Seychelles to improve climate resilience with outcomes under the Nairobi Work Programme |09 July 2021

Sophie Morgan, panelist for the virtual climate dialogue event

The Nairobi Work Programme (NWP) under the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) remains the knowledge-to-action hub on climate change adaptation and resilience.

The work programme strives to assist all parties of the convention, in particular developing countries and small island states, to improve their understanding and assessment of the climate change impacts and adaptation strategies to better respond to climate change.

Graduate students from the University of Michigan under the partnership of the work programme undertook a graduate research project focusing on evaluating the impacts of sea level rise and storm surge on the critical infrastructures in Seychelles.

The students worked in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, the National Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Risk and Disaster Management.

The project was undertaken in two phases: Phase one was undertaken by four students in 2018-2019 and phase two was undertaken by three students in 2019-2020.

Sophie Morgan, senior policy analyst for climate change and water at the department of Climate Change and Energy, was an invited panelist for the NWP related virtual climate dialogue event that took place on November 30, 2020.

The event itself focused on scaling up adaptation actions through partnerships to address knowledge gaps.

Miss Morgan was able to share her experience of the outcomes of the university partnership of the work programme with other panelists and participants.

“The work conducted by the University of Michigan students addressed a critical need in the Seychelles. The students listened to our needs and challenges and were able to create a tool simple enough for us to use without the need for additional training,” said Miss Morgan.

The UNFCCC also developed an outreach video strategy to showcase the successful participation and promotion of the programme in order to allow the engagement of new partners.

Miss Morgan was invited to participate in the small virtual video interview as well.

“The programme allows the graduate students to engage with the government of other countries and also gives them personal satisfaction when using their university skills and introducing those skills in the real world,”said Miss Morgan during the interview.

The interview video will be displayed in the main UNFCCC sessions, events, workshops and hubs.

Press release from the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment