International intern Andrew Williamson reflects on five months with Natural Justice

International intern Andrew Williamson

An internship with Natural Justice (NJ) offers an opportunity to experience first-hand the work and dedication of an NGO within small team having a meaningful and significant impact. I was with Natural Justice from February 17 to July 17 in which I was welcomed into the team as an equal and was provided with an opportunity to really immerse myself into the daily work of the organisation and understand the importance and necessity of the work NJ does.

My time with NJ was shared with Dr. Catherine Traynor and Ms. Lesle Jansen which resulted in a variety of work related to climate change and access and benefit sharing. My work with Dr. Catherine Traynor centred on indigenous rights, community resources and bio-cultural protocols all of which served as a new insight into ongoing and detrimental effects of climate change in Southern Africa. The other half of the work I did at NJ focused on work related to indigenous communities on a national level alongside focusing on the ongoing activities related to Rooibos tea and a little bit of everything in between.

The variety and unexpected quantity and quality of work is something which I very much enjoyed while working with NJ. On any given day, you may be involved in workshops, interviews, meetings, conferences and field work with communities which really demonstrates the value of the work that everybody with NJ does. These daily activities bring together knowledge of the law, political aspects and science. 

Early morning view over the Richtersveld
(Photo credit: Andrew Williamson)

I was fortunate enough to participate in two field work trips, the first being to Kuboes in the Richtersveld area with the Nama people and the second to the Bushbukridge area in Mpumulanga where we met the Kukula traditional practitioners. Both of these areas are certainly not on the ‘tourist trail’ so to speak, but nevertheless provided experiences and personal interactions with community members which will certainly not be forgotten. The Kuboes trip focused on engaging with the community and a follow up to previous activities. With the Kukula, NJ reviewed the ongoing projects with the community and established future areas of work and objectives.

Overall an internship with NJ will provide a unique experience where you will be able to actively participate in every aspect of an NGO with a supportive and interesting team around you. Not only will you learn a significant amount of information related to South Africa both past and present but also the livelihoods and cultures of the communities NJ works with. And it goes without saying you have the opportunity to spend some quality time in the city of Cape Town which is superb! 

Open and Collaborative Science in Development 2017 Workshop

OCSDNet Workshop
(Photo Credit: OCSDNet)

The Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet) goal is to nurture an interactive community of Open Science practitioners and leaders in the Global South to learn together and contribute towards a pool of open knowledge on how networked collaboration could address local and global development challenges. The network is composed of twelve researcher-practitioner teams, and Natural Justice’s Dr. Cath Traynor manages the project team focused on South Africa and the ‘Empowering Indigenous Peoples and Knowledge Systems related to Climate Change and Intellectual Property Rights’ Project. Dr. Traynor and project partner Dr. Laura Foster (Indiana University) participated in the OCSDNet 2017 Workshop, in Limassol, Cyprus 2-5 June, 2017.

During the workshop the network launched the ‘Open and Collaborative Science Manifesto’, this was developed through a participatory consultative process with the network members from 26 countries to understand what are the values at the core of open science in development. Discussions revealed that there is not one way to do open science, but that it requires constant negotiation, reflection and the process will differ according to context. The network identified seven values and principles at the core of our vision for a more inclusive open science in development. These principles include, amongst others:

• Recognizing cognitive justice and the need for diverse understandings of knowledge making to co-exist in science production;
• That open science practices situated openness by addressing the ways in which context, power and inequality condition scientific research;
• Every individual’s right to research and enables different forms of participation at all stages of the research process;
• Equitable collaboration between scientists and social actors and cultivates co-creation and social innovation in society; and that,
• Open and collaborative science strives to use knowledge as a pathway to sustainable development, equipping every individual to improve well-being of our society and planet.

The Manifesto is available in English, Afrikaans, French and Spanish, there is a short video explaining the concepts, and a suggested reading list for those keen to find out more.

Workshop participants also joined a series of panel discussions around four themes and chapters in the forthcoming ‘Situating and Contextualising Openness’ book which the network team is currently producing and finalizing. Each project within the network has produced an evidence-based chapter for the book, in which they explore the different issues around open and collaborative science. The official project time frame of OCSDNet is drawing to a close, and thus the issue of ‘field building’ was discussed with the aim to understand what a situated understanding of OCS tells us about the conditions necessary to build a common field and its potential development outcomes and impacts. Issues included who can do science? Who can produce science and write about science? The current power structure of global scientific production and dissemination is hierarchical and market-driven – can open science challenge this and create the potentials for new spaces of collaboration and co-creation of science? The workshop closed with participants thinking to the future regards policy implications and future research questions. The Storify from the conference is available here if you missed the tweets from the workshop.

Capturing Community Images - Ethics and Ownership

Photo credit: Cath Traynor/Natural Justice

Natural Justice has been engaging with the Indigenous Nama community in Khuboes, Richtersveld, South Africa on a suite of issues related to climate change, indigenous knowledge, intellectual property rights and academic research processes. Cath Traynor and international intern, Andrew Williamson visited Kuboes together with a professional photographer. Our objective was to work together with community representatives to capture images that will illustrate the issues we have been exploring together.

