Future Resilience for African CiTies And Lands (FRACTAL)
Lead Research Organisation:
SEI Oxford Office Ltd
Department Name: Research
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Planned Impact
FRACTAL aims to fundamentally alter how African cities include climate change in development planning, in a context with no direct historical precedent. This is critical given that the interests of the majority urban population place an inviolable demand (with substantial regional dependencies) on water, energy and associated infrastructure. FRACTAL recognizes that supply-driven climate information (e.g. IPCC) is having limited impact in real world decision making, largely due to messages of limited relevance or robustness at the scales and for the contexts of decision making.
We directly address this inadequacy through increased understanding of regional climate information and informed by co-exploration with decision makers. FRACTAL seeks to bring fundamental changes in key decision pathways (around water, flooding and energy) to increase the resilience of city-regions. This will leave a legacy of new knowledge, capacity and learning exemplars in 5 city-regions from which Africa can build. FRACTAL will provide an essential counterpart and balance in a landscape where the majority of climate developme nt actions have non-urban, sectoral or rural foci.
There are four groups of beneficiaries:
a) Policy and decision-makers in government, resource management and infrastructure from local officials (case-study cities) to national-scale line Ministries which oversee urban development and the planning of infrastructure and regional services.These benefit through: co-generation of information and policy guidelines; new frameworks for incorporating climate change information in the context of multiple stressors and competing agendas; deep co-learning benefits led by researchers embedded in city governments; peer-to-peer relationships that lead to learning opportunities amongst the city partners; written materials generated by the project.
b) International and regional development institutions. The project will present research findings to guide development organizations and funders who are important contributors to development and adaptation trajectories. This will be strengthened by leveraging existing networks, such as the consortium's IPCC/WCRP/SASSCAL/Future Earth presence.
c) Academic disciplines and research communities in Africa and internationally. A publication strategy will place papers in disciplinary journals and the work will be disseminated at major conferences. Academics from under-capacitated African universities will benefit through the production of research, teaching tools and supporting publications. New inter-institutional relationships will foster the establishment of critical research capacity within the region to initiate key research agendas. Collaboration with the international community provides much needed reverse flows of knowledge, giving African researchers valuable entry to participate in research governance on the international scale (e.g. WCRP, IPCC, etc).
d) Society. While largely an indirect process, this grouping has potential to receive the largest impact and benefit. By operating in the placed-based context of the majority of the population, FRACTAL can help steer development to enhance the quality of life and human security of large sections of society, as well as protect the economic system through both enabling opportunities and managing the very high risk of maladaptation with its attendant costs, damages, and inefficiencies. Informed city governance can lead to greater awareness and understanding in the voting population which can introduce major shifts in how nations choose to respond to climate change. Likewise, by changing the policy environment new opportunities for economic engagement are created.
Lastly, a significant cross-cutting impact is the building of trust relationships, dialogue and learning between and within these communities, which fosters growth potential as adaptation increasingly adopts a policy-first approach (versus a science- scenario-first approach).
We directly address this inadequacy through increased understanding of regional climate information and informed by co-exploration with decision makers. FRACTAL seeks to bring fundamental changes in key decision pathways (around water, flooding and energy) to increase the resilience of city-regions. This will leave a legacy of new knowledge, capacity and learning exemplars in 5 city-regions from which Africa can build. FRACTAL will provide an essential counterpart and balance in a landscape where the majority of climate developme nt actions have non-urban, sectoral or rural foci.
There are four groups of beneficiaries:
a) Policy and decision-makers in government, resource management and infrastructure from local officials (case-study cities) to national-scale line Ministries which oversee urban development and the planning of infrastructure and regional services.These benefit through: co-generation of information and policy guidelines; new frameworks for incorporating climate change information in the context of multiple stressors and competing agendas; deep co-learning benefits led by researchers embedded in city governments; peer-to-peer relationships that lead to learning opportunities amongst the city partners; written materials generated by the project.
b) International and regional development institutions. The project will present research findings to guide development organizations and funders who are important contributors to development and adaptation trajectories. This will be strengthened by leveraging existing networks, such as the consortium's IPCC/WCRP/SASSCAL/Future Earth presence.
