ChangeMakers Gather Climate Experts Online for the First Time

HOW CHANGEMAKERS HELPED BRING A CLIMATE CONFERENCE TO THE WORLD VIRTUALLY

ABOUT

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has a mission. A mission to build a fairer, more sustainable world, using evidence, action and influence, working in partnership with others.

IIED deliver original, rigorous research that helps to drive progress, support sustainable development and protect the environment. They identify local solutions that can work at scale and introduce these to global forums 🌍

HOW WE MAKE CHANGE

IIED running the 14th annual International Community-based Adaption to Climate Change Conference virtually for the first time and were looking for ChangeMakers to help make it happen. The highly interactive online conference took place from 21st-25th September 2020 with 400 delegates from more than 50 countries.

Here’s how ChangeMakers helped 🙌

“THE EXPERIENCE ALLOWED ME TO ENGAGE WITH DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD”

Amyas Walji 🇳🇱

‘My name is Amyas Walji and I am from the Netherlands. I have an academic and professional gusto in issues related to climate change adaptation, environmental risk management and spatial analysis. Growing up in a multicultural environment, studying and working in the Netherlands and abroad, enabled me to understand and relate to different cultural beliefs and values.

At IIED I assisted with the preparation and moderation of sessions during the 14th Annual Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA14) that took place over five days in September 2020. As the conference was held virtually with 550 attendees spanning all five continents, this involved running multiple Zoom meetings during unconventional working hours and managing various platforms for storing data.

It was a great experience in which I was able to become more comfortable using the plethora of tools made available to us for running virtual meetings. Furthermore, it allowed me to engage with different stakeholders from around the world which I may not have done so easily outside of the virtual sphere.’

“I WORKED IN A TEAM DIRECTLY WITH ANOTHER CHANGEMAKER ”

Egle Mackeliunaite 🇱🇹

‘My name is Egle Mackeliunatie and I am originally from Lithuania. The past 9 years I have been studying and living in the United Kingdom. My educational background is in law and I have over three years of experience in project management.

At IIED, I supported the operation of the online conference. This included using the Zoom platform as well as Mentimeter. I worked in a team directly with another ChangeMaker during the conference, and our responsibilities related to time management, organisational arrangements and participating in the sessions.

The experience made me more confident about using I.T. tools such as Zoom. I also gained a lot of knowledge and insight of the organisations that participated in the conference, and built external relationships with the organisers of the conference.’

RESULT

“We received a great amount of applications from volunteers from all around the world to support the 14th International Conference on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA14). We were hugely impressed by the calibre of people offering their time and expertise to us. They helped us make CBA14 a huge success - we couldn't have done it without them. Thank you so much for all your and their help and support!”

KARIN POINTNER
EVENT MANAGER, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (IIED)

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