Building resilience in Ghana and Kenya

The Envisioning Resilience initiative has amplified the voices of underrepresented women in adaptation planning processes in Ghana and Kenya. This is thanks to a Canada funded partnership between the NAP Global Network and Lensational.

In 2021 2022, the initiative equipped 14 women with digital cameras and provided training on photography and storytelling. These sessions not only taught the women how to use their cameras, but also highlighted climate change issues. With this guidance, participants were able to develop visual stories that captured their communities’ experiences with climate change.

The women then presented their photo stories to policymakers during policy dialogue workshops and photo exhibitions in Accra and Nairobi. This initiated in depth exchanges between the women and decision makers. These discussions helped build a shared understanding of the effects of climate change on women’s lives and the adaptation priorities of their communities.

“It paints a true picture and influences how policymakers should decide the actions, strategies and policies,” says Thomas Lerenten Lelekoitien, deputy director of Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Change Directorate, for Kenya’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

In addition, the photo stories highlighted the role women can play as agents of change in leading communities toward more resilient and prosperous futures.

“I’m a meteorologist by profession and there are so many other ways we can tell people to adapt to climate change—maybe changing crops, changing livelihoods,” explains Rose Lekalesoi, a meteorologist with Kenya’s Meteorological Department. “I’ve seen that the community itself can manage their own way of adapting to climate change. Our policy on climate change should start from the bottom up.”