Video-mediated approaches for community-level climate adaptation

There is a need to facilitate the dissemination of information and ideas that can accelerate community-based adaptation to climate change. Increasingly affordable communication technologies may allow for extending the benefits of available knowledge to those who most need it. Audiovisual media, when combined with participatory processes for adaptation, offers potentially effective ways to raise awareness, scale-up capacity building, support community-level planning and develop innovative approaches to advocacy and institutional partnerships. Importantly, video-mediated approaches can be designed to tackle the complex poverty-related aspects of adaptation in the work of humanitarian organisations, addressing the heterogeneity of vulnerable communities and giving a voice to the most marginalised members, This article outlines lessons learned from the use of audiovisual tools in health risk management, discusses recent and ongoing video projects by the Red Cross addressing climate change in Argentina, the Bahamas, Indonesia and Malawi, and recommends practical applications for organisations supporting pro-poor adaptation.