Valuable research produced by Southern nations could help farmers adapt to climate change, but a conundrum is how to make useful findings accessible to rural communities. A project conducted by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in partnership with the Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN), and supported by CDKN, sought to bridge this gap. Between 2008-2011 years, the team produced the regular briefing, Joto Afrika (Swahili for 'Africa is feeling the heat'), a series of briefings and online resources reporting on climate change in sub-Saharan Africa. The briefs contained mainly African produced research with easy-to-understand findings.
The photo-audio story project was prompted by findings from an evaluation of Joto Afrika. In the evaluation survey, a range of specific examples of action were provided by readers, including the use of new technologies and approaches which had been adopted by community members as a result of a Joto Afrika case study or research article. Hence, these readers had gone beyond simply learning about climate change issues to practical application of that learning.
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