c) Academic disciplines and research communities in Africa and internationally. A publication strategy will place papers in disciplinary journals and the work will be disseminated at major conferences. Academics from under-capacitated African universities will benefit through the production of research, teaching tools and supporting publications. New inter-institutional relationships will foster the establishment of critical research capacity within the region to initiate key research agendas. Collaboration with the international community provides much needed reverse flows of knowledge, giving African researchers valuable entry to participate in research governance on the international scale (e.g. WCRP, IPCC, etc).
d) Society. While largely an indirect process, this grouping has potential to receive the largest impact and benefit. By operating in the placed-based context of the majority of the population, FRACTAL can help steer development to enhance the quality of life and human security of large sections of society, as well as protect the economic system through both enabling opportunities and managing the very high risk of maladaptation with its attendant costs, damages, and inefficiencies. Informed city governance can lead to greater awareness and understanding in the voting population which can introduce major shifts in how nations choose to respond to climate change. Likewise, by changing the policy environment new opportunities for economic engagement are created.
Lastly, a significant cross-cutting impact is the building of trust relationships, dialogue and learning between and within these communities, which fosters growth potential as adaptation increasingly adopts a policy-first approach (versus a science- scenario-first approach).
Organisations
- SEI Oxford Office Ltd (Lead Research Organisation)
- African Technology Policy Studies Network (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- Regional Centre For Mapping Resource For Development (Collaboration)
- University of Melbourne (Collaboration)
- Sahara and Sahel Observatory (Collaboration)
- ICPAC (Collaboration)
- Trioss (Collaboration)
- AGRHYMET Regional Centre (ARC) (Collaboration)
Publications
Arrighi, J.
(2016)
Dialogue for decision-making: unpacking the 'City Learning Lab' approach
Butterfield, R.
(2017)
Inspiring Climate Action in African Cities: Practical Options for Resilient Pathways
Daniels, E.
(2019)
Helping Windhoek plan for climate change
| Title | Learning Labs: creating collaborative ways to address climate change in African cities |
| Description | Learning Labs bring diverse stakeholders together to spur new thinking about how to tackle the climate change adaptation issues emerging in urban Africa. This video outlines the Learning Labs approach as used in FRACTAL. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | The labs took place in three cities: Windhoek, Namibia; Lusaka, Zambia; and Maputo, Mozambique; and learning will be shared by city stakeholders from these cities with stakeholders in other cities - Blantyre, Malawi; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Gaborone, Botswana - in a new phase of work in 2020. Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, South Africa also participated in FRACTAL. |
| URL | https://www.sei.org/featured/learning-labs-creating-collaborative-ways-to-address-climate-change-in-... |
| Description | Key lessons learned from both FRACTAL and FRACTAL-PLus are being written into a briefing note, soon to be published. This will benefits others planning and taking forward similar project e.g. involving stakeholder engagement or transdisciplinary co-production processes. New findings in terms on the fundamental principles of co-production have been developed and have resulted in a working paper, which is also being translated into a peer-reviewed journal paper. Significant new knowledge has been generated in a review of both "process" and "support" based decision methods to incorporate climate information in decision-making. We have discovered that these methods can provide a structured way of co-exploring decision-making processes and information needs. While typically these methods have been intended to appraise adaptation options (i.e. to produce the outcome of a prioritised list of actions) we have identified there is also significant value in the process of applying these methods to improve receptivity (a core emerging concept in FRACTAL), build capacity and co-explore information needs and alternative approaches to decision-making. Improved skills have been developed in facilitating stakeholder engagements through Learning Lab and city dialogue processes and this has opened up important new research questions both from an academic and from a city perspective. Capacity development has regularly been noted as a need by various cities, although we have discovered there is a lack of clarity regarding which and whose needs are most pressing and therefore how capacity building actions can be best tailored to support city institutions and stakeholders in their decision-making. This has led us to co-design inquiry processes with FRACTAL cities to assess (and develop) their capacity needs for taking action on climate change in their decision-making and planning. |
