The Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) programme is a seven year, multi-country programme aimed at understanding the vulnerability of poor people’s livelihoods to climate change. The programme focuses on three high-risk climate change hotspots with research spanning across four continents and at least twelve countries.

In order to support research uptake at a global level, IDRC commissioned CommsConsult to conduct a needs assessment and make recommendations on the internal and external systems and mechanisms that needed to be put in place to create an enabling environment for knowledge generation, effective communication and an increased likelihood of research uptake across the programme. CommsConsult helped to determine the type of support CARIAA should seek in developing its communication strategy.

CommsConsult set out to review the extent to which the programme structure, processes and procedures in place would realise these strategic aims, and to use this analysis to make recommendations for an overarching Communication Strategy for CARIAA. We undertook the following activities:

  • Desk review
  • Critique current iterations of the CARIAA RiU, KM and M+E frameworks against best practice models.
  • Key informant interviews
  • Participation in Research into use workshop

CommsConsult was then contracted to do the global communication strategy.

  • Project Type: Needs Assessment (Phase 1); Communication Strategy Development (Phase 2)
  • Lead Unit: Strategic Communication
  • Client: International Development Research Centre
  • Location: Canada