Financing Climate Change Adaptation

Yesterday we started our first ever Book Sprint in two languages. Oxfam Ibis has gathered a group of half English-speaking and half French-speaking participants to write a policy brief about financing climate adaptation through the engagement of the private sector. Climate change adaptation refers to the efforts to reduce or minimize the harmful effects of the future climate and to make use of the opportunities which arise.  This is part of Ibis’ two-year project on West African Dialogue of Private Climate Financing, aiming to build the capacity and strategies of civil society to engage the private sector in climate change adaptation efforts. The participants from across West Africa have come together to share their experiences of effective climate adaptation efforts and provide a set of recommendations as a tool for civil society to use in dialogue with the private sector.

The Book Sprint process itself is very challenging since traditionally we rely so heavily on quick and lively exchange between contributors, rapid production and reiteration of content, and equal weight of all voices. For this Sprint we have had to adapt our strategies, abandoning the simultaneous translation by the second day. We are running two parallel processes with the two language groups and finding moments to come back together and merge the two groups’ outputs. Luckily we have a few bilingual people who are acting as our bridges.

Financing Climate Change Adaptation Book Sprint in Accra, Ghana

See photos of the Book Sprints here on flickr.