The Tyndall Centre jointly with the International Institute for Environment and Development organised a one day workshop entitled Climate Change in Africa: Linking Science and Policy for Adaptation, held in the Royal Society, London, on the 30th of March 2006. The workshop brought together over 70 participants across the UK government, international NGOs and research communities to: review the state of knowledge on Africa and climate change; to identify capacity constraints in African research networks limiting their effectiveness in both research and influencing climate adaptation policies; to use examples of existing research and development programmes aimed at reducing vulnerability to current climate variability (and other stressors); and to draw out the lessons for policy-makers involved in developing programmes on climate change in Africa.

This publication is designed to provide practical information to governments, health agencies and environmental and meteorological institutions in both industrialized and developing countries on quantitative and qualitative methods of assessing human health vulnerability and public health adaptation to climate change.Part I describes the objectives and the steps for assessing vulnerability and adaptation and Part II discusses the following issues for a range of health outcomes: the evidence that climate change could affect mortality and morbidity; methods of projecting future effects; and identifying adaptation strategies, policies and measures to reduce current and future negative effects.

This first volume is the report of the technical meeting held in Rome in October 2003. The Technical Meeting: Key Issues in Emergency Needs Assessment (ENA) was organised by WFP’s Emergency Needs Assessment Unit (OEN). It brought together over 50 experts from within WFP, its partner organisations and the academy. Drawing on their wealth of experience and technical knowledge, the meeting was able to achieve greater consensus on
contentious areas in the assessment of emergency food security needs and also provide valuable guidance for the production of strengthened needs assessment guidelines for WFP and its partners.

This volume collects the technical papers that act as a supplement to the Report on the three-day Technical Meeting on “Key Issues in Emergency Needs Assessment” held in October, 2003 in Rome Italy. This volume contains:

Non-food aid response to food insecurity: How do we identify the most appropriate types of intervention through emergency food security assessments? (John Seaman and Chris Leather)

Chronic and Transitory Food Insecurity (Tim Frankenberger)

Market Analysis and Emergency Needs Assessment: A Review of the Issues
(Ben Watkins)

Market Considerations in Emergency Needs Assessment (Paul A. Dorosh)

Sampling Approaches and Options for Emergency Needs Assessments (Tim Frankenberger and Richard Caldwell)

This training module, Disaster Preparedness, is designed to introduce one aspect of disaster management to an audience of U.N. organization professionals who form disaster management teams, as well as to government counterpart agencies, non-governmental organizations and donors. Part one: categories that have to be taken in account for the planning. Part two: international collaboration for preparedness with a focus on UN system. Part three: discussion on the implementation of the disaster preparedness plans.

The Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP), “Uses and Limitations of Observations, Data, Forecasts, and Other Projections in Decision Support for Selected Sectors and Regions” (SAP 5.1), examines the current and prospective contributions of Earth science information in decision support activities and their relationship to climate change science. The SAP contains a characterization and catalog of observational capabilities in an illustrative set of decision support activities. It also contains a description of the challenges and promise of these capabilities and discusses the interaction CCSP SAP 5.1 Between users and producers of information (including the role, measurement, and communication of uncertainty and confidence levels associated with decision support outcomes and their related climate implications).

The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), at its 25th session, invited relevant organizations to submit to the secretariat, by 23 February 2007, information on their relevant programmes, activities and views on the following issues: risk and climate change impact assessment, needs/barriers/opportunities to predicting climate variability, contribution of traditional knowledge in climate change issues, implications for sustainable development and promoting understanding of impacts and vulnerability to climate change. For the 26th session, 9 papers came back from the FAO, the International Startegy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), the WMO, the IRCRC, the OECD, Care Canada, Practical Action, German Committee for Disaster Reduction and the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC). 

Every user and provider of climate data has to deal with metadata and homogeneity to some extent.  Many climate researchers throughout the world have developed effective approaches for dealing with the many aspects of metadata and homogeneity.  The following document is based on their collective experience and should and is intended to offer guidance to the National Meteorological Hydrological Systems on these matters.

The JCESS-CLIVAR Workshop was organized under the auspices of the NASAUniv. of Maryland Joint Center for Earth System Science (JCESS) and the WCRP CLImate VARiability and predictability program (CLIVAR) to bring together researchers to assess the state of the science of natural decadal climate variability and its societal impacts, and to formulate a program of research in various aspects of natural decadal climate variability, its predictability, and applications of the predicted information. The results of the preliminary analyses of observations and model experiments presented in the Workshop, and previously published literature on this subject were discussed by the Workshop participants. 

Low-income households are vulnerable to risks and economic shocks. One way for the poor to protect themselves is through insurance. By helping low income households manage risk, microinsurance can assist them to maintain a sense of financial confidence even in the face of significant vulnerability.

Despite the fact that this book covers different insurance products (25 case-studies with 40 organizations) delivered by a variety of institutional arrangements across four continents, a clear picture of microinsurance is beginning to emerge, particularly regarding the challenges of insuring the poor as well as many of the solutions. The findings reveal that microinsurance is indeed viable, and even profitable under certain circumstances, but a number of difficulties must be overcome for it to succeed.

The paper sets out a framework for analysing adaptation to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change in business organisations with new evidence presented from empirical research into adaptation in nine case-study companies. It argues that adaptation to climate change has many similarities with processes of organisational learning. The paper suggests that business organisations face a number of obstacles in learning how to adapt to climate change impacts, especially in relation to the weakness and ambiguity of signals about climate change and the uncertainty about benefits flowing from adaptation measures.

Sistelo in Portugal has a unique landscape of agricultural terraces that are now being abandoned because of the depopulation of the region, a common trend in mountainous rural areas of Europe. From the community perspective, some components of well-being such as material well-being have been improving, whereas some ecosystem services, e.g., food production, have been declining. Although a few of the local criteria for well-being are closely related to local ecosystem services, most of them are not.The consequences of land abandonment for human well-being and ecosystem services at different temporal and spatial scales are discussed.

The Working Group on Climate Change and Development is a network of development and environment organizations which main message is that reducing poverty is intimately linked to climate change adaptation necessities.

It has written 5 Up in smoke reports: 1 general on the fact that climate change will make the MDGs inattainable, 2 for Africa and the last one for Asia and the Pacific.

UNOSAT is a United Nations initiative, implemented by UNITAR and managed by UNOPS, to provide the humanitarian community with wider access to satellite imagery and Geographic Information System (GIS) services. UNOSAT is developing components for capacity building and training at the local level to facilitate wider access to satellite and remote sensing applications, and provides services in: satellite imagery selection and procurement assistance, image processing, map production, methodological guidance, technical assistance and training. A selection of maps are also available on the website.

The UNDP has been involved in an inter-agency effort to explore and summarize the current state of knowledge on adaptation to climate change and the need for its integration into poverty eradication and sustainable development efforts. The paper focuses on the impacts of climate change on poverty reduction efforts in the context of sustaining progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and beyond. It discusses ways of mainstreaming and integrating adaptation to climate change into poverty reduction and sustainable development efforts. 

1. technologies for supporting enhanced resource management under variable rainfall;
2. strategies for managing livelihood assets under variable conditions;
3. new approaches to local institutional development and rural service provision;
4. supporting poor peoples’ participation and interests in natural resource management governance and policy; and
5. building resilience in poor peoples’ livelihoods through diversification.