Training for mainstreaming climate change adaptation in Niger

Article du 20 December 2021

Training for mainstreaming climate change adaptation in Niger

Niger is currently benefiting from funding from the Green Climate Fund to strengthen its national capacities to take into account climate change issues in the planning and budgeting processes. In this context, Kinomé was mandated by the UNDP to assess the capacity building needs of actors from institutions in charge of adaptation to climate change in the country (administrations, training institutions, civil society…).

At the beginning of May, trainers from the Kinomé – SalvaTerra consortium led workshops in Niamey, Niger to determine both the current level of knowledge on climate change adaptation of the actors concerned, and their desired level of competence, with the aim of developing an action plan to meet these expectations.

Based on the data collected, three training programmes were developed:

  • A short-term programme for public administration and civil society organisations;
  • A short-term programme for training institutes;
  • A long-term programme to integrate climate change adaptation into the curricula of training institutes.

After a collective validation of the programmes by all the actors concerned, the training courses were deployed by Kinomé and SalvaTerra trainers at the end of October in Niamey.  The twenty-five learners were thus trained in a certain number of priority notions within the framework of their professional activity: basic notions of climate change, the conduct of vulnerability studies, the development of adaptation plans, an introduction to the financing of adaptation…

Although rich in content, the balance between theoretical presentations and practical exercises in small groups allowed the learners to assimilate the lessons taught. Their participation was constant through the question and answer sessions and the planned collective feedback, but also through the organisation of a highly appreciated Climate Fresco. The inclusive dimension of the training, from its design to its deployment, was a key factor in the success, confirmed by the enthusiasm of the participants and the progressive and notable awareness of the decision-makers on the challenges of climate change.

The collective wish expressed to benefit from longer training courses in the future demonstrates the adequacy between this exercise and the strong expectations of planning and training professionals in terms of increasing their competence on the challenges of adaptation to climate change. Several recommendations were made by the consortium to the funders and financial backers of these future training courses in order to increase their impact (widening the audience of learners, follow-up actions, innovations in the format of the courses, etc.).

 

  • Photo 1: Photo taken by Kinomé – Creation of the Climate Fresco
  • Photo caption 2: Photo taken by Kinomé – Training for module 4 “Tools and skills for climate action”