Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) 60 on Community-based adaptation and mitigation to climate change. June 2009

The Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) series provides a forum for all those engaged in participatory work – community workers, activist and researchers – to share their experiences, conceptual reflections and methodological innovations.

Issue no 60 of PLA will look at methods used by communities to adapt to climate change impacts, such as changes to everyday conditions as well as floods, rising sea levels, droughts and other extreme weather events. Many poor communities have experience of coping with climate change, and the methods they use deserve wider dissemination and support. In many cases, adapting to climate change does not involve a whole new approach. Rather, it involves building on the extensive knowledge and experience that communities already have due to generations of coping with variable climatic conditions and other shocks.

In some cases, activities that increase community resilience to climate change also serve to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The special issue will also look at activities used by communities worldwide to simultaneously mitigate and adapt to climate change. It is increasingly acknowledged that tackling climate change is a global challenge. Methods used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are also ‘pro-poor’ need to be supported precisely because it is the poorest who have contributed least to climate change and who are suffering most from its impacts.

This issue will include some of the articles produced for the 3rd International Conference on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change which will be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in February 2009.

We are looking for articles of maximum 2,500 words that contain one or more of the following elements:

• an innovative angle to the concepts of participatory approaches or their application
• critical reflections on the lessons learned from the author’s experiences
• an attempt to develop new methods, or innovative adaptations of existing ones
• consideration of the processes involved in participatory approaches
• an assessment of the impacts of a participatory process on the livelihoods of the target community
• potentials and limitations of scaling up and institutionalizing participatory approaches
• potentials and limitations of participatory policy-making processes

Please send your abstract (200 words maximum) too:
Holly Ashley, Nicole Kenton and Angela Milligan
Co-editors, Participatory Learning and Action,
3 Endsleigh Street, London WC1 0DD, U.K.
Email: pla.notes@iied.org
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7388 2826

For more information: