MECCA Project Lagos Dialogue and Workshop
Addressing Mental Models of Climate Change Risk to Support Climate Action in East Africa (Lake Victoria) and West Africa (Lagos)
Introduction
Targeting Mental Models of Climate Change Risk to Facilitate Climate Action (MECCA) is a collaborative project involving a network of scientists at Utrecht University, Netherlands; the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany; and the University of Bergen, Norway. The project is funded by the European Union JPI-Climate program for transnational collaborative research.
The MECCA research was formed to develop pathways for facilitating effective climate action among vulnerable communities with low capacities for both climate adaptation and mitigation. The research was carried out in East Africa (Lake Victoria) and West Africa (Lagos). Both cities were selected due to their high vulnerability to climate change impacts on their dense populations, and inadequate research attention on mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Other local partners involved in the project include the Lagos State Ministry of Environment, International Climate Change Development Initiative, Centre for Disaster Risk and Crisis Reduction (CDRCR), the Nigerian Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER), and the University of Lagos.
Lagos Workshop: TEAP x MECCA
On Friday, May 12 2023, We hosted the Lagos Dialogue and Workshop on the MECCA Research Project on behalf of our international partners. The MECCA team had an opportunity to share the research design, methodology and results with the participants. The workshop participants included stakeholders in academia, government, business, and media interested in environment and health in Lagos state. By facilitating the workshop, we engaged these stakeholders in a brainstorming session based on the preliminary data gathered from Lagos, to promote discussion and gather feedback to inform and support the implementation of creative solutions to address the impacts of climate change in Lagos State.
Overall, the workshop provided an opportunity for the invited stakeholders to provide critical feedback for the final phase of the project. More importantly, the comments, questions, and recommendations put forward throughout the workshop were documented in the MECCA Lagos Dialogue and Workshop Report to build on the preliminary report earlier developed by the MECCA team. This experience reinforced our commitment to working on climate change and mental health issues in Africa in ways that are interdisciplinary, evidence-based, and collaborative.
MECCA Final Project Report
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