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Project Social, Ecological & Agricultural Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

SEARCH is a three year regional project working in five countries (Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon), funded by the European Union, to develop and pilot a resilience framework for local action planning capacities and methodologies to increase climate change resilience through joint learning, planning and testing by stakeholders through demonstration sites.

“Resilience signifies the ability to cope, address and overcome adverse effects from climate change”

The SEARCH project demonstrates how local communities can successfully engage with and overcome the negative impacts of climate change. Instead of looking for solutions to specific environmental problems, SEARCH concentrates on giving the local community and other stakeholders the skills and knowledge they need to assess the impact of climate change on a day-to-day basis. It also and foremost helps them develop a realistic vision for the future to assist them in increasing their resilience towards climate change.

SEARCH brings stakeholders from all backgrounds together into roundtable discussions in order to achieve a complete participatory approach and raise awareness from the end user up to the ministry level. The project is implemented in a context where the pressure on natural resources has grown sharply as a result of the impact of the climate change and other emerging factors such as; increase in population, per-capita demand and competing demands for agriculture, industry and others. Agriculture and water resources have traditionally been managed in a highly centralized manner, which has failed to integrate ecosystem management and land use management in light of the consequences of climate change impacts. The views of the end users – primarily women – are therefore seldom sought.

METHODOLOGY

  The Participatory Planning Cycle Framework
  • Partners

    In each of the five countries, SEARCH will develop partnerships with key stakeholders, including government agencies, NGOs, end-users and the private sector.

    The SEARCH Partnership is facilitated by the following partners:

Donors

This project has been funded by the European Union.

IUCN-Med receives core financial support from the Ministry of Environment of the Junta de Andalucia, the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) among others.

Project number n/a
Subject(s) AGRICULTURE , HYDRAULICS - HYDROLOGY , METHTODOLOGY - STATISTICS - DECISION AID , NATURAL MEDIUM , POLICY-WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT , RISKS AND CLIMATOLOGY , WATER DEMAND
Acronym SEARCH
Geographical coverage Jordan,Morocco,Palestine,Egypt,Lebanon,
Budget (in €) 199194
Programme EuropeAid
Web site http://www.iucn.org/about/union/secretariat/offices/rowa/iucnwame_ourwork/iucnwame_reward/search_2/
Objectives

- Increasing the knowledge & capacity of the local community about climate change adaptation planning and tools

- Using joint participatory approaches to plan for climate change adaptation locally and regionally

- Decreasing climate change vulnerability in local communities through positive models on the ground

- Developing practical toolkits & guides that contribute to developing regional & national strategies for climate change adaptation, poverty reduction & economic growth.

 

Overall objective: Increased social and ecological resilience in watershed ecosystems of the Mediterranean Region in the face of climate and other drivers of change. 

This will be accomplished by working towards “developing and piloting a Resilience Framework for local action planning capacities and methodologies to increase climate resilience through joint learning, planning and testing by stakeholders in demonstration sites". This will be done through four approaches/components:

  • Capacity building in the use of climate change adaptation tools, strategies and planning through action learning and exchange at the different levels. This forms a critical basis for the further implementation of the project.
  • Joint Participatory action planning. It is the conviction of SEARCH that the above mentioned goal can only be reached when people and their organizations come to work together at different levels of influence and decision making.
  • Demonstrating through pilot projects. SEARCH will ground the above strategies through the design and development of innovative examples in selected pilot areas at the district and community level in the targeted areas.
  • Documenting the methodologies and learning processes, as well as, sharing of valuable information and knowledge at all levels. In the course of the project, SEARCH will give close and structured attention to document in written and by visual means how it has been dealing with the issues at stake.
Results

Demonstration Projects

Through field projects, partners test how stakeholder participation, improved climate change resilience can improve livelihoods and maintain healthy social ecosystems.

The SEARCH project uses an adopted operational methodology for resilience called the Participatory Planning Cycle (PPC).

The PPC is a framework that works with all levels of the community; it helps include the national level, the governorate and district level and finally the village level. 

The resilience framework PPC includes 6 steps that focus on visioning, creating detailed strategies and policy recommendations for increasing the resilience of local communities towards climate change.

 

The Participatory Planning Cycle

The Participatory Planning Cycle

Photo: IUCN - ROWA

 

Visioning: visioning includes initial stakeholder analysis, problem identification, visioning, and scenario building;

Assessing: involves targeted data collection and analysis; creation of a shared information base;

Strategizing: Development of strategies to meet the vision under different scenarios

Planning: Detailed planning based on most likely scenarios and related strategies;

Implementing: execution of plans;

Reflecting: analysis of monitoring and documentation to inform further cycles;

RESILIENCE FRAMEWORK TO CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

SEARCH Resilience Framework

The expected outcomes are the following:

  • Capacities and knowledge of local and community stakeholders, in the use of climate change adaptation tools, strategies and planning are increased through action learning and exchange in regional networks.
  • Local action planning for climate change adaptation increases institutional capacities and coordination and is demonstrated using practical and participatory approaches to building livelihood and ecosystem/biodiversity resilience.
  • Climate vulnerabilities and disaster risks reduced by pilot implementations of local actions in demonstration watersheds.
  • Practical tools/guidelines jointly developed and applied with policy makers to contribute to regional, (sub) national and sectoral strategies and plans for climate change adaptation, poverty reduction and economic development.
Period [01/01/2011 - 31/12/2013]

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