| Exploitation Route | FRACTAL-PLus was a new project awarded which allowed more detailed work in Lusaka, following on directly from the FRACTAL engagements (6 months). Key lessons learned from both FRACTAL and FRACTAL-PLus are being written into a briefing note, soon to be published. This will benefits others planning and taking forward similar project e.g. involving stakeholder engagement or transdisciplinary co-production processes. New findings in terms on the fundamental principles of co-production have been developed and have resulted in a working paper, which is also being translated into a peer-reviewed journal paper. Our research findings have been taken forward through both traditional academic routes (such as peer-reviewed journal articles) as well as through practice based channels such as documentation in grey literature, using video, blogs, photo-stories, online platforms, etc. In testing a selection of decision "process" and "support" methods and discovering the usefulness of the process of application, as much as the outcome for city stakeholders, we now intend to produce a working paper (to be further developed into a journal article) for an academic audience, as well as two-pager example cases and videos to be shared as cross-city learning cases for city audiences (published). Having identified that there is a lack of clarity over precise institutional and individual capacity needs, we have run pilots in two cities (Lusaka and Windhoek) to assess institutional capacity needs using the CaDD (Climate Capacity Diagnosis and Development) approach. From the action plan that has been produced from the CaDD process in Windhoek with the municipality's water and infrastructure department, we are now working closely with department representatives to co-design and develop materials to be shared with the municipality more widely (including at senior level). These materials and associated engagements are designed to support the integration of priority capacity development actions into the department and the municipality's action plans to strengthen the ambition and action of their climate change adaptation programmes. Selected cases have also been used as learning opportunities in sessions of the Transformational Leadership on Climate Change course (held twice in Windhoek with councillors and the senior executive team). Further findings have been around the following key areas, which are valuable for new funding ideas: - Climate distillation and receptivity to use of climate information in decision-making - Co-exploration, co-production and transdisciplinarity and decision-making in African city-regions - Capacity development and learning |
| Sectors | Environment |
| Description | FRACTAL contributed to urban governance discussions and planning related to the future of cities in southern Africa under conditions of climate variability and change (in particular in Lusaka and Windhoek). For example, in Lusaka there was use and reference of the policy briefs produced in six Local Area Plans for water security in 2019 and in Windhoek, the Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (CCSAP) became the integrated CCSAP as a result of FRACTAL interactions, knowledge co-production and learning. FRACTAL has contributed to the following impact pathways: - Institutional (cultural) transformation - Enhanced capacity to use climate information - Improved decision making processes - Improved understanding of the urban decision context - Appropriate climate info available to decision makers - Increased understanding of regional climate process and process change |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Climate change training - councilors in Windhoek |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Co-production of knowledge for the Windhoek Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (CCSAP) |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Influenced the development & implementation of the Lusaka Water Security Action and Investment Plan |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Lusaka City Governance Dialogue and Talanoa Dialogue |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Support for the Inclusive development of the Windhoek Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Support for the Inclusive development of the Windhoek Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Supported the development of the Windhoek Integrated Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (2019) |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Transdisciplinary development of policy briefs (Lusaka) |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Transformational leadership in climate change training for Strategic Executives |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | AGORA - A Gathering place to cO-design and co-cReate Adaptation |
| Amount | € 3,000,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101093921 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 01/2023 |
| End | 12/2025 |
| Description | Innovation Action under the Civil Security for Society, Disaster-Resilient Societies Programme of Horizon Europe |
| Amount | € 5,200,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101073978 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 11/2022 |
| End | 10/2025 |
| Description | NERC COP26 Adaptation and Resilience Project Scoping Call |
| Amount | £194,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2021 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | SEI Initiative on Climate Services - Phase I |
| Amount | 4,995,000Â kr (SEK) |
| Organisation | Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Global |
| Start | 05/2016 |
| End | 05/2018 |
| Description | SEI Initiative on Climate Services - Phase II |
| Amount | 3,500,000Â kr (SEK) |
| Organisation | Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Global |
| Start | 05/2018 |
| End | 12/2019 |
| Title | FRACTAL Learning - Adaptation Inspiration online training modules |
| Description | The cases cover a range of approaches to adaptation and urban challenges to a range of climate hazards and other stressors. Solutions also address several of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. In total, 17 case studies are reported on in the Inspiring Adaptation in African Cities Working paper - a product of the FRACTAL project. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The training was informed by cases collated from FRACTAL project partners as examples of good practice in urban adaptation in Africa. |