Inspired by on-going work with our research partners on ethics and socially-just research processes, we applied the learnings to inform our engagement on issues related to capturing images of the landscape and community.  The idea had arisen through discussions with youth, we developed the concept, produced individual consent forms specifically for photographs that would include community members, and sought community-level consent from the traditional leader. We then worked with a community elder who advised on us locations and imagery and joined us for the duration. The framing is that the final photographs will be owned by the community and we request licence to use the images for specific purposes related to our joint areas of work. 

The activity surfaced issues related to ethics, consent processes, ownership and use of images, different generational perspectives around photographs and privacy particularly in light of the ubiquity of cell phone cameras and use of social media platforms, and the possible burden of consent processes and practicalities. Through purposely engaging on these issues we are developing insights regards what implementation means in practice.

Contracting Justice Workshop: Exploring socially just research processes

Participants at the Contracting Justice Workshop
(Photo credit: Cath Traynor/Natural Justice)

On the 13^th and 14^th March Natural Justice hosted a workshop centred on community-research contracts ensuring socially just research processes. This workshop aimed to gain valuable insights from indigenous communities through exploring the development of a ‘community-researcher contract’ between communities and researchers within the context of researching indigenous knowledge related to climate change.

The objectives of the workshop included legally empowering participants on issues related to laws and policies on indigenous knowledge systems, intellectual property rights and research ethics, and exploring the concept of contracts as a tool, and also critically reflecting upon the trail implementation of ‘community-researcher contract’ between two indigenous communities and three institutions conducting research with them.

The first day focused on legal empowerment and internal community discussions with representatives from the Nama, Griqua and Khomani San communities and a legal adviser.  The following day wider stakeholders were invited, including representatives from the University of Cape Town, Indiana University (USA), legal experts, civil society organisations including the Heinrich Boell Stiftung Southern Africa, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, and the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet). These varied interests and opinions contributed to a productive discussion regards where the tensions lie between the respective parties regards how research with indigenous peoples, both in terms of the frameworks that guide research processes and how in practice research with indigenous communities is conducted. Areas of tensions were identified and the role that community-researcher contracts could play to resolve these discussed.

Important aspects concerning policies alongside ethical and legal approaches were raised and considered in detail throughout the session. Issues were voiced surrounding the importance of consent processes, openness of research – but also some of the dangers of making indigenous knowledge open, particularly regards intellectual property issues, and that research process should benefit communities.

A particular notable and worthwhile moment of the workshop was hearing the opinions and viewpoints of the indigenous community’s youth representatives who stressed the importance of transparency, participatory action, capacity for further legal empowerment of the community members and beneficiation. Their involvement in this session was especially valuable for other participants in order to better understand from the community perspective, where and what the key issues were regards the development and implementation of research projects with communities or in their traditional lands.

Looking forward, these discussions will feed into the final analysis of the potential role of ‘community-researcher contracts’ as a tool to protect communities rights and to enable communities to negotiate mutually-beneficial research processes with research institutions. This analysis is being conducted by Natural Justice’s Climate Change Program together with research partners Dr. Laura Foster (Indiana University) and Dr. Tobias Schonwetter (Intellectual Property Unit, University of Cape Town), the Nama community in Khuboes, and the Griqua community in Vredendal.

Roundtable Discussion on the Draft National Adaptation Strategy, South Africa

The Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, hosted a roundtable discussion on the South African draft National Adaptation Strategy in Cape Town on the 24^th February, 2017.

Upon the publication of the National Climate Change Response Policy (NCCPR) White Paper, all provinces and multiple local governmental entities prepared individual adaptation strategies. This is in conjunction with the adaptation strategies that have been developed in the private sector. In order to align the various adaptation strategies, found both regionally and throughout the private sector, South Africa’s Draft National Adaptation Strategy was developed to reflect a more unified, cross-sectoral approach to climate change adaptation.

Assoc. Prof Gina Ziervogel (Adaptation and Vulnerability Specialist, University of Cape Town) provided an assessment of the draft National Adaption Strategy which has been produced by the Department of Environmental Affairs of South Africa. Strategic aspects of the Adaptation Strategy were openly discussed and presented with diverging opinions regarding the overall content from the various parties present. Strengths of the draft included recognition of the broader developmental context within South Africa, the cross-sectoral approach, attention to monitoring and evaluation, recognition for capacity building, on-going stakeholder consultation, and the role of science and academics. Concerns included terminology, for example the term ‘resilience’ covers too many areas, the relevance of the criteria used to assess and map vulnerability, ability to capture data and learning in practice, and the suggested institutional architecture regards where to house climate change within government. The discussion culminated in a round-table discussion with individuals expressing the role their respective organisations are playing in adaptation strategies.

