Twenty-nine (29) people from low- and middle-income countries in Africa, India, completed an online course on climate, land, and security from July 26-31, 2021, co-sponsored by the Africa Climate Change Fund.
The trainers were climate-change experts, senior African government officials, and administrators from various international research organizations and development agencies, including the Deputy to the Special Envoy for the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 at United Nations, Mr. Martin Frick, and Chairman, Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change (GMACCC) and President, Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies, retired Major General Muniruzzaman.
The course dubbed Summer Academy was designed for field practitioners to advance peace and security, restore degraded land, promote sustainable land and natural resource management, and build resilience to climate change impacts. The ACCF ensured the participation of Africans in training by providing technical assistance to participants from that region. Among the participants from low- and middle-income countries, 50% were from Africa.
The course was funded through fees and support from three donors, the Africa Climate Change Fund, an anonymous individual, and the Sylvia Zuber Fund, linked to Initiatives of Change Switzerland. The course explored factors that facilitate solutions, notably policy, technology, climate finance, data and knowledge, trust, and collaboration.
During the five-day training, participants explored core concepts in security and discussed approaches to climate finance, climate change impacts on peace and security, both as a stand-alone threat and a threat multiplier; and the critical role of land and natural resources in underpinning all aspects of sustainable economic development and social cohesion, together with the drivers of land degradation and its implications for societies and countries. It discussed the benefits of sustainable land management in different agro-ecological and socio-cultural contexts and how this can be achieved.
A post-training survey revealed that the training was “a unique opportunity to discuss climate change, land restoration, and security from different actors’ perspectives.” It allowed them to “build alumni network with interest in replicating the Summer Academy model in different countries.”
Participants also learned the role of climate change in exacerbating challenges of land degradation, fragility and conflict, climate change issues at the local level, and the solutions that have successfully overcome the challenges.
They regretted the “lack of core financing” and technical issues accessing the sessions due to Zoom clanging.
The Summer Academy is built on the principle that the expertise, experience, and knowledge of solving these complex interdisciplinary challenges often lie at the local level, and solutions must be driven and owned by the local community. However, there are barriers that local level actors can’t solve alone, including access to knowledge, technology, finance, and partnerships, by tackling multiple interdisciplinary challenges and incorporating trust-building and collaboration.
The Summer Academy is the brainchild of a partnership between the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and Initiatives of Change Switzerland. It was conceived in 2018 in response to how linked climate change, land degradation, conflict, insecurity, and migration are. The first course was held in Geneva and Caux, Switzerland, in July 2019, as part of the Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security (CDES), an international event conceived and organized by Initiatives for Land, Lives, and Peace, a program of Initiatives of Change International. In 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID19 pandemic, the Summer Academy was held in an online format in collaboration with the online Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security.
