Climate change & localisation: understanding local humanitarians' knowledge & experience of climate change to improve humanitarian outcomes in Africa.

Local actors are often best placed to assess humanitarian needs in disasters because they know the community, culture, land and environmental conditions. However, as climate change alters weather systems, local actors may experience climate related threats that they have little or no experience of, or which exceed prior events in scope and/or magnitude. It is therefore vital that local humanitarians are equipped with the knowledge and equipment they need to prepare for such threats.

This project has the following aims: to document the impact of climate change on the work of local humanitarians in Africa; to evaluate to what extent local knowledge is integrated into international humanitarian policies and plans or shared between local groups; and to identify the needs and challenges of local humanitarian actors in addressing climate-related threats and training.

The project will be predominantly qualitative research utilising online interviews and focus-groups with local humanitarians from a range of organisations in Eastern and Southern Africa. Qualitative and quantitative data will also be produced through an online survey of local humanitarians if possible. Transcripts of interviews and focus-groups will be analysed using thematic analysis techniques to identify key trends and themes and to inform the questions included in the online survey. Quantitative and qualitative analysis, including basic descriptive statistics as well as further thematic analysis will be used to analyse the survey responses.

The research will provide a deeper understanding of how local knowledge and experience could be better utilised by the humanitarian sector, as well as identify gaps in the provision for, and training of local humanitarians. Research outputs will contribute examples of best practice to inform evidence-based design and implementation of aid policies and climate change training for the humanitarian sector.