Friday, January 1, 2010

‘Jos Climate Rescue Project’

Mission: “To transform knowledge into a tool for community development.
Vision: “We see a future in which Jos will be a clean and safe city. A place in which we are able to fulfill our dreams in a way that ensures environmental sustainability and peace. A world in which all members of the community are aware of the dangers posed by climate change and consciously takes steps to avoid future conflicts by choosing to place the environment on the fore-front of their decisions and inspire others to do same”.
PROJECT OVERVIEW: This project seeks to fill the gap in knowledge on climate change in Jos, Central Nigeria. The idea is to collect information on the dynamics of climate change and its manifestations (droughts, floods and the threat of conflicts arising through climate change) from all parts of the world but laying more emphasis on trends from Jos or other areas closer to Jos in location, demography or climatic patterns.
Armed with this information, we intend to undertake series of advocacy campaigns. We intend to disseminate climate change related information widely to educate members of the community; and mobilize members of the community to come together, effect necessary changes in their lifestyles and call on others (leaders and other community members) to do same.
GOALS:
 Recruit a project implementation team.
 Gather information on local and global climate change.
 Disseminate climate change related information widely to educate members of the community.
 Mobilize members of the community to come together, effect necessary changes in their lifestyles and call on others (leaders and other community members) to do same.
Stakeholders: The stakeholders we have identified to work with are:
 Volunteers (Including project officers, administrators etc)
 Civil Society Organisations (Groups working in related fields)
 Religious, Community groups and leaders( they are the key stakeholders in the community)
 Schools (this will be the major centres of outreach and advocacy)
 Local Authority & Environmental bodies (they are in charge of environmental policy formulation and enforcement)
 Charitable organizations, donors and sponsors (their support will be central to project success)
 Local online community (bloggers, social networks, community blogs etc)
 The media (they will be the ones to carry the message).

MARKETING STRATEGY: To bring these stakeholders on board, I intend to

• Design and operate a creative project blog filled with up to date information and facts about climate change and our project. Links to the blog will be shared with stakeholders.
• Design newsletters (both soft and hard copies). Copies will be circulated among stakeholders as well as the general public.
• ‘Support what your stakeholders support’. To ensure mutually beneficial relationships, the project will support related activities of stakeholders such as campaigns by schools and environmental policies of local authorities. We will encourage students and community leaders to join us and gain experience which would come in handy in the implementation of their own projects in future.
• Corporate social responsibility: we will approach major businesses in the community and urge them to partner with us as their own contribution to community development.
• We also intend to target recruitment and awareness drives in the first instance from friends, colleagues, schools, online forums and blogs that we have worked with before – ‘moving from the known to the unknown’.