88
Opportunities for the JEMS Initiative
Despite the weaknesses and threats identified
above, a set of possibilities were developed that
NGOs and the communities can build on to enable
more successful CCA projects in the future. On
the issue of creating a sustainable funding facility
to support project implementation at the community level, a sustainable trust fund facility should
be established within JEMS to mobilise financial
resources to fund CCA projects.
To deal with youth and community leaders who
may be reluctant to participate in CCA programmes, the use of accessible and participatory
bottom-up approach mobilisation strategies such
as popular theatre and education awareness programmes on radio and TV should be promoted.
Where the government lacked the political will to
address CCA, JEMS should work with communities to lobby the government to develop appropriate CCA policies, mainstream climate change
policy across sectors and put in place the necessary mechanism to integrate climate change education in the education curriculum.
It may be difficult to replicate any of the projects as argued by Meyers and colleagues because
bottom-up cases are limited in their applicability
outside of their specific context. Therefore, if the
coping thresholds change, or if additional climate
risks emerge that are outside the range of recent
experiences, the conventional bottom-up
approach would be less suited to guide the adaptive capacity of the youth.
Summary of the Application
of Tobago Cays and the JEMS
of Top-Down and Bottom-Up
Approaches to Deal with CCA
The top-down approach to create TCMP in the
southern Grenadines and the JEMS bottom-up
approach to capacity building for the youth to
adapt to climate change show the advantages
and disadvantages of using both methods
(Stachowiak et al. 2016). As demonstrated by
the case on TCMP, the top-down approach (the
gold standard way) is inadequate as it fails to
consider the involvement and opinions of local
people in the management and decision-making of the park. NGOs, like JEMS, are trying to
fill these gaps by incorporating bottom-up
options through innovative approaches to community engagement and relevant initiatives
(Cloutier et al. 2018). While bottom-up
approaches have great flexibility and accessibility, it struggles to adapt to fluctuating climate contexts. The experience so far has been
limited to short-term activities, and mainstreaming them can be demanding. Therefore,
a middle ground can be reached where the government, civil society and other stakeholders
work together through a hybrid approach
(Cloutier et al. 2018; OECD 2013; Stachowiak
et al. 2016).
The hybrid approach draws on the strengths
of the top-down and bottom-up approaches to
respond to building the resilience of local communities to adapt to climate change. The significant advantage of the hybrid approach is the
formation of a local-level coalition to determine the outcomes of the CCA projects. While
successful implementation of projects and processes is essential in the local areas, the role of
government is fundamentally significant to the
overall project success. The government’s centrally located officials can play their part by
providing resources and incentives to civil society organisations to implement CCA projects.
They can provide effective leadership around
the vision for the policy, facilitate engagement
with networks and key stakeholders as well as
focus attention on areas of critical development
(Suggett 2011) (Table 5.3).
5 The Calm After the Storm: Island Perspective on the Application…
Opportunities for the JEMS Initiative
Despite the weaknesses and threats identified
above, a set of possibilities were developed that
NGOs and the communities can build on to enable
more successful CCA projects in the future. On
the issue of creating a sustainable funding facility
to support project implementation at the community level, a sustainable trust fund facility should
be established within JEMS to mobilise financial
resources to fund CCA projects.
To deal with youth and community leaders who
may be reluctant to participate in CCA programmes, the use of accessible and participatory
bottom-up approach mobilisation strategies such
as popular theatre and education awareness programmes on radio and TV should be promoted.
Where the government lacked the political will to
address CCA, JEMS should work with communities to lobby the government to develop appropriate CCA policies, mainstream climate change
policy across sectors and put in place the necessary mechanism to integrate climate change education in the education curriculum.
It may be difficult to replicate any of the projects as argued by Meyers and colleagues because
bottom-up cases are limited in their applicability
outside of their specific context. Therefore, if the
coping thresholds change, or if additional climate
risks emerge that are outside the range of recent
experiences, the conventional bottom-up
approach would be less suited to guide the adaptive capacity of the youth.
Summary of the Application
of Tobago Cays and the JEMS
of Top-Down and Bottom-Up
Approaches to Deal with CCA
The top-down approach to create TCMP in the
southern Grenadines and the JEMS bottom-up
approach to capacity building for the youth to
adapt to climate change show the advantages
and disadvantages of using both methods
(Stachowiak et al. 2016). As demonstrated by
the case on TCMP, the top-down approach (the
gold standard way) is inadequate as it fails to
consider the involvement and opinions of local
people in the management and decision-making of the park. NGOs, like JEMS, are trying to
fill these gaps by incorporating bottom-up
options through innovative approaches to community engagement and relevant initiatives
(Cloutier et al. 2018). While bottom-up
approaches have great flexibility and accessibility, it struggles to adapt to fluctuating climate contexts. The experience so far has been
limited to short-term activities, and mainstreaming them can be demanding. Therefore,
a middle ground can be reached where the government, civil society and other stakeholders
work together through a hybrid approach
(Cloutier et al. 2018; OECD 2013; Stachowiak
et al. 2016).
The hybrid approach draws on the strengths
of the top-down and bottom-up approaches to
respond to building the resilience of local communities to adapt to climate change. The significant advantage of the hybrid approach is the
formation of a local-level coalition to determine the outcomes of the CCA projects. While
successful implementation of projects and processes is essential in the local areas, the role of
government is fundamentally significant to the
overall project success. The government’s centrally located officials can play their part by
providing resources and incentives to civil society organisations to implement CCA projects.
They can provide effective leadership around
the vision for the policy, facilitate engagement
with networks and key stakeholders as well as
focus attention on areas of critical development
(Suggett 2011) (Table 5.3).
5 The Calm After the Storm: Island Perspective on the Application…