Publication Name

22 / 60

22
Cartographic and editorial contributions were similarly
made to the ICIMOD report Women’s Empowerment at the
Frontline of Adaptation: Emerging Issues, Adaptive Practises
and Priorities in Nepal.
HICAP is taking another pathway to create awareness
in order to generate change. One of the most effective
and inclusive approaches to building public awareness is
communication through the media. Very often, however,
the media are unfamiliar with environmental issues, and
at times lack experience for investigating stories. Through
HICAP, GRID-Arendal and partners have been working
to strengthen the capabilities of journalists to investigate
and report on environmental issues.
Hands-on training gives participants direct exposure
to the most recent information on key environmental
problems while working with senior environmental
reporters and experts. Following the success of the
regional training workshop in 2013, GRID-Arendal
trained 12 Indian and Nepalese journalists in Assam,
northeast India in February 2014. The workshop focused
on climate and flood issues within the Brahmaputra river
basin and led to the publication of numerous articles in
the local, national and international press.17
In addition, GRID-Arendal and ICIMOD have launched
a journalist grant programme in the region. The grant
provides opportunities for journalists to report from remote
areas directly affected by climate change. Such opportunities
rarely exist for local environmental journalists, who are
generally confined to writing about such events from a news
desk. In 2014, the grant helped three journalists to carry out
innovative reporting projects.
During 2014 GRID-Arendal was also heavily engaged in
preparing ICIMOD’s annual flagship conference which
was entitled ‘Mountain People Adapting to Change:
Solutions beyond Boundaries Bridging Science, Policy
and Practice’.18 GRID-Arendal took the lead with ICIMOD
in designing the programme for the conference, which
took the form of interactive dialogues and panel sessions
- very different from the more traditional formats of
previous years. Apart from the overall conference design,
two panel sessions were developed by GRID-Arendal:
one on ‘Mountain to Mountain’, which examined how
the Himalayan region could learn from other mountain
regions, and the other on ‘Connecting the Dots’, which
examined the effectiveness of communications and where
these could be strengthened.
The well-known GRID-Arendal project Many Strong
Voices (MSV) helps to raise the profile of people in
the Arctic and Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
and their struggle against climate change. Following
submission of the final report on the previous MSV
project, GRID-Arendal submitted a new MSV proposal to
the Norwegian Government in April 2014, and has lined
up partnerships with many institutions for the new work
that would be undertaken.
Based on the strength of the MSV programme, GRID-
Arendal was asked to lead on a submission to the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID)
with partners in Canada, Fiji, Papua New Guinea,
Vanuatu, Tuvalu, and Kiribati. This is the first step in
submitting a full proposal for USD 500 000 to USAID to
develop a transboundary adaptation plan in South Pacific
countries. The proposal was submitted in February 2015.
Policy recognition of why mountains matter
GRID-Arendal, in collaboration with UNEP/Vienna, has
had considerable success in pushing forward the mountain
agenda within the post-2015 Sustainable Development
Goals process through a series of Mountain Policy Briefs
on why mountains matter for Energy, Climate Change and
Disaster Risk Reduction, Forests and Biodiversity, and Water
).
Partly as a result of the briefs and related outreach
efforts, mountains have been included in the post-2015
Open Working Group’s thematic paper on Water and
Biodiversity. Our partner in the HICAP programme,
ICIMOD, has congratulated GRID-Arendal on this
effective policy work and wishes to engage further with
GRID-Arendal on mountain issues that can connect the
Himalayan region to global discussions and processes on
mountain sustainable development.
SIGNIFICANT OUTCOME CC 17.
18.
MSV recognition from a business perspective
In the samemonth that the newMSV proposal was submitted
to the Norwegian Government, Sir Richard Branson, founder
of Virgin Airlines, endorsed the project, saying “organizations
like Many Strong Voices collaborate, act and innovate to achieve
lasting change. Their critical work fills the gap between those
affected by adverse climate impacts and the political and business
leaders focused on creating big picture solutions.”
Sir Richard’s endorsement was reported in an e-mail
received from Tricia Keller, Partnerships Director, Virgin
Unite on 18 April 2014. In the same message Ms Keller
stated: “We’re big fans of the work you’re doing and your
significant impact.”
SIGNIFICANT OUTCOME CC