Stories

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2016

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Integration: Factoring Climate Change Knowledge and Practice into All Development Programming

December 2016, Story

USAID is considering climate risk in program design to increase the impact and sustainability of its development work. These integration efforts help people, communities, governments and institutions better adapt to climate change and achieve improved development results.

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Clean Energy: Reducing Emissions While Growing Economies

December 2016, Story

Around the world, USAID is helping countries develop and implement clean energy strategies that improve energy security, lower energy costs and advance economic growth, all while lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

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Adaptation: Helping to Safeguard Development Gains and Pursue Priorities

December 2016, Story

USAID’s adaptation work helps countries build the capacity to use climate information and tools to inform planning and decision-making. It also helps countries, communities and the private sector plan for change.

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Philippines: Building Resilience in Cities Devastated by Typhoon Haiyan

October 2016, Photo Essay

Assistance from the United States goes beyond building back damaged water systems. USAID is helping Tacloban, and cities across the Philippines, integrate climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction into their long-term plans.

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Haiti and Dominica: Reducing Climate Risk Through Resilient Infrastructure

September 2016, Story

Climate-related impacts can be significant in the Caribbean. USAID-led climate risk management efforts have saved lives, safeguarded livelihoods and investments, and made communities more resilient to climate change.

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Zimbabwe: Integrating Climate Risk Management

September 2016, Story

The USAID mission in Zimbabwe—one of the first missions to go through USAID’s new climate risk management process—is already seeing benefits for its five-year plan for USAID and other U.S. government assistance.

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Philippines: Farmers Triumph Over Drought

September 2016, Story

USAID helped to introduce small-scale irrigation systems, six-month weather forecasts and general training, allowing farmers to increase their resilience, productivity and decision-making ability.

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Kosovo: Businesses See Value in Going Green

September 2016, Story

USAID is working to expand renewable energy options for Kosovo and to prepare companies to meet increasing demand abroad. The new energy sources are also helping reduce business losses from inconsistent energy supply.

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Vietnam Builds Energy Efficiency Expertise

September 2016, Story

Engineers and architects learn new ways to save energy as increasing industrialization and urbanization cause energy consumption to grow quickly.

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Africa: A Light Bulb Turns on for Women’s Advancement

July 2016, Story

When Fatima Oyiza Ademoh of Nigeria attended the Power Africa/Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Energy Institute, a light bulb turned on. She realized that gender gaps exist beyond the well-known dangers of rural cooking methods that cause severe health problems for women and girls.

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Africa: Paving the Way for Mini-Grids

July 2016, Story

The African Development Bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) is promoting the growth of mini-grids in sub-Saharan Africa to unlock the region’s potential for clean energy and increase energy access in isolated communities.

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Burkina Faso: How Restored Forests Are Helping Women

July 2016, Story

In the dry Sahel, the months before the harvest are tough. Everything is green, the crops are almost mature, but that is the exact moment when people are most food insecure. Women are now using food from enclosed forest plots to get their households through the lean times prior to the new harvest.

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South Africa: Assessing The Energy Storage Market

July 2016, Story

Energy storage technologies have the potential to substantially strengthen South Africa’s grid by providing grid balancing and resiliency, improving power quality, increasing the ability to successfully integrate renewable energy resources and offsetting the need to use expensive fossil fuels for peaking power.

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India: Tapping Solar Power for a Clean, Prosperous Economy

June 2016, Photo Essay

To accelerate this smart energy source and provide power to lift people out of poverty, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to bring 100 gigawatts of solar power online in six years—enough to power 100 million Indian homes for a year.

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India: Climate-Wise Techniques Help Farmers Face Drought

June 2016, Photo Essay

Farmers learn to capture rainwater during monsoon season for use during dry months. Sensors and weather data help farmers optimize water use conserving billions of liters of water and millions of kilowatt hours of energy.