| URL | https://www.weadapt.org/placemarks/maps/view/40466 |
| Title | Tandem climate services online guidance |
| Description | Guidance that allows climate information providers, intermediaries, knowledge brokers, planners, advisors, decision makers, researchers and practitioners to collaboratively co-design transdisciplinary knowledge integration processes for climate services and climate resilience. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The guidance is the outcome of learning from FRACTAL and has been tested and refined in other case studies. |
| URL | https://www.weadapt.org/tandem |
| Title | Transdisciplinary knowledge integration series Explainer & "How-To" Guide #1: co-exploring terminologies |
| Description | SEI researchers working with southern African cities in FRACTAL that are grappling with climate change adaptation planning devised a game to address gaps in understanding about related concepts and terminologies. The companion briefs presented here consist of an "explainer" that outlines the underlying premise, and a "how-to" guide that provides basic instructions to use and adapt the game. They are the first in a planned series of companion guides on serious games for climate adaptation decision making. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Windhoek case study A direct request from Windhoek city stakeholders seeking to co-develop the city's first Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan led to the development of this activity to address misunderstanding about climate-related terms that had previously surfaced. Discussions led to greater awareness of: - Changing rainfall patterns, and effects on farming practices. - The potential misunderstanding that can arise from different meanings attached to the same concept. For example, mitigation can mean reducing the impact of flooding (mitigating climate risk) or reducing greenhouse gas emissions (mitigating climate change). - The reasons for uncertainties about future climate projections. Projections from different climate models produce different results. - The need for a change of mindset, away from working in silos towards a transdisciplinary approach. For example, isolated mitigation or adaptation projects often benefit from holistic evaluation of measures that offer potential to support both. - The co-benefits of some strategies and actions. For example, planting trees sequesters carbon (climate change mitigation); reduces flooding impacts (disaster risk reduction/ adaptation); and moderates local temperatures and minimises soil degradation (adaptation). |
| URL | https://www.sei.org/publications/game-play-to-address-climate-change-adaptation/ |
| Description | Collaboration with Trioss on the co-development and customisation of the Climate Capacity Diagnosis and Development (CaDD) tool for application in FRACTAL |
| Organisation | Trioss |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | To assess (and develop) adaptive capacities in FRACTAL cities using CaDD through: - An initial assessment (CaDD Explorer) of the city authorities (or departments) and organisations in two cities (Windhoek, Namibia and Lusaka, Zambia) to understand capacity strengths and weaknesses of city authorities and departments. The CaDD Explorer results has been used to tailor more productive participatory engagement with city stakeholders in Windhoek and Lusaka. This initial assessment and engagements have led, in the case of the City of Windhoek, to a 'Deep Dive' assessment conducted according to city interests and priorities. The resulting action plan is now being tailored to further meet the operational needs of the Department of Water, Infrastructure and Technical Services. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Trioss have supported us in co-designing both Explorer and Deep Dive surveys with city stakeholders. They have also produced reports based on the feedback received from partners. |
| Impact | Executive summary report and action plan for the City of Windhoek's Department of Water, Infrastructure and Technical Services. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Project: Bridging climate information gaps to strengthen capacities for climate informed decision-making in Africa - Climate For Development in Africa ClimDev Special Fund (CDSF) |
| Organisation | AGRHYMET Regional Centre (ARC) |
| Country | Global |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The overall objective of this project is to reduce vulnerability and foster a food-secure world through the strengthening of African countries' capacities to understand and deploy appropriate climate information and best practices to inform decision-making and support development programs and planning. The project involves three components, namely: i) climate information generation, ii) capacity enhancement and climate information dissemination, iii) implementation of pilot adaptation practice and toolkit. This project will be led by the SEI Africa Centre and SEI Oxford will have substantive roles as the work is core to Oxford's research and in addition is complementary with the FRACTAL project on climate services in southern Africa. SEI Oxford will be contributing to Task 3.1 on 'Using climate information to support adaptation planning and policy-making' and Task 3.2 on the 'Formulation of a robust toolkit'. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We made significant contributions to the development of the proposal. |
| Impact | The project will started in 2017 and will complement FRACTAL, but no outputs to report yet. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Project: Bridging climate information gaps to strengthen capacities for climate informed decision-making in Africa - Climate For Development in Africa ClimDev Special Fund (CDSF) |
