Climate Change Virtual School - Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Climate Change Virtual School builds the capacity of a wide range of stakeholders to interpret, comprehend and mainstream climate change issues within their communities. It provides a platform for Africans to communicate about community-based responses to preventing disasters and adapting to climate change in Africa.

Fast facts:

A video conference facility built by this activity enables 150 participants to attend UN climate change conferences without needing to leave their community;
The program enrolls 2,000 school participants each year from 32 African countries;
20% of participants end up launching businesses that have a climate change mitigation orientation, from smart agriculture to solar rental projects.

The problem

Limited financial resources remain a major constraint for African participants who want to attend international and regional climate change meetings.

The solution

This activity brings international and regional climate change conferences to local experts and interested communities through the use of ICT and new media. This activity uses a combination of WebEx conferencing and webcasting to stream conferences in real time. Climate Change Virtual School also harnesses local knowledge about climate change using documentaries and publications as well as strengthen youth capacity to respond to climate change. This activity also documents local community adaptive capacity using GIS, remote sensing and integrates this knowledge with indigenous knowledge of adaptation strategies to form climate solutions.

Helping the planet

This program has a low carbon footprint when compared to conventional methods of learning. By virtually attending these international meetings, experts do not have to release carbon emissions by flying in airplanes. Also, when youth are engaged in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, they are more likely to implement best practices in the future and influence others.

Helping people

Many people benefit from this activity including youths, vulnerable communities and the poor. The beneficiaries are engaged during the onset of the project and participants who complete the course become alumni members and contribute to content and moderation.

Scaling up

The current priority of the Development Reality Institute (DRI), the institute that runs the Climate Change Virtual School, is to develop a model that guarantees the sustainability and self-reliance of each component of the program. DRI aims to build solid partnerships that can further enhance the competitiveness of its programs. In 2014, they worked on a scalability model with an emphasis on growing the numbers of the virtual school to 10,000 yearly and localizing the platform in specific countries.