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Maldives: Climate Change Is Starting to Create Waves Among Citizens

March 2016, Story

A grassroots effort to protect coastal resources, coral reefs and livelihoods demonstrates how individuals can impact their environment and their future.

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Global Cities: How USAID is Connecting Cities Adapting to Climate Change

March 2016, Story

A program to share lessons learned in building resilience to climate change brings together city officials from two very different parts of the world—Somerville, Massachusetts and La Ceiba, Honduras. The two share more in common than meets the eye.

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India: Early Sowing Saves Wheat Fields

March 2016, Story

What began with just four farmers in 2009 has gained a significant following. Today, over 620,000 farmers across the provinces of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar grow their wheat using this early sowing method, increasing yields and improving livelihoods.

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Cambodia: Mangrove Trees Clean Up, Storing High Levels of Carbon

March 2016, Story

Mangrove trees serve as a buffer between land and sea in Cambodia, helping to prevent soil erosion and protect livelihoods. They are also vital to conserving the environment because they serve as a carbon “sink”—storing more carbon than they release.

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Bangladesh: Organic Fruit and Veggies Help This Farmer-Mom Save Money and Forests

February 2016, Story

Shafia Begum learns to grow organic vegetables to feed her family, earn more money and reduce their reliance on collecting firewood from the nearby Lawachara forest.

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India: Three Wise Men

February 2016, Story

By sowing wheat early, farmers in India are doubling production and avoiding crop failure resulting from earlier summers and higher temperatures.

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Vietnam: Public-Private Partnership Paves the Way for Thanh Hoa’s Bamboo Market

January 2016, Story

A partnership in sustainable bamboo management and harvesting is putting the country on a path to greeen growth while storing up to 45 tons of carbon per hectare. Bamboo forests can sequester significantly more carbon than traditional forests due to its ability to grow back within three to four years after harvest.

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Philippines: Climate Training Safeguards Sardine Production

January 2016, Story

City planner Ofelia Despalo has many things on her plate, from watersheds and land-use to fish, particularly sardine fish, their survival and that of the industry it brings to her community. After USAID training, she is now incorporating climate change into long-term plans to protect watersheds, coastal resources and the fishing industry.

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Jamaica: Drought Tool Could Turn Table on Climate Change

January 2016, Story

The innovation was one of the first steps in building resilience under Jamaica’s national climate policy. It provides drought-monitoring forecasts that allows farmers to plan their planting around dry periods and has been tailored for producing seasonal climate forecasts from a general circulation model (GCM), or for producing forecasts using fields of sea-surface temperatures.

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Angola: Strengthening Disaster Response in Face of Climate Change

January 2016, Story

In 2009, about 25,000 residents lost their homes in floods, and many more were affected by the disaster. Since 2013, an annual drought has plagued the region and its 500,000 inhabitants. Crops and livestock have suffered. In a province where 80 percent of the population raises cattle, this is a serious threat to livelihoods.

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Ghana: A Village Faces the Rising Tide of Climate Change

January 2016, Photo Essay

As the sea level has risen and coastal erosion increased, so too has coastline population and development. With the rising demand for fuel, a critical resource in Ghana’s coastal zone—mangroves and the ecosystem they dominate—is diminishing due to deforestation. USAID and its partners are working with local populations to support the sustainability of coastal resources.

2015

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Bangladesh: Solar Power Brings Brighter Days and Nights

December 2015, Story

Tania Khatun and her family have seen their quality of life improve at the flip of a switch. No longer in the dark, she and her children are enjoying cooler nights and more enjoyable and productive evenings thanks to the sun’s rays collected through new solar panels.

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Asia: Saving Coral Reefs to Save the Oceans

December 2015, Story

Coral reefs are often called the “rainforests of the sea” for the exceptional biodiversity they support. However, these centers of marine biodiversity are highly threatened by a climate change-driven event called mass coral bleaching. USAID works to protect reefs through our climate change work, improved fishing practices, and support for marine protected areas.