Public consultation on the draft National Adaptation Strategy is sought until the 28^th February 2017. This enables stakeholders to contribute comments on the content of the strategy. Email nasfeedback<at>clarityeditorial.co.za for an official evaluation form.

Internships with Natural Justice: A personal reflection by Julia Roettinger

Julia & Gerren - Planning the Climate Justice Workshop
(Photo credit: Cath Traynor)

Julia Roettinger reflects on her two months as an intern with Natural Justice's Cape Town Hub and the Climate Change Program

Natural Justice certainly does not make you feel like a typical intern. Instead you gain valuable hands-on experience as well as an insight in the office work of a small NGO, led by a dedicated team, in the centre of Cape Town.

My two-month internship was everything I was hoping for and more. As an international Master’s student at UCT I was assisting Dr Cath Traynor with the fairly new Climate Change Program at Natural Justice, which aims to empower indigenous peoples through rights-based adaptation approaches together with communities. My tasks included contributing to a policy/academic paper on climate change impacts and the right to food in Southern Africa with a particular focus on indigenous peoples which will probably be published soon. In addition to that I was given the opportunity to drive up to Kuboes, a small place close to the Namibian border inhabited by the Nama people, where we facilitated a work shop on climate change for the Kuboes youth group. This turned out to be an amazing and also eye-opening experience. We heard about climate change impacts from first hand and I realized how urgent the problem actually is for those vulnerable groups. No matter how much the “international community” and the national government tries to mitigate we, and especially remote and rural communities, have to find ways to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. So what can be done? And how can Natural Justice assist? I realized how important Natural Justice’s work is.

Julia fitting in some studying after the Peer-to-Peer Activities
(Photo credit: Cath Traynor)

Just when I thought my internship could not get more interesting Cath asked me to come along with her to Nieuwoudtville in the Northern Cape to be part of a peer-to-peer learning exchange with the local community and “our” Kuboes youth group. We stayed at a fully self-sustainable ecolodge where we were guests of the NGOs Indigo Development & Change and Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG) who made it an inspiring and very informative trip. I could literally see the excitement in the young adults’ eyes. They could not wait to get home and engage with their elders’ knowledge in order to find adaptation solutions. I believe that it is about those kind of experiences that passionate people like Cath work and live for.

They say timing is everything and perhaps my timing for this internship was just right but I truly believe that Natural Justice has so much to offer for interns throughout the year. I have had an incredible time learning about South Africa, its indigenous peoples and climate change and I can now say that it was one of the most exciting and interesting internships I have done so far.

Peer-to-Peer Learning Exchange between Kuboes youth and the Nieuwoudtville community

Drieka Koopman and Kuboes share knowledge around
livestock keeping at Sonderwaterkraal (Photo credit: Cath Traynor)

The peer-to-peer learning exchange between the Kuboes youth group and the Nieuwoudtville community took place between 2-4 September, 2016. Natural Justice had reached out to the local environmental NGOs Indigo Development & Change and the Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG) who have been supporting the small-scale Rooibos farmers to adapt to climate change through community-based approaches.  Natural Justice’s Dr Cath Traynor and intern Julia Röttinger, joined eight Kuboes youth and Community Co-Researchers Gerren De Wet (Kuboes) and Reino Le Fleur (Vredendal) in Nieuwoudtville, to learn more about their climate change adaptation processes and share perspectives from the Richtersveld.

Rietjiehuis Ecolodge
(Photo credit: Cath Traynor)

After a warm welcome on Friday afternoon and brief introduction to the NGOs’ work Shannon Parring, Albert ‘Berty’ Kooman (Indigo – Development & Change), Siyabonga Myeza (EMG) took everyone to the Rietjiehuis Eco Lodge in Melkkraal where they had a traditional potjekos and spent the next two nights. The Eco Lodge is run by Marie Syster and consists of a few traditional reed huts which are located on a quiet piece of land surrounded by untouched beautiful nature, with goats and chickens freely roaming. The sustainable accommodation offers the full experience including cooking on an open fire and solar powered lamps in the huts.

Rooibos farmers Jan and Drieka explain the "pot experiment"

(Photo credit: Cath Traynor)

Saturday started off with a short hike to local rooibos farmers Jan and Drieka where they explained their “pot experiment”, a study by PhD students who are monitoring the growth of rooibos plants with the help of the local Rooibos farmers. The different pots get separate treatments, such as different types of soil as well as amounts of water or sun, which is hoped will show what might happen to Rooibos in the future due to climate change impacts. The whole area is famous for its organic Rooibos tea, Rooibos plants are endemic to the area, and the tea is in high demand, especially overseas. The community owns the land and also controls the entire Rooibos production process through the Heideveld Co-operative, which is becoming more and more successful. It was interesting to hear how the community have organised themselves for the benefit of all.

Jan's own observations on Rooibos

propagation have resulted in the
high survival rates of his seedlings

(Photo credit: Cath Traynor)

Every three months the community has a “Climate Change Preparedness” workshop with Indigo and EMG where participants exchange their experiences as small scale farmers raising questions such as: When did I plant or harvest? What has changed? And what can I do better? Those workshops are helping the participants to adapt to changing circumstances by learning from each other.

