Knowledge mapping of climate change adaptation actors in Kenya

• 1 Executive Summary
• 2 Workshop Objectives
• 3 Proceedings

• 3.1 Overview
• 3.2 Agenda and Participants
• 3.3 Scope of the Report
• 3.4 Session 1: Technology Overview
• 3.5 Session 2: Institutional Networks
• 3.6 Session 3: Google Training

• 4 Next Steps

Workshop Report: Knowledge mapping of climate change adaptation actors in Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya - 9-10 February 2009

Executive Summary

This workshop provided a venue for organisations working in the field of climate change adaptation in Kenya, to learn about our knowledge networks, increase our knowledge sharing capacity and thus improve our collaboration. It also provided an opportunity for the Google team in Kenya and colleagues working with them from Stockholm Environment Institute to showcase work that is being done with Google Earth to incorporate information on climate change adaptation, using the weADAPT platform through the Google Earth Adaptation Layer.

The workshop will begin to explore the climate-adaptation landscape, how multi-stakeholder governance works, whether people see influence connected to position in their networks and what kind of links are crucial for determining influence? Our hypothesis is that improved understanding of our knowledge networks will improve collaboration in our field and help to build upon our collective research findings rather than replication of work that has already been done elsewhere.

Workshop Objectives

The overall objective of the workshop was to explore what tools and resources are required to move the green dots in the picutre shown further to the right. Participants marked where they would consider themselves at the current time on a scale of low awareness about climate change adaptation information, to feeling fully informed. The space between these two extremes represents gaps in knowledge and the objective of the workshop was to identify concrete steps, in terms of technology and resources (e.g. using innovative tools such as the Google Earth Adaptation Layer), which could support progress towards feeling more informed about climate change adaptation.

Proceedings

Overview

The workshop was organized jointly by Practical Action, the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and the Stockholm Environment Institute.

Agenda and Participants

The Final Agenda can be downloaded here, along with contact details of [participants and resource persons] who were present.

Scope of the Report

The workshop report aims to provide a summary of the proceedings, noting the key points presented by the resource persons available as well as the comments from participating country teams, and the results of the workshop evaluation (Section V).

Tuesday 10th February

Session 1: Technology Overview

• Mark Le Blois of Google.com presented various mapping products from Google. These included the Google Earth, Google My Maps and Google Map Maker. He demonstrated the use of each.

• Fernanda Zermoglio of the Stockholm Environment Institute presented an overview of the day and weADAPT tools. Download the presentation here

Session 2: Institutional Networks

Tuesday 10th February

The workshop began by a round of self introduction by all participants and their expectations for the day. Most participants said they hoped to learn about how to improve sharing of knowledge and information on climate change adaptation.

We conducted a knowledge mapping exercise using the NetMap methodology to explore the institutional networks using climate adaptation information in Kenya. The participants were split in three groups for the exercise - NGOs, research groups and government, donors and the private sector.

Session 3: Google Training

Next Steps

The feedback recieved during the workshop has allowed us to collectively decide on next steps which we hope will support organisations working on climate adaptation in Kenya to communicate their work effectively to a wider audience (to be expanded).

Some of the comments receieved were:

+

• Would like to join weADAPT
• I have been able to identify many organizations in Kenya that I did not know through the mapping exercise
• The occasion was very interactive and communities at the grassroots will benefit
• Am very excited to learn about the extent to which important information can be so easily accessed in the quest for climate change adaptation. I’d really love to learn more.
• I learnt a lot about how techniques and involvement of the various institutions
• These are powerful tools to disseminate information on climate change and also get feedback.

-

• The technology is limited to people who have access to computers and internet only, and there will be a struggle to make it relevant for local level action.
• Information sharing between grassroots organizations and research communities is non-existent.
• Restricted access to people with bandwidth and computers.