Make Change Happen

Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities have been the guardians of biodiversity for thousands of years. As a result, today, they conserve the world’s richest biodiversity on their lands and territories.

In this Make Change Happen episode we learn about the term biocultural heritage, which comes from the lived experience of Indigenous Peoples, and is critical to the success of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework up for negotiation in Kunming later this year.

Hosted by Liz Carlile, this podcast features IIED’s principal researcher Krystyna Swiderska; Alejandro Argumedo, Quechuan native from southern Peru and coordinator of the Mountain Indigenous People’s Network; Pierre Du Plessis, expert negotiator in the Convention on Biological Diversity from Namibia; and Joji Carino, Ibaloi Igorot from the Philippines, senior policy adviser with Forest People’s programme, and Indigenous Peoples’ negotiator on biodiversity.

You can follow some of the people you have heard in this episode on Twitter at @lizcarlile and @KrystynaSwider4. Follow the podcast on @IIED_Voices for all the latest updates.

Climate change has devastating impacts on our planet and people. Some impacts are very noticeable, but many go unmentioned.

In this episode of Make Change Happen, we acknowledge the untold loss and damage from climate change having devastating effects on culture and communities.

Hosted by Liz Carlile, this edition’s podcast features IIED’s senior associate director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh Saleem Huq, senior researcher in IIED’s Climate Change research group Brianna Craft, and Gladys Hub, a climate activist from the Solomon Islands, who is also a UNICEF Pacific Supporter and a full-time pharmacist.

You can follow some of the people you have heard in this episode on Twitter at @lizcarlile, @SaleemulHuq, @pbnclimate, and @Gladys_H. Follow the podcast on @IIED_Voices for all the latest updates.

2020 set us back in achieving environment and development progress, leaving an unprecedented challenge ahead. But recovery is possible if we learn from last year and move ahead quickly.

In the first ‘Make Change Happen’ episode of 2021, we learn that early action, youth participation and collaborative policymaking are pivotal to making change happen and a better future for us all.

Hosted by Liz Carlile, this episode’s conversation features IIED director Andrew Norton; Ineza Umehoza Grace, founder and chief executive officer of the Rwandan organisation, The Green Fighter; and Dr Tara Shine, chair of the board of trustees of IIED and director of Change by Degrees.

You can follow some of the people you have heard in this episode on Twitter via @lizcarlile, @andynortondev, @InezaGrrace, and @shine_tara. Follow the podcast on @IIED_Voices for all the latest updates

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns over debt owed by developing nations are increasing substantially. The burden of developing country debt stands at eight trillion US dollars, so action on debt relief is now more pressing than ever.

Debt swaps for climate and nature could help relieve debt and offer great gains for the wellbeing of the planet. But they are a controversial idea.

In this episode of ‘Make Change Happen’, guests discuss the challenges and potential of debt swaps for climate and nature, highlight a lived example of a marine debt swap from the Seychelles, and analyse what is needed for these programmes to work.

Hosted by Liz Carlile, IIED’s director of communications, the discussion features Yacouba Dem, from Mali, country director at the Near East Foundation; Jean-Paul Adam, director for technology, climate change and natural resource management in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; and Laura Kelly, director of IIED’s Shaping Sustainable Markets research group.

You can follow some of the people you have heard in this episode on Twitter via @lizcarlile, @LauraKellyIIED, @AdamJeanPaul and the @NearEastFdn organisation. Follow the podcast on @IIED_Voices for all the latest updates.

More details: https://www.iied.org/debt-swaps-for-climate-nature-innovation-for-resilience-make-change-happen-podcast-episode-8

Cities and towns are hugely impacted by both climate change and public health crises. This combined (and intertwined) threat weighs heaviest on the poorest urban communities. Health and climate specialists are already working hard on reducing urban risk and increasing resilience, but what has COVID-19 shown us about how these experts could learn from each other, and how they could work better with knowledgeable local actors?

Hosted by Anna Walnycki, senior researcher in the Human Settlements group of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the discussion features principal researcher Aditya Bahadur, climate change researcher Sarah McIvor, both also of IIED; and Annie Wilkinson, an anthropologist and health systems researcher at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).

This episode also includes valuable reflections from climate change researcher Anmol Aurora, based in India, and Dr Joseph M. Macarthy, executive director of the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC), who joins the conversation from Freetown.

In this episode of ‘Make Change Happen’, the guests discuss the similarities between public health crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impacts of climate change on urban settings in the global South. One significant element in common: both have devastating human consequences.

More information: https://www.iied.org/shared-vulnerabilities-connecting-climate-health-cities-make-change-happen-podcast-episode-7

You can follow some of the people you have heard in this episode on Twitter via @AnnaWalnycki, @adibahadur, @wordsbyanmol and @ALSWilkinson. Follow the podcast on @IIED_Voices for all the latest updates.

Of the approximately 71 million people displaced by conflict and violence worldwide, nearly 26 million are considered refugees. But are more secure futures hindered by a collective failure to see refugees as diverse people, with skills to offer, and preferences about where they call home?

For World Refugee Day, we discuss new IIED research comparing refugees’ experiences of life in urban areas to that in camps, examining Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Jordan and Kenya. And we hear about an energy access project that captures some of the complexity of working with displaced people.

Hosted by Liz Carlile, IIED’s director of communications, the discussion features Lucy Earle, principal researcher, and Deena Dajani, researcher, both working in IIED’s Human Settlements research group; alongside Kevin Johnstone, researcher in IIED's Shaping Sustainable Markets research group.

The episode also features contributions from two experts working in Kenya: Dr Michael Owiso, dean of the School of Development & Strategic Studies at Maseno University, and Dyfed Aubrey, inter-regional advisor at UN-Habitat.

More information: https://www.iied.org/reimagining-refugee-futures-cities-not-camps-make-change-happen-podcast-episode-6

You can follow the organisations and panellists on Twitter: @lizcarlile and @lucyearleurban.

Follow the podcast on @IIED_Voices for all the latest updates.

Globally, we are producing more food than ever. But for many of the world’s poorer citizens, secure access to safe food is becoming less certain.

To counter this, an advocacy programme called Sustainable Diets for All is asking: how can we create food systems that are fairer, healthier and more sustainable?

Over the last four years, Dutch NGO Hivos and IIED have worked with local organisations in Uganda, Bolivia, Indonesia, Zambia and Kenya to find out how we can make sustainable diets – those that serve both planet and people – available to everybody.

The Sustainable Diets programme is bridging the gap between informal actors and policymakers, working to nurture local initiatives around food and food systems. It supports civil society organisations fighting for diverse food production and better, affordable diets for everybody.

Hosted by Liz Carlile, IIED’s director of communications, this podcast discussion features Alejandro Guarin, senior researcher in IIED's Shaping Sustainable Markets research group, and Costanza de Toma, who led on communications and advocacy for IIED through 2019; it features contributions from partners Vladimir Garcia in Bolivia, Emma Blackmore in Kenya and Mangiza Chirwa in Zambia.

To find out more about this episode, visit: https://www.iied.org/what-makes-sustainable-diet-who-decides-make-change-happen-podcast-episode-5

More on IIED's work in this area is available via https://www.iied.org/sustainable-diets-for-all.

You will also find recent briefings and papers in our Publications Library at https://pubs.iied.org/search/?k=hivos+food

You can follow the organisations and panellists on Twitter: @hivos , @migabolivia, @ILRI @lizcarlile and @cos_detoma.

Follow the podcast on @IIED_Voices for all the latest updates.

Growth is usually measured by gross domestic product (GDP). But while this can indicate the health of other factors – such as jobs, livelihoods and even poverty reduction – it paints a limited picture.

GDP does not capture inequality, despite the effect this has on wellbeing. It excludes the environment and the care economy – meaning a huge amount of work done by women literally doesn’t count.

GDP also largely overlooks greenhouse gas emissions, failing to count the cost to vulnerable countries. In fact, damaging climate shocks can even count as ‘positive’ when we focus on GDP, as destruction prompts recovery spending.

Discussing these and other issues are IIED director Andrew Norton, Essam Yassin Mohammed, IIED’s head of blue economy; Clare Shakya, director of the Climate Change research group; and Paul Steele, IIED's chief economist.

To find out more about this episode, visit https://www.iied.org/trouble-growth-make-change-happen-podcast-episode-4.

More on IIED's work in this area is available via https://www.iied.org/economics. You will also find recent briefings and papers in our Publications Library at pubs.iied.org/economics.

You can follow the panellists on Twitter: @andynortondev, @clareshakya and @EYMohammed. Follow the podcast on @IIED_Voices for all the latest updates.

A quarter of the world’s urban population live in informal settlements, mostly in the global South.

In advance of the 2020 World Urban Forum in February 2020, this episode looks at how IIED’s work with marginalised urban communities developed, and what opportunities exist now for building more inclusive cities.

To discuss these and other related issues, in this podcast our director of communications, Liz Carlile, talks with two urban experts, David Satterthwaite and Anna Walnycki.

Both guests explain why they feel optimistic about the opportunities for inclusive, low-carbon sustainable urbanisation, inspired by successful community-led projects and the urban residents doing this vital work.

To find out more, visit www.iied.org/urban. You will also find recent briefings and papers in our Publications Library at pubs.iied.org/urban.

Access to electricity in the poorest countries has begun to accelerate, energy efficiency continues to improve, and renewable energy is making gains in the electricity sector. Despite this progress, around a billion people remain without access to electricity while some 3 billion are without access to clean cooking fuels and technologies.

Off-grid and mini-grid solutions can be designed to provide affordable electricity to poor communities in hard-to-reach areas, but Governments hoping to harness these technologies to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 — universal access to energy by 2030 — need to find new ways to attract more finance as they currently receive only a fraction of the annual global investment in energy provision. 

To discuss these and other related issues, in this podcast our Director of Communications, Liz Carlile, talks with three expert colleagues from our energy team.

To find out more, visit www.iied.org/energy. You will also find recent briefings and papers on our publications library site at https://pubs.iied.org/energy.