The next stop was Sonderwaterkraal, home to Drieka Koopman, who is a female pastoralist and had started a livestock monitoring project a couple of years ago. The Kuboes youth group used that opportunity to ask Drieka everything about keeping livestock and noticeable changes in the weather patterns over the past few decades. It turned out that here too, just like in the Richtersveld area, the climate has become drier with much less rainfall. It is therefore more difficult now to find good grazing areas for the animals and to maintain the health of the livestock.

Driving back to Melkkraal the participants had some time to reflect on the eventful and interesting day so everyone could share their thoughts in the next session at the Eco Lodge in the early evening. It was exciting to see how the Kuboes youth group was inspired by the Nieuwoudtville community and the young leaders in the NGOs. All participants were very comfortable with one another and happy to share their thoughts, future plans but also fears with regard to brining change and adaption projects to their own community. 

The last reflection session on Sunday morning, led by Siyabonga and Shannon, in their office gave another insight in the young leaders’ minds and showed how the youth can engage with traditional knowledge from the communities’ elders in order to adapt to climate change.  Berty Koopman shared ‘Berty’s Journey’ a touching film of his journey back to his parents farm at Sonderwaterkraal, and discussions with his elders regards their lives and local knowledge.  It was the perfect ending to an inspiring weekend filled with learning, valuable experiences and new friends. It seems like the next “peer-to-peer learning exchange” might take place between the Kuboes youth group and their own community’s elders.

Exchange participants
(Photo credit: Cath Traynor)

Exploring knowledge co-production processes for effective adaptation: Natural Justice shares insights at the 2nd Southern African Adaptation Colloquium

Mr Gerren De Wet at the 2nd Southern African Adaptation
Colloquium

Dr. Cath Traynor (Natural Justice) and Community Researcher Mr Gerren De Wet (Indigenous Nama youth) attended the recent 2^nd Southern African Adaptation Colloquium recently in  Johannesburg, South Africa (which was hosted by GSRI, Wits University, ACDI and the Adaptation Network). A key theme of the conference was “knowledge co-production and learning”, and we presented a reflection co-authored with Dr Laura Foster (Indiana University, Bloomington) regards conducting formal Participatory Action Research (PAR) with indigenous communities. We started with provocations, asking questions such as “who gets to produce scholarly knowledge?” and “who gets to benefit from such knowledge?” Through applying a critical approach to our own research processes, our findings suggest that those who get to produce scholarly knowledge are those that first, meet the criteria of funders, and second those who adhere to the normative standards of human subject research approaches and research ethics processes. In an attempt to counter more extractive research processes, we as researchers have co-developed community-researcher contracts with communities, these aim to outline expectations regards how knowledge shared by community participants will be used and also to ensure protection of their indigenous knowledge. Through examining our own research processes and the formal research structures we work within, we hope to develop practices of knowledge production that are more responsive to hierarchies of power and inequality.

During the colloquium, presenters and the participants shared ideas and approaches regards how social learning values and methodologies could contribute towards and improve climate change adaptation, in a variety of situations from cities, to rural communities, to engage different sectors such as youth, and how better to ensure co-design in adaptation projects. Funding sources for adaptation were discussed and government representatives presented their perspectives of the UNFCCC COP21 Paris Agreement, and how South Africa is responding with its adaptation strategy, mainstreaming of adaptation, and the development of monitoring and evaluation for adaptation. Trends in transformative adaptation were also debated and the colloquium finished with a session on how South Africa can better prepare professionals and researchers for knowledge co-production processes in climate change. 

Natural Justice met with adaptation practitioners from the Environmental Monitoring Group and Indigo Development and Change to plan a Peer-to-Peer Learning Exchange between the Nama youth and the Nieuvoudtville community.

Reclaiming the Nama Past to Adapt to the Future

Exploring national responsibility past & present through
diagrams and graphs

By Julia Röttinger, Intern with the Climate Change Program

On the 26^th and 27^th of August 2016 Dr Cath Traynor and intern Julia Röttinger held a workshop with the Kuboes Youth Group facilitated by Gerren De Wett who himself is a community and lives in Kuboes. It was the first time that Natural Justice worked with that specific youth group and therefore interesting to see how the young participants between 23 and 31 years would react.

Studies on climate change have indicated that vulnerable groups, which include Indigenous Peoples are likely to be negatively impacted, and groups such as the Nama People in Kuboes, Richtersveld are expected to suffer climate change impacts, with effect principally felt through water resource availability and food security. The workshop therefore introduced key issues related to climate change: namely climate science, climate justice, the role of indigenous knowledge and community rights issues.

