SADP graduate student Diana Giraldo Méndez was recently invited to comment on the impacts of extreme climatic conditions across South America by Spanish-language Newspaper El Pais. Specifically, the article discusses the effects of a particularly pronounced La Niña phenomenon which that saw Colombia declare a state emergency last November due to heavy rainfall. Diana expertise in climate adaptation and resilience stems from her involvement in ‘Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA)’ headed by Division members Peter Dorward and Graham Clarkson. PICSA aims to support smallholder farmers to make informed decisions under variable and changing climatic conditions. Diana’s leads PICSA work in multiple countries in Latin America, her research has demonstrated that training young people with this approach has enabled them to act as ‘generators of change’ across the region.
The full El Pais article is available here.