HyCRISTAL: Filmmaking for a two-way dialogue in Uganda

As part of the HyCRISTAL project, one of our post-doctoral research fellows, Dr Grady Walker, will be travelling to Uganda in March. Working with Future Climate for Africa, Dr Walker will be using basic filmmaking techniques to create a two-way dialogue between farmers and decision makers.

Many farmers in sub-Saharan Africa need to know what the upcoming season is going to bring. However, climate scientists have often focused on longer time horizons, looking ahead several decade at the impacts of climate change on seasons. Dr Walker and the FCFA team will use this visual storytelling method to address this issue/

A group of farmers will be given training in low-tech filmmaking that will not sacrifice the content or quality of the videos. These farmers, together with government officials, will meet for a facilitated film viewing process where they will have a chance to discuss the contents and issues. These stories will then help to inform local and national policy.

Dr Walker said: “This approach will allow farmers to work in their own language, using their own cultural idioms, in a way that should let their own subjectivity surface.”

Dr Walker has expertise in visual methods research, which is about objectively capturing and steering the conversation that happens between communities and government. Dr Walker will in Uganda in a couple of weeks’ time to carry out this work with partners, Climate Action Network-Uganda and Miriam Talwisa. 

For the full article on the upcoming trip please follow this link and watch this space for a full report on the trip when Dr Walker returns in March!

The linked article was written by Leonie Joubert and is part of a series that delves into the science that has been produced by various FCFA projects, and introduces some of the people behind it.  

The FCFA work covered in this story is part of the Integrating Hydro-Climate Science into Policy Decisions for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure and Livelihoods in East Africa (HyCRISTAL). It aims to develop a new understanding of climate change in East Africa and to work with the region’s decision-makers to manage water for a more climate-resilient future.