These notes below come from a conversation with a new friend I met at the COP 19 in Warsaw. I thought it might be interesting to share more widely:
Re-thinking Development and Emergencies in the Context of Climate Change:
A New Era for Community-Centered Resilience
By Emilie Parry
The challenges we are facing with climate change are forcing
us, as a global humanitarian community, to shift away from externally applied
“silo” thinking which segregates approaches of development from disaster
response, a disaster recovery “phase,” and a rehabilitation “phase,” rolling in
again to another cycle of development until the next emergency arises. This current strategy does not view the
experiences through the lens of most climate-vulnerable communities with
whom/for whom these separated “specialists” purport to work, a lens that
necessitates a long view, with tools and capacities people must possess to not
only survive, but continue to work towards their own dreams, hopes, and needs
in the present and for their futures.
Climate resilience must rest within the resources, knowledge
and toolkits at the (most vulnerable) community and local civil society
level. People at the “front line” of
climate change impacts, and their living environments, must take center stage.
It is our job as international humanitarians to identify
spaces for exchanged learning, support and co-facilitated planning and
trainings of local civil society and climate-vulnerable communities. We are tasked to support and facilitate local
“know-how” and access to the panoply of resources which climate-vulnerable
folks must be able to navigate and utilize in order to cope with all that has
and will come their way.
If people are to be agents of their own destinies, and if as
a planet we truly hold up and wish to perpetuate our values of human and
environment rights, equity, dignity and respect, then we must evolve in our
attitudes, our systems and our collective approach to our broadening
experiences with climate change.
In my experiences working in development and humanitarian
response and recovery NGOs, it became clear to me that we were moving into a
perpetual crisis mode, forced to react constantly, without much time allowed
for thinking, processing, planning or collaborating with those people who knew
the most about their own environment and the capabilities, socio-political and
economic dynamics, and opportunities. It felt deeply wrong to me, and I have
been striving for truly sustainable strategies and relationships within these
reactionary times. We in the
humanitarian response community know that that there is much that is not
working in the way we operate. We also know that as climate change impact
increases, so will be amplified these gaps and failings in our systems and
strategies. It is time to step out of
the structures we inherited from the original extractive and hierarchical
masters. We must step away and walk towards new relationships and new ways of
listening and problem-solving together with each other. To form new systems and ways of working, we must genuinely approach this challenge and
opportunity with true respect, sitting down together with those people we call
our partners, and become true collaborators for resilience and the creation of
many and varied new paths.
Ban Ki Moon at the Warsaw 2013 COP 19 which I attended this November.
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