Dec 10 2012
ACDI/VOCA's new World Report, Climate Change: Building Resilience in Changing Environments, examines climate-smart development approaches, highlighting practical ways to help communities adapt and thrive within a changing climate.
"Responding to climate change is integral to our work," said Carl Leonard, president of ACDI/VOCA, an international development organization. "We are pleased to share in this World Report a few examples of how we address the very real challenges of climate change to help sustain development gains, build resilience and empower people to succeed in the global economy."
Helping Developing Nations Adapt to Climate Changes
Climate change is no longer an abstract concept. It is having a direct impact on those most affected by the elements: farmers, the rural poor and families suffering from food insecurity. ACDI/VOCA has helped these communities alleviate poverty and hunger for nearly 50 years by fostering resiliency and local capacity, cooperative action and a market mindset, and applies a similarly results-oriented approach to climate change.
Climate change is expected to hit developing countries the hardest, according to the World Bank, with the potential to undermine hard-won gains in food security, agricultural development and health. The ACDI/VOCA World Report examines techniques for helping communities in developing nations—particularly farmers—adapt to changing climates while ensuring interventions don't unduly contribute to the climate change problem.
The report highlights successful programs in community forestry management, disaster risk reduction, climate-smart agriculture and water management.
Rapid Climate Change Requires Action
"Climate change is happening much, much faster than one would understand," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said recently amid the climate change negotiations in Doha, Qatar. "The science has plainly made it clear: it is the human beings' behavior which caused climate change, therefore the solution must come from us."
ACDI/VOCA's report charts some of the practical development solutions that can help build resilience in changing environments.
Source: http://www.acdivoca.org