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Zambia: Documenting Land Rights to Reduce Conflict, Address Climate Change

December 2015, Photo Essay

For women and men in Zambia—as in much of the developing world—land is one of the most important assets. Clear, secure rights to land empower people to make long-term investments that reduce extreme poverty, improve food security and address climate change.

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Policy: How and Why USAID is Ensuring Our Development Efforts are Climate Resilient

November 2015, Policy View

Climate change is not just an environmental problem, but a human problem with direct implications for hunger, poverty, conflict, water scarcity, infrastructure integrity, sanitation, disease and survival.

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Mozambique: Helping Coastal Cities Stand up to Climate Change

November 2015, Photo Essay

With a changing climate, storms are becoming less predictable and more severe, and flooding is magnified by sea level rise and coastal erosion.

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Mozambique: Cities Adapt to Climate Change One Tree and One Text Message at a Time

October 2015, Story

Restoring mangrove tree groves offers a host of benefits to the environment and the economy, while mobile phones alert residents to pending disasters.

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Philippines: Farmers Learn to Adapt Through Climate Field School

October 2015, Story

New farming techniques tailored to unpredictable weather conditions are taught in makeshift classrooms, increasing harvests and income.

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Pacific Islands: Saving Countries, One Community at a Time

October 2015, Story

Throughout the Pacific Islands, USAID is preparing populations to survive and prosper while rising sea levels, droughts, floods and other devastating events force people to adapt their lives to a world affected by climate change.

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Policy: Scaling Up Renewable Energy in the Developing World

October 2015, Policy View

The renewable energy sector has reached a critical inflection point where costs are competitive with fossil fuels and investment is ramping up in a big way, said more than a dozen experts at a day-long conference co-hosted by ECSP and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Global Climate Change on October 27.

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Mexico: Technology Aims to Take Down Greenhouse Gases

October 2015, Story

A hospital’s new solar water heater is just one example of a nationwide effort to embrace clean energy and reduce dependence on oil.

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Haiti: Climate-Resilient Farming Starts in the Soil

October 2015, Story

When a research lab analyzes soil content, farmers can better decide what crops to grow, how to plant and fertilize them, and how to deal with water shortages for greater yields and profits.

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Nepal: ‘Sweeping’ Changes Score High Marks in Soil Conservation

October 2015, Story

As broom grass revitalizes bare hillsides, thwarts soil erosion, and retains ground moisture, its stalks are bringing a new source of income to farmers.

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Indonesia: Bringing Back the Water

October 2015, Story

With longer dry seasons and shallow springs, infiltration ponds are collecting rainwater in Indonesia, bringing clean water to home taps and farms.

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Bangladesh: Satellite Data Is Saving Lives with Flood Forecasting

October 2015, Story

USAID and NASA are working together to expand flood early warnings in Bangladesh from five days to as many as eight.

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Southern Africa: Building a ‘Resilience Village’ Becomes a Climate-Smart Step in the Right Direction

October 2015, Story

Local meetings train villagers in southern Africa to identify and protect their most valuable resources.

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Climate Science: NASA + USAID = A Better World (From Space)

September 2015, Story

For the past decade, NASA and USAID have partnered to use satellite technology and geospatial data to monitor risks and respond to some of the world’s most pressing issues, from the spread of malaria in Tanzania to global climate change and monsoon floods in Bangladesh.

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Philippines: Bringing Clean Energy to Off-Grid Islands

September 2015, Photo Essay

Energy demand is rising in the Philippines; and in a country comprised of more than 7,000 islands, delivering basic electricity to the most remote areas remains a challenge. With technology costs falling, renewable energy is an affordable and sustainable solution to help people make a decent living and support their families.

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Senegal: Millet Farmers Triple Yields With New Technology

April 2015, Story

Rainfall insurance adds protection against crop losses due to climatic stresses.

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