DA’s work on climate change focuses on creating active awareness on the impacts of climate change to encourage adaptation. One such initiative is the Shubh Kal campaign that aims to strengthen community knowledge and voice on climate change impacts and adaptation by increasing their input into local research and policy dialogue and enabling communities to share their experiences in coping with and adapting to climate change. It will achieve this by capitalising on the reach and influence of radio stations and information networks in Madhya Pradesh. The project has four existing community, public and private radios that reach out to 5 million people across 500 villages.

The Shubh Kal campaign aims to develop an innovative model of learning and action to connect community, media, researchers and the policy makers. The project will create a new space where a range of stakeholders can learn about climate change impacts and advocate responses that address the needs of the local communities. The project also pilots a collaborative approach to strengthen Indian radio broadcasters’ capacities to draw upon the wider knowledge and research networks for investigating and communicating local perspectives on climate change.

This project tests a proposed model to first build the capacity of the local radio stations to broadcast new climate research in an accessible way while at the same time provide a platform for the communities to share their experiences. It also facilitates a vital dialogue between local communities, local government, research and media networks to disseminate findings that can address this knowledge gap. In doing so, it aims to provide new evidence and analysis on the impact of using the radio in responding to local climatic impacts and promoting appropriate social change, as limited research currently exists, on how to develop strong models for multi-stakeholder engagement for this goal.

The campaign is being led by coalition of visionary development leaders, experts, academicians, researchers / research institutions, CSOs, CBOs, community and executive bodies. This effort to involve various stakeholders leads us on the path of effective adaptation and fosters an informed and evidence based policy environment for climate change adaptation. q