Business View Caribbean - April 2016 13
These organizations are already conducting impor-
tant education and awareness programs, for exam-
ple targeting schools and youth. They also engage in
the development of national policies and programs
to address climate change and participate in global
fora such as the UN climate change conference held
in Paris in December 2015.
One participant liked “the interactive nature of the
sessions and the fact that we are learning from each
other.” Peer sharing and support was a key strategy
used in the workshop to help to strengthen the work
and effectiveness of these five CSOs.
During the workshop, Kishan Kumarsingh, head of
the Multilateral Environmental Agreements Unit,
Environmental Policy Planning Division in the Min-
istry of Planning, shared key information on the im-
plications for Trinidad and Tobago of the outcome
of the Paris climate change conference, as well as
some of the ways CSOs can get involved in support-
ing government efforts to implement the National
Climate Change Policy.
The CSOs also increased their existing knowledge
of climate change trends and mapped the main im-
pacts on different areas where they worked across
Trinidad and Tobago. The five CSOs also started to
work on ways to better communicate information
about climate change to raise awareness and to
influence policy. They started working on climate
change communication plans for their organizations,
based on the objectives and messages related to
climate change they wish to convey to their identi-
fied target audiences. CANARI will provide coaching
to all five organizations while they continue refining
the climate change communication plans with other
members of the CSOs.
This workshop was held as one of the activities un-
der the project “Climate ACTT: Action by civil society
in Trinidad and Tobago to build resilience to climate
change” which aims to strengthen the capacity of
five CSOs in Trinidad and Tobago to internationally
accepted levels of best practice in two areas: insti-
tutional (organizational) strengthening; and technical
capacity to deliver programs/projects related to cli-
mate change adaptation and resilience. CANARI is
implementing and managing this project in collabo-
ration with Conservation International (CI) and BHP
Billiton Trinidad and Tobago.