On the first day some background information on Natural Justice’s work was given before moving on to the topic of climate change and climate justice. The young adults were asked to explain what they associate with climate change. It was interesting to see how the group engaged with the topic through participatory activities.  After the first session it was clear that the group had some knowledge on climate change which helped to introduce climate justice including the issues of responsibility and the moral obligation of more developed countries to act. Short videos and other activities raised awareness and caught the group’s interest which made it easier to connect to the last task. After discussing their own experience as active pastoralists of climate change impacts in the Richtersveld area, the participants went out to interview Kuboes’ elders in order to find out more about changes in the climate during the past 30-50 years.

Mapping international to local responses
to climate change

The second day started with a short icebreaker activity which was facilitated by one of the youth group members, Regina, and energized the group. It was obvious that everyone was more comfortable now and the young adults were open and keen to learn more about the topic. The next session started off with an introduction to climate change responses on all levels – from international to municipal –through this the group realised how much is being done in theory. Further, an activity illustrated that there are ways to engage on climate change and climate justice issues on all levels as well as to participate and use human and also indigenous rights in engagements. In the next part the interview outcomes were discussed and reflected. The members had a very interactive and participatory conversation and came to the conclusion that they would like to learn much more about their indigenous knowledge with regard to climate change from the elders in the Nama community.  Furthermore, the group prepared a “participation contract” for the Peer-to-Peer Learning Exchange with Small-Scale Rooibos Producers in Nieuwoudtville (Northern Cape) for the following weekend which the youth group members are definitely looking forward to.

Energizers from Forum Theater approaches

In summary, the objectives and expectations of the workshop, such as raising awareness of climate change and climate justice issues, examining impacts of climate change in the Richtersveld area as well as highlighting the value of Nama indigenous knowledge and its relevance to climate change adaptation were achieved. 

The Quiver Tree (a long-lived giant tree Aloe)
is shifting its distribution towards the poles in response to climate change

Building climate resilient societies through empowerment of women

Participants at the UN Women Multi-Country Office Workshop.
Photo courtesy of UN Women Africa

The South Africa Multi-Country Office (MCO) of UN Women recently hosted a workshop on ‘Building climate resilient societies: Strategies towards a gender responsive climate change agenda’, 18-20 May, 2016. The purpose of the work is to strengthen women’s voices to advocate for gender sensitive climate agreements, national adaptation plans and regional frameworks as well as furthering the outcomes of the International Climate Change process by collectively advancing the gender and climate agenda with partners in civil society and government.

Cath Traynor, from Natural Justice’s Climate Change Programme participated in the workshop which included members from civil society, the media and small holder women farmers from South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana. The first day focused on setting the scene and Ms Anne Githuku-Shongwe, UN Women Representative shared that the UN team was meeting to discuss the current El Niño phenomena and climate change, and indeed days later the UN General-Secretary, Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of 2 Special Envoys on El Niño and Climate. Ms. Githuku-Shongwe shared the UN Women focus areas in the region which include renewable energy, livelihood issues including HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and women’s political representation, and the need for gender-responsive budgeting. Ms, Ayanda Mvimbi, Programme Specialist UN Women South Africa MCO, then introduced an overview of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the role of women as change agents, she summarised pivotal gains for women as well as key issues such as adequate representation of women and gender in different strategic frameworks relating to climate change, gender mainstreaming, and key opportunities for engagement.

Participants finalizing the declaration

During the workshop rural women then shared the impact of climate change and their agency, and commission groups discussed key questions and emerging themes. Rural women smallholders shared challenges regards access to land and resources and energy, that the burden of the loss of livelihoods through climate change is falling on women, their concern that several Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have declared national drought emergencies, that rural women are excluded from decision-making processes, and that the issue of climate change on rural women smallholders requires urgent attention. A ‘declaration by rural women, smallholder farmers organisations and supporting civil society and media in the southern Africa region’ was produced, which highlighted women’s concerns, urged Heads of States and governments at the next SADC Summit in August 2016 to listen to the voice of women, implement existing commitments and policies of international and regional conventions that are pro rural smallholders and gender equity, to ensure that under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement, nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are ambitious and address gender inequality, and for the full and effective participation of rural women smallholders in policy making, implementation and monitoring processes. Action on land ownership by women, food sovereignty, support and legal protection for indigenous knowledge systems and knowledge holders rights, the right to water, and the provision of transparent information on climate, services and rights, amongst others, was also called for.

UN Women Representative, Ms Anne
Githuku-Shongwe receives the
declaration and states she will
ensure it reaches the relevant
stakeholders

Less than a week after the workshop the SADC Secretariat established a ‘Regional El-Niño Response Team’, SADC noted that “At least 27 million people, translating to about 9 per cent of the SADC’s 293 million population, are already affected by the current disaster and this figure is likely to increase” and that the 2015/2016 El Niño phenomenon is affecting livelihoods and the quality lives of especially women. The Response Team will prepare a regional drought appeal with the aim to mobilise resources to meet the needs of people requiring humanitarian support in the Region.

