Background
In 2014 and 2015 HECT Consultancy
was involved with Purple Meerkat Public Relations Inc. in an IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) mission
to visit projects sites of the IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office
(ESARO) Project ‘Implementing a
resilience framework to support climate change adaptation, in Kenya and
Uganda’. The purpose of the mission was to document lessons learned and
produce a video and a photobook that IUCN ESARO could use for lobby and
training of county level decision makers in the Mount Elgon region to engage
them in upscaling the IUCN approach. After finishing the work HECT Consultancy
came to the conclusion that an infographic tailored to the Mount Elgon context
might be the most appropriate tool for lobby and training purposes.
Audience determines the choice of the type of infographic
With a team of web application
experts and designers HECT Consultancy developed – at its own expense - a
prototype of such an infographic for the local level. Most existing
infographics on resilience, nature-based solutions or climate change adaptation
are tailored at the needs of decision makers at the national or international
level and are focused on explaining the concept. These infographics are
characterised by an indirect-cognitive design and offer a comprehensive
overview of all the relevant facts and figures. What local decision makers
needed in the Mount Elgon region is a design they will immediately recognize,
focused only on interventions needed in Mount Elgon and explaining the key
elements of the process of change. The design is therefore based on a direct
cognitive approach. Unlike many other infographics this type can also be
printed on A4 (for lobby purposes) or as a large poster (for training
purposes).
Mount Elgon prototype
In 2016 ESARO is testing the
prototype in its lobby and training activities in Kenya and Uganda. The
electronic form of the infographic makes adaptation to other contexts possible
as changing of the type of trees, houses and other landscape elements is
relatively easy. In this way the infographic can be used at the local level of
projects in other countries or continents. The experience with designing this
infographic can also be used for other ESARO resilience projects, e.g. in
preparing for and dealing with extreme droughts (Kenya) or in community
peacebuilding projects after a period of armed conflicts (Uganda).
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