2.1. Introduction
The United Nations calls climate change “the defining human development challenge of the 21st century.”7It constitutes a key multiplier and amplifier of current development challenges, further hindering efforts to reduce suffering and alleviate poverty. Vulnerability patterns of the poor and marginalised are fundamentally changing through climate change, while those least responsible and most affected are least informed about the likely impact on their livelihoods and are systematically excluded from policy discourses.
ICTs are enabling tools that can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of development programmes. If integrated strategically, ICTs – including community radio, knowledge centres, mobile phones and interactive media – can contribute tangibly to climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. ICTs help reduce the vulnerabilities and risks faced by the poor and marginalised due to climate change by:
- Raising awareness at the grassroots level
- Enabling access to relevant information and locally applicable knowledge to help save lives
- Facilitating learning and practical knowledge sharing
- Empowering the poor and marginalised to raise their voice for political accountability and meaningful action.
Concrete experiences of applying ICTs as strategic tools in current development programmes (education, health, agriculture, governance) present promising results that can be directly applied to climate change mitigation and adaptation programmes. There is, however, a need to systematically raise awareness and develop capacity among all development stakeholders on how to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of climate change adaptation and mitigation programmes using ICTs.
The aspiration of this section is not to build a conclusive argument on the subject of ICTs and climate change, but rather to set the conceptual stage to build initial awareness, while stimulating debate within the development community on the concrete and practical linkages between the two.
The primary focus here – as is the case with the publication as a whole – is on climate change adaptation with introductory linkages only to climate change mitigation programmes.
7 United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report 2007/2008
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