2011 - Community-Based Adapting to Climate Change:Online Course

Dear OurGlocal Colleagues,

CSDi is announcing the January launch of a module of four online field courses on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change. These courses begin by introducing basic climate change concepts, and develop as participants identify local community vulnerabilities, investigate appropriate solutions, develop full projects, launch and manage them.

Participants from 81 countries and 150 institutions are using CSDi online courses to develop new, community-centered, sustainable development projects that are impacting over 70,000 beneficiaries.

Complete information and course syllabi:
http://www.csd-i.org/adapting-overview/

If you have questions about the Online Learning program, please contact:
Online.Learning-AT-csd-i.org .

Sincerely,

Tim Magee, Executive Director
Center for Sustainable Development

Detailed Information:
MODULE 340: ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE
OL 341. Adapting to Climate Change: Designing & Funding Community-Based Adaptation Projects.
January 11 - March 7, 2011.
Gain an insight into contemporary methods of developing community-based, sustainable, impact-oriented projects. Gain practical field tools and develop a range of skills: facilitating participatory needs assessments, designing projects, and evidence-based activities. Develop a real project in real time.

OL 342. Adapting to Climate Change: Planning for Impact.
March 15 - May 2, 2011.
Imbed impact into your adaptation project design with a powerful set of management tools. LogFrames, detailed budgets, timelines, compelling fact sheets, M&E plans, outcomes and impact. These tools will communicate to donors and stakeholders exactly what you are trying to accomplish and can be used for effective management of the project once funded.

OL 343. Adapting to Climate Change: The Community Focus.
January 11 - February 21, 2011 & May 10 - June 20, 2011.
What does climate change adaptation mean at the community level? What practical tools are available today for communities to use in adaptation? Conduct a baseline survey. For practitioners who wish to begin working now at the community level to successfully adapt to the challenges that face us.

OL 344. Adapting to Climate Change: Sustainable Implementation.
March 15 - May 2, 2011 & July 12 - August 22, 2011.
How do you launch and implement a community-centered adaptation project? The importance of community engagement. Developing skill sets for your community to use in the adaptation process. Learning tools: monitoring & evaluation. Community empowerment during project hand-over. Sustainability, follow-up & mentoring.

Be sure to visit the adaptation working group at CSDi’s Development Community. Join colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online. The CSDi DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY invites people active in development or interested in learning, to share resources & collaborate online in developing sustainable, impact-oriented tools and solutions for development challenges.
http://developmentcommunity.csd-i.org/

Our most popular courses are also being offered online in January.
OL 101. From the Ground Up: http://www.csd-i.org/from-the-ground-up-ol-2-1/
OL 102. Project Architecture: http://www.csd-i.org/project-architecture-ol-2-2/

To learn about course fees and how to sign up please visit:
http://www.csd-i.org/online-learning/ .

The Center for Sustainable Development specializes in providing sound, evidence-based information, tools and training for humanitarian development professionals worldwide. CSDi is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Expanded Information on Training:
1. Online Training Venue
We will supply two levels of mentoring. Each week’s assignment will be accompanied by a clear, professional example of what we want you to achieve that week. It is yours to use as a template for your assignment?and for developing future projects. We will also provide comments, suggestions and encouragement for each one of your assignments individually. We want you to develop high quality project components, and we also want you to understand the hows and whys.

2. List of the 81 countries where course members live and work:
Australia, Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Cambodia, Canada, Chad, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia , France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Peru, Poland, Qatar, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago W.I., Turkey, Uganda, UK, Ukraine, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Course participants are of all different ages, genders and professions ? and include Northern and Southern staff from large INGOs, field staff from small in-country NGOs, donors, executive directors, African business owners with a conscience, students, scientists, consultants and people who would like to transition into development work.

3. There are two very exciting aspects of the course:
One is that participants are using the course to design real projects with real communities on the ground. The second is the cross-hemisphere partnerships between participants. We have people living in big cities (without access to communities) in Australia, Spain, Canada, the US, Brazil, and Panama, partnering on projects with on-the-ground field staff (with access to communities) in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Kenya, Columbia, Peru, and Venezuela.

4. Project development:
It is with a community’s needs list developed in the course that participants begin designing sustainable, impact-oriented projects. From needs assessments sent to us by course members, we have been able to see the many common problems worldwide including:

Income generation, clean water, access to education, poor sanitation, gender equality, migration, lack of vocational skills, chronic diarrhea and malnutrition in small children, lack of roads to villages, marginalization, shelter, food shortages, illiteracy, environmental degradation, drought, lack of irrigation for agriculture, community revitalization, connecting producers to markets, adapting to climate change and overpopulation.

5. The Courses also Provide the Following Resources
Documents on course topics by contemporary experts.
Books, posters and manuals available online for download.
Internet development links organized by sector.
Class blog for sharing your project stories and photos from the field.
Class forum for posting questions to your classmates.
Access to tools and resources on the Center site that are only available to students and CSD members.
There are no books to buy?all course materials can be linked to, or downloaded from the course site.