ISP3 Key Trends: Climate Change

We spoke to some of our colleagues here in Valencia about the climate crisis and how Action Against Hunger is responding. Read and listen to what Olivier, Claire and Jennifer had to say about climate change and how we might respond to it.

Published: 2019

Over the past weeks and months, we have been conducting consultations with Action Against Hunger staff all over the world. To read more about that, check out yesterday’s blog on the ISP3 development process, which outlines what the consultation involved and what we were looking to find out.

The top trend that came out time and again across the consultation was around climate change. There’s a recognition by staff and stakeholders throughout the network and outside it that climate change will affect us significantly in the coming years, and that the way we work or the things we work on are likely to need to change as a result.

Check out the climate change factsheet attached here, or the IARAN Future of Aid report for a more in-depth forecast of how climate change is likely to change the humanitarian landscape over the next ten years.

We spoke to some of our colleagues here in Valencia about the climate crisis and how Action Against Hunger is responding, and they had some interesting things to say. Here’s Olivier, CEO of Action Against Hunger Spain:

The relationship between climate and gender was, in fact, something that Claire, Country Director of Action Against Hunger Uganda, highlighted as well. She said that women are some of those who are most vulnerable to climate change – for example, women and children are more vulnerable to sexual violence and abuse during and after natural disasters – so by reducing our carbon footprint or, indeed, actively contributing to mitigating or lessening the effects of climate change, we are also contributing to the gender agenda.

But how can we reduce our carbon footprint? Claire had many ideas, as did Jennifer, Country Director of Action Against Hunger Pakistan. Reducing our paper usage, for example, and making an active effort to recycle: the Pakistan office has set up a partnership with a local company to recycle their paper at no cost to Action Against Hunger (as the company subsequently sells it). In Uganda, tree-planting is included in project proposals to offset our carbon footprint. And Claire referenced a report from Save the Children that highlights flights, followed by electricity usage, as the factors contributing to the biggest proportion of NGOs’ carbon footprints. Collectively agreeing to get direct flights, then, rather than indirect ones (as taking off and landing are the most carbon-intensive parts of a flight) could contribute to reducing our carbon footprint.

Thinking forwards to the ISP3, there is a lot we could do, but it’s a complex issue. Jennifer sums up the opportunities and the challenges we face in considering climate change when thinking about the ISP3: