Communities in Malawi and Zambia are being helped to build their resilience to the effects of climate change.
£600,000 is being awarded to Scottish-based organisations working with partners in the two countries under the Climate Justice Innovation Fund, which empowers communities to respond to a changing environment.
Projects supported include training in ‘climate smart’ agricultural practices, testing the use of artesian water for sustainable farming, and piloting the use of solar ovens and biogas as a fuel source
Announcing the funding as part of Climate Week (1-5 October) – which raises awareness of climate change and encourages action to reduce emissions – Climate Change Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said:
“We have a moral responsibility to do what we can to tackle the effects of climate change, particularly as they will be felt most strongly by those vulnerable communities who have done the least to cause it.
“This funding will support innovative projects directly help local communities, from piloting solar ovens in co-op bakery businesses to helping 200 farmers use climate resilient methods to diversify the crop production.
“At a time when Scotland has almost halved our greenhouse gas emissions, I am proud the Climate Justice Innovation Fund is providing much needed investment to empower some of Africa’s most vulnerable communities to find new skills and their own solutions to make them more resilient to the effects of climate change.”
International Development Minister Ben Macpherson said:
“Having just returned from Malawi and Zambia, I have seen first-hand how small grants of funding such as these can have a big impact on local communities. Projects like this show our commitment to helping some of the world’s most vulnerable people and enhance Scotland’s role as a good global citizen.”
Corra Foundation Chief Executive Fiona Duncan said:
“The Climate Justice Innovation Fund grants announced today represent support to thousands of individuals and their wider communities in Malawi and Zambia experiencing the challenge of climate change and Corra Foundation is proud to be supporting the management of these grants.
The Fund’s focus on climate justice and innovation not only supports Scottish organisations to respond to real needs but is also timely and relevant in its recognition of our responsibility and commitment to climate action.”
The six projects being funded through the 2018 round of the Climate Justice Innovation Fund are below.
Organisation: Community Energy Scotland
Project: Solar Ovens for Co-operative Economic Growth
Project description: The overall aim of the project is to pilot the use of solar ovens in two biomass dependent bakery co-operatives in rural, off-grid areas of Malawi to enable increased bakery production and sales, reduced fuel costs and improved profitability, strengthening co-operative members’ livelihoods whilst reducing deforestation.
Total funding: £99,992
Organisation: Global Ecovillage Network
Project: Green Economy and Social Enterprise for Climate Resilient Communities
Project description: The overall aim of the project is to empower smallholders to sustainably diversify their income streams into essential oils and associated social enterprise activities, whilst increasing environmental husbandry and resilience to climate change.
Total funding: £99,824
Organisation: University of Strathclyde
Project: Maximising Artesian Systems for Sustainable Agriculture in Malawi
Project description: The overall aim of this project is to build community resilience to the impacts of climate change by channelling the viable potential of artesian pressure towards sustainable agriculture ventures that will be ensure improved food security, increased household incomes and provide a demonstrable alternative for utilising waste water from artesian systems.
Total funding: £96,824
Organisation: VSO Scotland
Project: Community Led Action for Sustainable Energy in Schools
Project description: The overall aim of the project is to provide sustainable energy for school meals, with the purpose of decreasing wood use and increasing school attendance through provision of regular meals.
Total funding: £99,231
Organisation: VSO Scotland
Project: Community Action for Climate Change
Project description: The overall aim of the project is to increase agricultural production in an environmentally sustainable way, while promoting livelihood opportunities for some of the most vulnerable people in the targeted communities.
Total funding: £99,992
Organisation: Water Witness International
Project: Innovating Water Stewardship for Smallholder Resilience in Malawi
Project description: The overall aim of the project is to test how implementation of water stewardship standards can benefit and build the climate resilience of small-scale farmer co-operatives, by helping them become more efficient and effective stewards of the water they use and exploring how to overcome barriers to meeting standard requirements.
Total funding: £99,998
Background
This funding forms a part of the Climate Justice Fund, which between 2012 and 2021 is making at least £21 million available to support projects in some of the world’s poorest countries.
Climate justice is grounded in a human rights-based approach to tackling the effects of climate change, more background can be found here.
Climate Week is a Scottish Government initiative, currently in its fourth year. The aims to raise climate literacy and engage individuals on low-carbon behaviours.
The activities and learning from these projects will contribute to climate justice and to the design of future work in this area as new approaches and technologies will be trialled. This contributes to the achievement of the Scottish Government Climate Justice Policy and International Development Strategy, both of which are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development or Global Goals, particularly Goals 7 and 13, as well as project countries’ own development priorities.
