population, Asia is increasingly vulnerable to climate change due to its low-lying, heavily populated coastlines and dependency…
This blog post originally appeared on ClimateLinks. In backpacking across Africa as a recent college graduate, James Colborn felt drawn to the place and the people and wanted to do more than just travel around as a tourist. Soon after, he found his calling in global health. Today, Colborn has a Ph.D. in parasitology and…
Climate information services (CIS) is the new acronym on the block in the global environment and climate resilience community. The Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) is the leading international advocate and authority on CIS. It was established in 2009 as a result of a U.N. initiative to support integrated international efforts for the development…
This piece originally appeared on ASU Now. For coastal residents of the east African country, Mozambique, severe floods that endanger their health and lives are a frequent reality. Helping communities cope with extreme weather events is a challenge for locals and development agencies alike. Taking the cultural attitudes of those served into account, however, could…
This blog post originally appeared on Climatelinks. New research in Mali highlights a promising opportunity for action on climate change adaptation: local government development planning. Tim Finan and Mamadou Baro of the University of Arizona presented results of a study supported by USAID’s Adaptation, Thought Leadership, and Assessments (ATLAS) project on January 12 at USAID’s…
This blog post was contributed by SERVIR, a joint initiative by NASA and USAID, and was originally posted on www.servirglobal.net. Landscapes on Earth are changing at unprecedented levels. For scientists, practitioners, and environmental decision makers, tracking these changes efficiently and accurately is critical to protecting lives and livelihoods. While there are many ways to learn…
This blog post is adapted from a post that originally appeared on Climatelinks. Climate science is a complex field, and communicating that science and its implications for development programming in a way that is clear, but does not oversimplify, is a persistent challenge. Yet bridging the gap between research and implementation is vital for development practitioners to…
In 2013 I wrote a book called Redeeming REDD: Policies, Incentives, and Social Feasibility for Avoided Deforestation, published by Earthscan. In the book I argue that reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD, and the latest variant known as REDD+), needs a suite of enabling conditions, independent of market viability as well as measurement,…
USAID’s Maldives Global Climate Change (GCC) project worked to raise the public’s awareness about climate change, provide ways to adapt to its effects, and build the capacity and sustainability of stakeholders, including the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MEE), residents, the Island Council of Lhaviyani (Lh.) Hinnavaru, and the national utility company, FENAKA Corporation Limited.
Do you feel that climate change is impacting your city? If so, what is the day-to-day impact? Tagir Carimo: Pemba saw its first major effect of climate change three years ago, when we experienced heavy rainfall across the municipality. Since then, the city has been suffering from several events due to climate change, including soil…