Ensuring Environmental Sustainability for Partners’ Programmes

Because of the impact that environmental changes are having on all development interventions, Tearfund UK has chosen Environmental Sustainability as one of its Corporate Priority Areas, with the intention that this is ultimately addressed in all of its partners’ developmental initiatives. Tear NL has chosen Climate Change as one of its approaches (cross cutting themes).

Tear NL is committed to assisting local communities to adapt to climate change wherever possible. Adaptation measures have to be applied, with the objective of building resilience and adaptive capacity in vulnerable local communities.

Climate change

Together with its partner organisations Tear NL and Tearfund UK will work on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Partners working in communities have also recognised the impact that environmental degradation and climate change are having on their projects.

They have requested support in understanding these impacts, in order to adapt their projects to reduce the effect that environmental changes are having on the achievement of their project and organisational goals.

The main aspect of this programme that can be described as innovative is the nature of the subject in which capacity is to be built. Building environmental sustainability is a necessary but complex issue for all development practitioners and finding simple yet effective ways of building capacity in this area has proved difficult for donors and implementing agencies.

Tools 

The tools developed by Tearfund UK, which will be used in this programme, are among the first of their type to draw together high-level scientific data and grass-roots indigenous knowledge. These tools are known as CEDRA (Climate change and Environment Degradation Risk and Adaptation assessment) and EA (Environmental Assessment).

Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has reviewed CEDRA and commented that CEDRA is more accessible, cross-sectoral and closer to the grass roots than other agencies’ tools. They also commend its focus on capacity building (rather than top down) and its user-friendliness (making climate science accessible to ordinary people, and its step-by-step approach).

Furthermore, they state that it is running ahead of the multilaterals’ tools in that it addresses risks to project portfolios caused by environmental degradation as well as climate change, and that it recognises the overlap with disaster risk reduction (DRR) work. IDS also note that other agencies’ tools are either too high level (national level) or policy related, or concentrate on only one single sector. Within the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) also welcomes this tool. 

Emphasis

A second innovative aspect, which builds on approaches currently undertaken by the partners, is the emphasis placed on gathering indigenous, informal knowledge about changing environmental conditions and early warning systems. Often this type of knowledge has been dismissed as anecdotal, unscientific and, therefore, of limited value. 

In contrast, this programme values this data. Even when this informal knowledge is combined with scientific data, these tools ensure that this scientific data is understood and corroborated by the communities. This programme recognises that the people who have the (potentially) greatest motivation to improve the livelihoods of the poor and the skills to do so are the poor themselves.

It is designed to release this inherent potential through providing the communities which will ultimately benefit from the programme with the necessary information, skills and self-esteem (which will be developed through valuing their knowledge).