| Organisation | African Technology Policy Studies Network |
| Country | Kenya |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The overall objective of this project is to reduce vulnerability and foster a food-secure world through the strengthening of African countries' capacities to understand and deploy appropriate climate information and best practices to inform decision-making and support development programs and planning. The project involves three components, namely: i) climate information generation, ii) capacity enhancement and climate information dissemination, iii) implementation of pilot adaptation practice and toolkit. This project will be led by the SEI Africa Centre and SEI Oxford will have substantive roles as the work is core to Oxford's research and in addition is complementary with the FRACTAL project on climate services in southern Africa. SEI Oxford will be contributing to Task 3.1 on 'Using climate information to support adaptation planning and policy-making' and Task 3.2 on the 'Formulation of a robust toolkit'. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We made significant contributions to the development of the proposal. |
| Impact | The project will started in 2017 and will complement FRACTAL, but no outputs to report yet. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Project: Bridging climate information gaps to strengthen capacities for climate informed decision-making in Africa - Climate For Development in Africa ClimDev Special Fund (CDSF) |
| Organisation | ICPAC |
| Country | Kenya |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The overall objective of this project is to reduce vulnerability and foster a food-secure world through the strengthening of African countries' capacities to understand and deploy appropriate climate information and best practices to inform decision-making and support development programs and planning. The project involves three components, namely: i) climate information generation, ii) capacity enhancement and climate information dissemination, iii) implementation of pilot adaptation practice and toolkit. This project will be led by the SEI Africa Centre and SEI Oxford will have substantive roles as the work is core to Oxford's research and in addition is complementary with the FRACTAL project on climate services in southern Africa. SEI Oxford will be contributing to Task 3.1 on 'Using climate information to support adaptation planning and policy-making' and Task 3.2 on the 'Formulation of a robust toolkit'. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We made significant contributions to the development of the proposal. |
| Impact | The project will started in 2017 and will complement FRACTAL, but no outputs to report yet. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Project: Bridging climate information gaps to strengthen capacities for climate informed decision-making in Africa - Climate For Development in Africa ClimDev Special Fund (CDSF) |
| Organisation | Regional Centre For Mapping Resource For Development |
| Department | RCMRD |
| Country | Kenya |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The overall objective of this project is to reduce vulnerability and foster a food-secure world through the strengthening of African countries' capacities to understand and deploy appropriate climate information and best practices to inform decision-making and support development programs and planning. The project involves three components, namely: i) climate information generation, ii) capacity enhancement and climate information dissemination, iii) implementation of pilot adaptation practice and toolkit. This project will be led by the SEI Africa Centre and SEI Oxford will have substantive roles as the work is core to Oxford's research and in addition is complementary with the FRACTAL project on climate services in southern Africa. SEI Oxford will be contributing to Task 3.1 on 'Using climate information to support adaptation planning and policy-making' and Task 3.2 on the 'Formulation of a robust toolkit'. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We made significant contributions to the development of the proposal. |
| Impact | The project will started in 2017 and will complement FRACTAL, but no outputs to report yet. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Project: Bridging climate information gaps to strengthen capacities for climate informed decision-making in Africa - Climate For Development in Africa ClimDev Special Fund (CDSF) |
| Organisation | Sahara and Sahel Observatory |
| Country | Tunisia |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The overall objective of this project is to reduce vulnerability and foster a food-secure world through the strengthening of African countries' capacities to understand and deploy appropriate climate information and best practices to inform decision-making and support development programs and planning. The project involves three components, namely: i) climate information generation, ii) capacity enhancement and climate information dissemination, iii) implementation of pilot adaptation practice and toolkit. This project will be led by the SEI Africa Centre and SEI Oxford will have substantive roles as the work is core to Oxford's research and in addition is complementary with the FRACTAL project on climate services in southern Africa. SEI Oxford will be contributing to Task 3.1 on 'Using climate information to support adaptation planning and policy-making' and Task 3.2 on the 'Formulation of a robust toolkit'. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We made significant contributions to the development of the proposal. |
