In 2010, more than 30 regional and national partners, including the GEF Small Grants Programme, PCI-Media Impact, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USAID and The Nature Conservancy, launched My Island – My Community. This regional initiative will employ a multi-pronged communication approach – regional radio serial drama, national talk shows and local My Community Campaigns – to mobilize communities around the Caribbean to improve biodiversity conservation and the resilience of communities to climate change, along with key social issues such as health.
In particular, the GEF Small Grants Programme, implemented by UNDP, played a key role in the development of the project, since its inception in 2009, by helping to support a regional capacity development workshop attended by more than 60 participants from 11 Caribbean countries.
During this workshop, the participants identified primary threats and behaviors to address in the drama, learned how to turn issues into drama characters and storylines, and began drafting their individual country work and campaign plans.
Following the workshop, the SGP country programme in Trinidad and Tobago provided support to local partners as they develop a comprehensive community driven campaign about how the community can actively engage in climate change projects that can effectively mitigate the effects of climate change or increase the resilience of the local communities in the country. This community campaign will be launched launch in 2011.
The My Island - My Community program focuses on strengthening the capacity of national and regional partners to effectively and sustainably use communications and public awareness strategies to stimulate behavior change. This program is led by Media Impact, a non-profit organization that over the last 25 years has trained partners around the world to use Entertainment-Education to address critical social and environmental issues in their communities.
On May 10th, the program's serial drama Callaloo will premiere in St. Lucia and New York City. Regular twice-weekly broadcasts and talk shows will begin across the region on June 13th and continue for two years.
Contact:
Ana Maria Currea, KM, GEF Small Grants Programme | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.