Should Research Communications Be Shared?” Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge, Climate Change, and Research Contracts in South Africa

Guest blog by Dr. Laura Foster

Dr. Laura Foster recently spoke at the Annual Meeting of Force 11: The Future of Research Communications and e-Scholarship in Portland, Oregon from April 17- 19, 2016. Dr. Foster spoke about the joint research project on Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge, Climate Change, and Intellectual Property between Natural Justice, IP Unit at University of Cape Town Faculty of Law, Indiana University - Bloomington, and the Griqua and Nama Nations of South Africa. The project is funded by the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet) through the International Development Research Centre (Canada) and iHub (Kenya).

 Foster shared insights from the joint research project on a panel about success stories in research and knowledge communication from outside Europe and North America and how those stories inform ways of improving research communication globally. Dominique Babini, Dora Ann Lange Canhos, and Juan Pablo Alperin also joined the panel and spoke on similar issues.

 In her remarks, Foster provoked the audience to consider how histories of colonial violence against indigenous peoples require us to think differently about notions of open and collaborative science. In particular, she highlighted how insights from the Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge, Climate Change, and Intellectual Property project demonstrate the need for a more critical approach or what might loosely be called a “situated openness.” This concept draws upon Donna Haraway’s notion of “situated knowledge” and insights from feminist science studies and indigenous methodologies.

Foster argued that a situated openness requires a way of doing research that assumes knowledge production is situated within particular historical, political, and socio-cultural relations. It considers how open and shared knowledge practices can democratize knowledge, while also recognizing how such notions are embedded within colonial histories that explicitly deployed openness as a way to legitimate the taking of indigenous peoples’ knowledge. Furthermore, it aims to develop practices of knowledge production that are more responsive to contesting hierarchies of power and inequality, so collaborative research production might involve simultaneous modes of being open, closed, sharing, and restrictive.  

 In other words, the Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge, Climate Change, and Intellectual Property project is working towards a more robust notion of situated openness in order to democratize science in more meaningful ways.

 Dr. Laura Foster (@DrLauraAFoster) is Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at Indiana University, where she is also Affiliate Faculty in the IU Maurer School of Law and African Studies Program. She is also a Senior Research Associate in the Intellectual Property Unit at University of Cape Town Faculty of Law. Her current book project examines how contestations over patent ownership rights, Indigenous San knowledge, and Hoodia plants in South Africa present emerging sites of struggle over who does and does not belong. 

African Civil Society Engages the 6th Special Session of AMCEN

Natural Justice joined the ‘Pre-AMCEN African Post Paris/UNEP MGSF Consultative Workshop’ held in Cairo, 15^th April 2016. The workshop was organised and hosted by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), and CSO representatives from across Africa met to deliberate on key issues on the agenda of the 6^th African Ministers Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). The aim of the workshop was to reflect on the COP21 outcomes, the Sustainable Development goals and plan for the 2^nd United Nations Environmental Assembly scheduled for 23-27^th May 2016, Nairobi, Kenya.

The UNFCCC Paris Climate Agreement was analysed and Natural Justice’s Dr. Cath Traynor joined a panel presentation on the agreement and discussed the implications of the mitigation decisions for Africa, other issues covered included adaptation, finance, gender, and technology transfer.

The following day a consultative workshop was held on ‘Energy Transformation and Access’, participants discussed the African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), which aims to enable the installation of large-scale renewable energy capacity on the African continent by 2020. Speakers shared post-Paris discussions on renewable energy, and what the initiative could mean in practical terms for Africa, breakout groups discussed how energy transformation and access could be accelerated in Africa.

Ms. Hindou Oumarou (PACJA Executive Committee), Representative for Hon. Dr. Khaled Fahmy (AMCEN Chair/Minister for Environment, Egypt), & Mr. Mithika Mwenda (PACJA Secretary General)

Representatives from both workshops drafted key messages for AMCEN, these included calling on their governments to play a leading role in the forthcoming April 22 UN Paris Agreement Signing in New York, to compel developed countries to sign and ratify the Agreement, to fulfill their commitments and indeed to raise their Nationally Determined Contributions ambition so that the collective goal of limiting temperature increases to 1.5^oC above pre-industrial levels can be achieved. They also called for their governments to translate the provisions of the Agreement and other AU resolutions into domestic laws, policies, structures and development strategies. Regards to AREI, they called for comprehensive safeguards, the involvement of local communities in the energy transition, and for decentralized energy. Mr. Mithika Mwenda, Secretary General of PACJA presented the collective message on the first day of AMCEN.

During AMCEN Ministers reaffirmed that adaptation to climate change is a priority for Africa, they highlighted the need for adequate support for implementation of adaptation measures, and that developed countries must adhere to their pre-2020 commitments in the Paris Agreement.

Natural Justice has produced a Working Paper ‘The Binding Nature of the 2015 Paris Agreement and Outcomes for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ – please email cath.at.naturaljustice.org.za for a copy.