| Impact | The project will started in 2017 and will complement FRACTAL, but no outputs to report yet. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | University of Oxford Internship Programmes |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | SEI Oxford has an ongoing collaboration with the University of Oxford regarding internships. This has resulted in several that have directly benefited the FRACTAL project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | One intern contributed to the writing of the Adaptation Inspiration Book (publications). Another intern has supported the creation of case studies from the Adaptation Inspiration Book (publications) on weADAPT.org in preparation for training and capacity building activities that will take place in the cities. |
| Impact | Working paper and online contributions. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Work-Based Placement for an Edinburgh University student |
| Organisation | University of Melbourne |
| Department | School of Social and Political Sciences |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We submitted a call for Masters students from the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh to work with us on FRACTAL-related research and accepted a student whom we hosted at SEI Oxford from May-July 2016. FRACTAL research questions on urban governance and decision-making were explored to form the content of the students Masters dissertation. The method used was discourse analysis and a policy brief summarising the results from the thesis is in publication. |
| Collaborator Contribution | This was our second year collaborating on a work-based placement with the University of Edinburgh and we have found it to be successful from the perspective of the student, the University and SEI projects, such as FRACTAL. |
| Impact | Dissertation on discourse analysis of key climate and development policy documents from Lusaka, Zambia was submitted in August 2016. A policy brief is being produced based on key findings from the dissertation. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | 1st Maputo Learning Lab - 6 March 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The first Maputo Learning Lab was held 06-07 March 2017 at the Radisson Blu Hotel & Residence in Maputo. The meeting was attended by approximately 30 representatives from government entities, foreign and international NGOs, scientific entities, civil society, among others. Environmental problems caused by climate change and variability in the municipality were presented and the possible solutions thereof discussed as well as existing projects and programmes. Discussions within and among groups formed in the workshop have identified, in order of priority, (i) Drinking water supply; (ii) Drainage and sanitation; and (iii) Shortage of drinking water (infrastructure, policies, governance and planning) as the most important challenges of the Municipality. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.fractal.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Maputo_LL-Report_May-2017.compressed.pdf |
| Description | 2nd Windhoek Learning Lab - 31 October 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The second Windhoek City learning lab in October 2017 brought together stakeholders from various departments in the City of WIndhoek as well as representatives from other national and city representatives.. Participation in this Learning Lab opened conversations with city stakeholders about how FRACTAL could support in the development process of the Windhoek Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan. This entry point is a key opportunity for SEI to engage in decision support activity with the City of WIndhoek, as the timelines fit well with the project. The request for a 'Transformational Leadership on Climate Change' workshop also emerged from the Learning Lab. SEI has been actively involved in the development of this workshop (due to occur in April 2018) and will include a session on inspiring adaptation cases (see Publications: Ruth Butterfield et al. FRACTAL Working Paper #7, January 2018). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | 3rd Lusaka Learning Lab - 27 November 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The third Lusaka learning lab took place in November 2017. The learning lab was attended by a team from the FRACTAL project, led by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in partnership with the University of Zambia (UNZA) and Lusaka City Council (LCC) and various stakeholders drawn from the water sector in Lusaka. It resulted in the co-development of four policy briefs that were started by city-based thematic groups created to identify knowledge gaps in the 2nd learning lab. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | 3rd Windhoek Learning Lab - 14 August 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 50 plus participants attended this Learning Lab, which resulted in a lot of visibility for the work of FRACTAL and led to many discussions for follow on activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Assessing Institutional Capacity for Integrating Climate Information into Decision-making for the CCSAP (AHP and CaDD) - 26 June 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | CaDD is an evidence-based framework to assess and grow the capacity of organisations and the systems they form part of to take strong decisions that consider climate change. This is an online inquiry process which asks a number of questions to assess what decisions need to be taken, current strengths in capacity, and weaknesses across 9 different capabilities. CaDD is a tool that can help to assess where organisational capacity gaps are and how, through FRACTAL, we can better focus capacity development activities and for the implementation of the CCSAP. The CaDD Explorer activity was carried out with the Department of Infrastructure, Water and Technology Services, with a plan to follow up with a CaDD Deep Dive. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | CKB-SEI-CTCN hosted Side-event at COP21. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | SEI-CKB-CTCN hosted a side-event on Decision-making for a Climate-Resilient Future: Creating a 'Climate Knowledge Grid' which highlighted some of the approaches planned in FRACTAL e.g. co-exploration and knowledge brokering. This has now led to our involvement in a CDKN - Climate Knowledge Brokers (CKB) capacity building initiative in Africa which will generate good synergies with FRACTAL capacity building efforts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | COP22 Climate Services panel: Building good climate services for adaptation: Insights from developed and developing countries, 16 November 2016, Marrakesh |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Hosted and participated in a COP22 expert panel on Climate Services, entitled "Building good climate services for adaptation: Insights from developed and developing countries" on 16 November 2016 in Marrakesh. Panelists included Richard Jones (Science Fellow at the UK Met Office), Katiuscia Fara (Advisor Climate Services, Climate & Disaster Risk Reduction Programmes Division, World Food Programme), Graham Clarkson (Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Reading), Amy Barthorpe (Head of business, WeFarm), Xolisa Ngwadla (CSIR, South Africa COP22 delegation member and national level user of climate services) and Sukaina Bharwani (co-lead of the SEI Initiative on Climate Services). The panel discussion was facilitated by Aaron Atteridge (Research Fellow, SEI-Stockholm). Lesson learned from the panel are useful for Fractal and experiences from Fractal will be shared with these partners going forward for guidance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.sei-international.org/blog-articles/3601 |
| Description | CaDD "Deep Dive" workshop with Department of Water, Infrastructure and Technical Services - 16 August |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Following on from the application of the CaDD Explorer tool in June 2018, this workshop was an opportunity to explore institutional capacity needs in more depth with the Department of Water, Infrastructure and Technical Services. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | CaDD Deep Dive follow-on workshop - 7 March, 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop to communicate and tailor the results of the Deep Dive CaDD process from 26 June, 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | CaDD session with LWSC and NWASCO - 22 August 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Application of the CaDD Explorer tool with the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC) and the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Climate Knowledge Brokers annual meeting - 20 September, 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | CKB 101 Training Module presented on "Why Knowledge Brokering is Important for Climate and Development" at 2016 Climate Knowledge Brokers Workshop, 20 September, 2016. Relevance to Fractal and experiences shared. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.sei-international.org/climate-services/news-and-opinion/3570-learning-to-be-a-bridge-a-c... |
| Description | Embracing the uncomfortable silences in climate information exchange |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This article was written by Leonie Joubert and is part of a series that delves into the science that has been produced by various Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) projects, and introduces some of the people behind it. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.futureclimateafrica.org/news/embracing-the-uncomfortable-silences-in-climate-information-... |
| Description | Exploring the power of collaboration to address climate change in urban Africa |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Events in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, underscore the links between urban growth, climate change and residents' health. SEI's work through the Future Resilience for African CiTies And Lands (FRACTAL) project is exploring new approaches to policymaking to deal with these issues. Reflecting on the experiences in Lusaka are three participants in the project: SEI Research Fellow Liz Daniels; SEI Senior Research Fellow Sukaina Bharwani; and Brenda Mwalukanga, the FRACTAL embedded researcher with Lusaka City Council and the University of Zambia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.sei.org/perspectives/exploring-the-power-of-collaboration-to-address-climate-change-in-u... |
| Description | FCFA UK Inception workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was the inception meeting for FCFA in London, attended by representatives from all funded consortia. It was an opportunity to learn about the plans of the other teams and look for synergies and any learning opportunities. In addition it was a chance to understand the role of the CCKE unit and how we can work together. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | FRACTAL Learning - Adaptation Inspiration Theme Modules |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Inspirational examples of adaptation initiatives and projects in African urban environments particularly responding to climate hazards have been collated in a Working Paper - 'Inspiring climate action in African cities: practical options for resilient pathways. Ruth Butterfield et al. FRACTAL Working Paper #7, January 2018' (see Publications). The cases identified have been used to develop one stream of accessible training modules delivered through bite-sized Whatsapp or SMS introductions for a broad group of people directly or indirectly involved in the FRACTAL project, including all partners, city and local government officials etc and all cities. The aim of the training modules is to communicate and build capacity in aspects of city decision-making with respect to climate change. The modules have been developed on weADAPT.org and hence have a global reach of over 100,000 visitors/annum and have been delivered through Whatsapp for the FRACTAL cities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.weadapt.org/placemarks/maps/view/40466 |
