(City of Belmopan, Belize) The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) with funding from the European Union will host a training programme targeted at government officials and stakeholders from CARIFORUM countries to build skills in implementing Public Awareness and Outreach Programmes related to climate change.  The training is to be delivered virtually in consecutive sessions, divided into 4 hours per day from December 6-8.

This activity is a follow-up to the completion of a Knowledge Attitude and Practice (KAP) Study on climate variability and change, recently conducted in some Participating Member States, where the findings will be used to inform national awareness programmes in all sixteen Participating States of CARIFORUM over the rest of the project term.

Over 100 delegates from around CARIFORUM are expected to join the training, which will be hosted through a University of the West Indies (UWI) platform, and delivered in three main sessions:

  • Session I – Climate change Variability and Impacts – basic concepts of climate change (vulnerability, adaptation, climate risk reduction, etc.)
  • Session II – Climate change Communication and Awareness-raising techniques.
  • Session III – KAP Study Presentation of preliminary results in five CARIFORUM countries (Bahamas, Belize, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago).

To kick-off the training, a brief opening ceremony will be held where Dr Colin Young, Head of the CCCCC and Ms Donna Gittens of the delegation of the European Union to Barbados, the OECS and CARIFORUM will address participants.

The training exercise is part of the Intra-ACP GCCA+ Programme, funded by the  EU-Funded initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Groups of states funded by the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) and falling under the policy and strategic framework of the global GCCA+ flagship initiative. It specifically targets ACP Member States, helping them to tackle climate change as a challenge to their development.

Following the training, participants are expected to have basic skills and knowledge on how to implement awareness and outreach programmes and campaigns on climate change to various national audiences in CARIFORUM.

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The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre is an inter-governmental Caribbean Community (CARICOM) institution that is mandated by the CARICOM Heads of Government to coordinate the Region’s response to climate change. We maintain the Caribbean’s most extensive repository of information and data on climate change specific to the region, which in part enables us to provide climate change-related policy advice and guidelines to CARICOM Member States.  In this role, the Centre is recognized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Environment Programme, and other international agencies as the focal point for climate change issues in the Caribbean. The Centre is also one of the few institutions recognized as a Centre of Excellence by United Nations Institute for Training and Research. CCCCC is empowering the Caribbean Community to act on climate change.

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