Innovative Strategies to Cope with Climate Change Across Time and Space - Local Preparedness As a Humanitarian Challenge?

This paper addresses an innovative climate change adaptation strategy in the area of disaster preparedness developed by the German Red Cross in cooperation with its local partners in Africa such as the Ugandan and the Togolese Red Cross. Discussing the concept of “early warning/early action” and its practical implementation, this paper addresses organizational learning processes in transnational organizations from an actor centered perspective. By looking at a new project approach in the area of indicator based disaster preparedness systems, the importance of knowledge creation and transformation across time and space is highlighted. Time is important to respond adequately before a disaster strikes which requires new forms of institutionalized cooperation (for example, with meteorological departments and other stakeholders), while the spatial dimension refers to processes of organizational learning across borders and hierarchies from the local to the regional, national and transnational level. The role of both local communities and organizational change agents, meaning key persons within and outside the organizations, is addressed systematically to analyze the possibilities to foster climate change adaptation projects and their successful implementation in the long run.