OUTCOMES FROM THE CIVIL SOCIETY MEETING: Debrief on COP21 and reporting on activities of the Policy and the Communications Working Group

The first of the two CSO Debriefs on COP 21 organized by the Organization “Project 90 by 2030” was convened on the 8^th of March in Cape Town. The participants were representatives of a great deal of non-governmental organizations and observers of climate negotiations.  The purposes of this workshop, like its corresponding follow up in Johannesburg scheduled on the 11^th of March, are numerous:

 Report back from the ad-hoc working groups: policy and communications;

• Exchange Knowledge and viewpoints on COP 21 outcomes and implications for South Africa;
• Review of civil societies red lines for COP 21 and identify key messages for year ahead;
• Identify civil society events and actions around international and national climate change policy in 2016;
• Develop a joint press release: what a coalition of civil society is expecting from South Africa in light of the Paris agreement;

In this connection, the meeting started with the presentation by Jaco du Toit (WWF South Africa) on the outcomes of the Paris Agreement, particularly stressing the implications of the bottom-up approach endorsed by the Parties and its reflections on the text of the Agreement. As a result, it was shown that an additional effort seems to be required to attain the global goal of 2° C of temperature increase. The pledges currently submitted by the Parties are supposed to restrain the increase of global temperature by 3.5° C - whereas the absence of any action inspired by the business-as-usual approach would lead to an increase by 4.5° C.

The intervention by Happy Khambule (Policy and Research Coordinator of Project 90 by 2030 and co-organizer of the meeting) focused on a review of the Civil Society Red-Lines, striking a balance with the last meeting in November 2015. Such Red-Lines are a set of “non-negotiables” agreed by a great deal of NGOs and enshrined in a document submitted to the South African Government prior to COP21. Their purpose is to drive and influence South African policy vis-à-vis climate change, pushing for climate-smart and sustainable choices.

In the last part of the meeting, participants were encouraged to talk and discuss, finding a common positions regards South Africa’s response to climate change, both in the national and in the international arena. Consensus was reached that there are 6 main priorities to work on in order to improve the existing framework:

• Revision of South African Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs): These can be improved upon so that South Africa takes the lead in the fight against climate change, by setting and pursuing more ambitious targets;
• Civil Society Organization (CSO) strengthening: public participation in climate-related matters is to be improved, particularly by studying strategic alliances with enterprises. The proposal was raised to set up frequent climate change meetings on a regular basis;
• Stronger engagement in CODESA, a forum in which a great variety of South African stakeholders gather in order to deeply discuss climate issues.
• Avoid double counting: the Paris Agreement bans double counting on several occasions in the final draft. However, there are the gaps and the weaknesses in the enforcement of this rule, as to date no mechanism has been put in place yet. As a result – also due to the complexity of the topic – there are still many ways by which countries may circumvent this obstacle and few are the institutional mechanisms to denounce and stop such unlawful practices. Possible ways forward include the institution of a national register grouping together every single mitigation project and/or the parallel standardization of accounting rules;
• Signature of the Agreement: South Africa is encouraged to take this step before the deadline of April 2017.

Brief by Luchino Ferraris - International Fellow at Natural Justice.

Recognizing the Rights of Communities and Knowledge Holders in Climate Change Adaptation – UNFCCC COP21 Side Event

Ms. Swiderska, Dr. Reid, Mr. Argumendo, Dr. Song, Dr. Castro, Dr. Traynor & Mr. Le Fleur
(Photo courtesy of Matt Wright/IIED)

During the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (30^th November – 12^th December), the Adaptation Committee released its 2015 Overview Report “Enhancing Coherent Action on Adaptation 2012-2015”, the publication provides information on adaptation to Parties and the broader adaptation community. Within the report the Adaptation Committee recommends that Parties underline the importance of indigenous and traditional knowledge (I&TK), and encourage their integration into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). They suggest, one way that this integration can be supported is through enhancing the accountability and enforcing implementation of existing laws, rules and procedures dealing with I&TK and practices thus ensuring recognition of the rights of communities and holders of I&TK and practices throughout the adaptation process.

Natural Justice’s Dr. Cath Traynor’s presentation entitled “Indigenous Knowledge in Climate Change Adaptation: Recognition of the Rights of Communities and Knowledge Holders” spoke directly to this issue. Dr. Traynor was part of a panel on the NJ, GTA, IIED co-hosted Side Event “Supporting Poor, Vulnerable, and Indigenous Communities”, 7^th December, 2015. Dr. Traynor introduced preliminary findings of the “Empowering Indigenous Peoples and Knowledge Systems Related to Climate Change Adaptation and Intellectual Property Rights” OCSDNet project, these included reflections on the university research ethics procedures, which although they seek to ensure the protection of and consent from human subjects, at the same time secures power relations, between ‘expert’ researchers who are seen to produce knowledge and vulnerable subjects who produce mere data. Efforts towards more open and collaborative research needs to understand these complex tensions that shape, and are shaped by, knowledge production and engage critically in the ethics procedures themselves. To ensure that community rights are recognized in adaptation, community-researcher contracts have also been developed, their purpose is to ensure that community intellectual property in adaptation is controlled and protected in accordance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and South African Policies and Laws. Mr. Reino Le Fleur, Indigenous Griqua youth representative and Community Co-Researcher on the OCSDNet project, then shared his experiences and his plans for connecting youth with I&TK of their elders, a linkage which in some communities in South Africa is being lost due to the historical dispossession of lands, and the negative impacts of colonisation, apartheid and globalisation upon traditional livelihoods.

