Capacity Building and Communications

The Capacity Building and Communications program, which has been a part of the ICC since its inception in 2010, focuses on strengthening and developing the climate change adaptation capacities of the general population, of vulnerable groups, and of productive systems within the region.

The ICC considers capacity building to be transversal component between its different programs and its actions in the field. In addition, the program responds the legal mandates set forth in the National Climate Change Policy and the article 23 of the Framework Law to Regulate Reduction of Vulnerability, Mandatory Adaptation to the Effects of Climate Change, and the Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases.

It also responds to Article 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which states: To develop efforts in terms of access to information, awareness, education, training, participation and cooperation in the face of climate change.

The program’s actions are concentrated in three major components or areas of work:

A. Capacity Building

1. The program implements systematic processes to strengthen and develop capacities in climate change adaptation and related themes through diplomados (organized courses), courses, workshops, informative talks, seminars, and congresses, among others. These processes are directed to vulnerable groups and key actors in the ICC’s influence and seek to strengthen these groups’ capacities for climate change adaptation and mitigation. These groups include community leaders (both women and men), specialists or professionals, governmental and non-governmental organizations, governmental authorities, and journalists or social communicators.

2. The program provides consulting and assistance on themes related to climate change and the environment to the Private Institute for Climate Change Research’s member organizations.

3. By coordinating and implementing training processes, the program provides professional development opportunities to the ICC’s staff.

B. Dissemination

1. Through digital platforms: The ICC utilizes digital platforms, such as social media and its website, to disseminate its research. These communication channels allow the information to be delivered to a wide audience, generating immediate interaction between the scientific contents and the public.

2. Through printed materials: With the goal of strengthening internal and external communication, the ICC utilizes printed materials to share its research, activities, and projects.

3. Through the media: Various social communication methods, including radio, television, and print and digital media, allow the ICC to make its research and actions known locally, national, and internationally.

4. Through scientific journals: The ICC has prioritized the publication of results in national and international scientific journals that are indexed and specialized in themes relating to climate change. The ICC is the co-founder of the scientific journal Yu’am, which contributes to the scientific world by disseminating climate change-related scientific knowledge that was generated in Mesoamerica.

C. Promotion and research of options for adaptation to climate change and variability and livelihood resilience for affected populations.

1. The ICC produces research about principal livelihood methods, such as agriculture, in relation to adaptation methods for climate change and variability. This allows the institute to generate or customize new technologies that strengthen families’ food security in the face of climate- or weather-related threats, such as floods or droughts.

2. The ICC establishes adaptation initiatives and actions in the face of climate change and variability for those whose livelihoods depend on agriculture. In addition, it promotes the establishment of climate change adaptation demonstration plots, thus strengthening the food security of families living in the Pacific Slope of Guatemala.

3. The ICC develops and undertakes fieldwork related to socio-ecological resilience in the Pacific region of Guatemala, an emerging theme of relevance at a global level that is key to understanding the recovery of socio-ecological systems in the face of climate threats.