| Description | FRACTAL UK inception meeting (Oxford) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Following on from the FCFA inception meeting in London, the FRACTAL consortium took the opportunity to have a project-planning meeting at the SEI centre in Oxford. This allowed us to further reflect on our Theory of Change and planned research questions with a view to creating a more detailed workplan. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Fifth International Conference on Climate Services |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | SEI co-sponsored the Fifth International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS5) and presented research methodologies and lessons learned related to Fractal research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.climate-services.org/iccs/iccs5/ |
| Description | Fifth Lusaka Learning Lab (Final) - 13 November 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Final Learning Lab in Lusaka used as an opportunity to ground-truth the co-created policy briefs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | High Level Breakfast - 16 November 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Launch of policy briefs at a high level breakfast with policymakers in November 2018. There was support for uptake of the recommendations by both politicians and the GIZ-led Lusaka Water Security Initiative (LuWSI), which remains active in Lusaka, beyond the lifetime of FRACTAL. LuWSI is a public, private sector and civil society collaboration initiative which is leading the development of a new Water Security Action and Investment Plan (WSAIP) for Lusaka. Policy briefs were co-developed with city stakeholders on four key "burning issues" (flooding, water supply and sanitation, groundwater quality and groundwater abstraction) facing the city (particularly in peri-urban, informal areas where the urban poor live), and the role of climate change in these issues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Lusaka Governance dialogue - 21 August 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Overall aim / objectives: - Ground-truthing/validating governance research findings - Exploring (in a safe environment) informal DM processes and how/where climate information can be integrated. Bringing the link between governance and climate. - Contributing to the Talanoa dialogue - Application of the CaDD Explorer tool |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Online guidance for climate service design. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Toolshed presentation at Adaptation Futures, June 2018, Cape Town, South Africa. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Participatory Climate Services: improving their design, delivery and use. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Special session at Adaptation Futures, June 2018, Cape Town, South Africa. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Sharing learning and building capacity through 'inspiring cases' for climate action in African cities. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Conference presentation at Adaptation Futures, June 2018, Cape Town, South Africa. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Tandem: a holistic framework for co-designing climate services 'in context' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Conference presentation at European Climate Change Adaptation Conference, 28 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Taxonomy Bootcamp, 18-19 October, 2016, London Olympia, UK. Sukaina Bharwani presented with Semantic Web Company |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Taxonomy Bootcamp, 18-19 October, 2016, London Olympia, UK. Presented methodology for visualization work that is potentially useful for Fractal. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.taxonomybootcamp.com/London/2016/ |
| Description | Testing co-exploratory approaches for decision support and eliciting information needs in urban contexts in southern Africa. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Conference presentation by Windhoek Embedded Researcher at African Climate Risks Conference (ACRC) 7 October 2019, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Testing co-exploratory approaches for decision support and eliciting information needs in urban contexts in southern Africa. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Conference presentation at ECCA, 29 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Transformational Leadership for Climate Change Training for City of Windhoek's Management Team - 6 March 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Seven out of the nine Strategic Executives from the City of Windhoek were represented at this workshop on 06 March 2019. This influential group of decision-makers were brought together to have training on transformational (as opposed to, business-as-usual) decision-making. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Transformational Leadership on Climate Change Training - 18 April 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Training for Councillors from the city was co-designed with partners. This was a demand-led activity as stakeholders have specifically requested FRACTAL support in the development of the city's first Integrated Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (ICCSAP) and in providing training on transformational climate leadership for senior city officials, executives and councillors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |