Sri Lanka Red Cross >

Background

Climate Change is one of the biggest problem currently faced in the world. It is an unavoidable threat to human development. Signs of global warming have become more obvious in the recent decades. The poor and the underprivileged nations are most likely to suffer the adverse impacts of climate changes since the majority of those communities depend on climate sensitive livelihoods such as agriculture and fisheries.

This changing system of climate further reduces the standards of living of the poor and makes it difficult to achieve the country’s goal of ‘sustainable development’. Hence, priority attention must be given to existing environmental degradation and the impeding threats of climate change as these pose risks to food security and poverty reduction. The Sri Lankan Government has reported to the UNFCC (report 2000) that the climate change would result in irreversible loss and damages to the country. Sri Lanka is experiencing the negative impacts in fishing industry with rising of temperature and also increasing duration and geographic coverage of droughts has impacted in reducing the agricultural production.

Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) has been contributing towards many humanitarian activities with special emphasis on disaster relief, risk reduction and development for more than seventy years. It is also actively involved in addressing the environmental issues such as climate change. It has been observed that, even though considerable efforts have been made both at the policy and programme level to address climate change issues by government and non-government actors, there are limited opportunities to share those good practices among them and interested communities of practice.

In order to fill this gap, the SLRCS is organizing this seminar to bring the practitioners and policy makers together to share and discuss the good practices and strategies for adapting to climate change. This Seminar will help the participants to further develop their capacities and understanding on climate change and disaster risks reduction technologies which will facilitate sharing, replicating and possible scaling-up of these practices. . The recommendations from the Seminar will be documented and disseminated to all levels with the intention of contributing to the ongoing National Adaptation Programme (NAP) process and strengthen community based adaptation (CBA) perspectives. In addition, SLRCS will disseminate a report which includes the proceedings and recommendations of the Seminar and strengthen the discussion for CBA.

Objectives of the Seminar :

  1. Bring different stakeholders and practitioners to share and discuss knowledge and practices of climate change adaptation at the community level.
  2. Capture the latest learning such practices
  3. Enhance capacity of the practitioners to help the most vulnerable groups and people in improving their adaptive capacities
  4. Recommend the lessons learned for integration into current practices and government policies

Participants:

The Seminar will be attended by climate change and disaster management practitioners from at-risk communities, government agencies, non-government organizations, community-based organizations, academic institutions, the media and civil society. Representatives of the United Nations agencies other specialized agencies at the national level together with donor communities shall also be encouraged to attend the Seminar.

Please download the registration form from the left hand corner. Last date for sending applications is on 7th June 2013

Seminar Themes :

The themes of the Seminar reflect the Thematic Areas for Action under the Strategic Thrust Areas of the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for Sri Lanka   2011-2016. This Seminar focus on Strategic Thrust Area (III): Minimize Climate Change impacts of Food Security. The Themes are given below

  1.                 I.         Water: Innovative practices for ensuring adequate water availability for agriculture:
  2.                II.         Agriculture: Innovative practices for improving adaptive capacities in agriculture
  3.               III.         Building synergies between CBDRR and community based adaptation: Innovative models

The Methodology :

The Seminar will use a variety of formats which would allow participants to share knowledge, experiences and facilitate effective discussions. These would include

  1. Key note presentation
  2. Presentations at Open Forums and plenary sessions
  3. Skills Building Session

The language of the Seminar will be in Sinhala & Tamil with simultaneous English translation