During the Side Event, Ms. Krystyna Swiderska (IIED), Mr. Alejandro Argumento (ANDES) and Dr. Yinching Song (Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Science) discussed the importance of biocultural heritage in adaptation practices and highlighted 5 key actions and the benefits of farmer to farmer seed networks. 

Dr. Carlos Potiatra Castro (University of Brazillia/GTA) then shared experiences from the development of the Bailique Community Protocol, Brazil. The process entailed integrating customary norms and internal governance structures into the protocol, consideration of national and international legislation as it applies to the communities and public policies that they have a right to access. To date, the process has resulted in land regularisation, and empowerment of the communities to negotiate with external actors. The community protocol approach is highly relevant to landscape scale mitigation and adaptation programmes and projects and could also contribute to REDD+ as a recent Policy Brief illustrates (search for “BCPs” here).

Dr. Hannah Reid (IIED) then summarised a study that aimed to quantify the funding for local adaptation activities against ten principles intended to guide good ‘quality’ funding allocations. Projects scored well in terms of effectiveness, flexibility and sustainability but poorly on transparency, accountability and urgency.

The session drew to a close with questions from the audience, which included asking how a community is defined, and the pro’s and con’s of an I&TK database, and a wrap-up from Mr. Delfin Ganapin (UNDP-GEF Small Grants Programme). Presentations and related materials can be found on the UNFCCC Side Events webpage, search for the “Natural Justice” adaptation session held at 15:00-16:30 hrs, Monday 07 December, 2015. 

UN Climate Change COP21 Side Event: Monday 7th December 2015

 

When: Monday 7 December, 15:00 – 16:30 hrs

Where: COP21/CMP11, Parc des Expositions, Le Bourget conference site, side event room - OR 03

This event will share a variety of recent research concerning:

• Supporting the adaptation practices and traditional knowledge (TK) of Indigenous peoples and local communities, and the importance of biocultural heritage.
•  The protection of knowledge holders and the sharing of TK in adaptation initiatives.
•  The role of community protocols as a tool to reach the most vulnerable communities through participation and biodiversity legislation.
•  The quantity and quality of adaptation finance reaching those most in need.

Who: Dr. Hannah Reid, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

Ms. Krystyna Swiderska, (IIED), Mr. Alejandro Argumedo (ANDES), Peru & Dr. Yiching Song (Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Science)

Dr. Cath Traynor (Natural Justice) & Mr. Reino Le Fleur (Griqua representative)

Ms. Roberta Ramos, Grupo de Trabalho Amazonico (GTA), & Munduruku representative

Dr. Carlos Potiatra Castro, University of Brasilia

Mr. Delfin Ganapin, UNDP-GEF Small Grants Programme

You are invited to find out more at this side event. Light snacks will be served at 14.45 hrs.

Increased pledges for climate financing highlight the need for responsive accountability mechanisms

Recently at the Annual Meeting of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund in Lima, several institutions indicated that the amount of climate financing would need to be scaled up dramatically in the near future. The Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), requested that the Paris Agreement scale up the Financial Mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and she also highlighted the need for further funds. The GCF is the operating entity of the UNFCCC Financial Mechanism and the largest climate fund. At the same meeting the World Bank Group revealed that it plans to increase its climate financing to potentially amount to US$ 29 billion per year, thus by 2020 the Bank Group could be allocating more than a quarter of its funds towards climate financing. Currently, the World Bank is the interim Trustee for the GCF. Other institutions followed suit, for example the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced that it foresees climate financing accounting for 40% (or US$ 5 billion annually) of its total investments by 2020.

Climate finance is a key element of the draft text for the UNFCCC agreement, released on 5 October 2015, which contains the basis for the negotiation of the Paris Agreement. To ensure climate financing is transparent and accountable there should be participatory decision-making, implementation and monitoring processes. Lessons from other multilateral financing initiatives has shown that civil society engagement is fundamental to ensuring accountability. The options for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to help ensure a robust, well-functioning, and responsive accountability mechanism within the GCF were explored in a Briefing Paper, commissioned by Transparency International (TI), and authored by Both ENDS with contributions from Natural Justice earlier this year. The Briefing Paper was submitted to the GFC Board ahead of its 10^th meeting in July, and the findings also contributed to a submission by TI in response to the GCF’s Call for Public Inputs on the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.

As we head towards a possible agreement at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in November/December in Paris, and consequent implementation of the Convention thereafter, accessible grievance mechanisms which fairly and effectively handle grievances related to corruption  and/or violations of social-environmental safeguards will be essential.