World: APC and IDRC Launch New Book on ICTs, Climate Change and Water
By NewsfromAfrica
CALGARY – A new book that focuses on how ICTs can be used to help communities facing water-related stress mitigate and adapt to climate change has just been released by The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
Application of ICTs for climate change adaptation in the water sector: Developing country experiences and emerging research priorities is a collection of reports from Africa, Asia and Latin America that explore the complexity of issues communities in developing countries face, and how research into ICTs can help them adapt to the on-going changes in climate. The publication also offers a framework for project decision-making, and several case studies that highlight the application of technology in water projects.
“Within the water sector, ICTs can contribute towards improvements in water resource management techniques; strengthen the voice of the most vulnerable within water governance processes; create greater accountability; provide access to locally relevant information needed to reduce risk and vulnerability; and improve networking and knowledge sharing to disseminate good practices and foster multi-stakeholder partnerships,” says the report.
Editors Alan Finlay of APC and Edith Adera of IDRC explain that “while the report draws on current experiences in the field of water management and sustainability, it is primarily from an ICT for development perspective… the reports should be considered exploratory, offering a fresh perspective to the field of water security in vulnerable contexts.”
While water management and sustainability is a specialist field in its own right with a large body of research and evidence, bringing ICTs into the mix presents a new theoretical challenge and exposes new gaps in knowledge and practice. “How the sector itself adapts to a relatively new field of enquiry remains to be seen, and part of the purpose of this publication is to catalyse that process,” the report says.