Garama 3C Ltd was established in 2012 to provide consultancy and training services to clients who need to consider the implications of climate change in their planning and operations. We work with governments (including donors and recipients of development aid), multilateral organisations, research bodies, NGOs and the private sector. Most of our work focuses on adaptation and resilience in international development contexts. However, our work is wide-ranging, and has recently included a working paper on norms and values for net-zero transitions, the delivery of training on climate mitigation finance in partnership with ODI and Pengwern Associates, and research on the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage. See the bottom of this page for some examples of recent work.

Our courses

Garama has run regular courses on Climate Change Adaptation and Mainstreaming (3 days), Monitoring and Evaluation for Climate Change Adaptation (2 days), and Adapting to Climate Change (5 days, combining elements of the prior two courses with updated material). These have been run as in-person courses in Norwich, UK, where we are based.

We have also provided tailored training for a number of organisations, including governments, multilateral development banks, research organisations, and private sector implementers of development programmes (you can find a list of these trainings here).

Currently we are developing an online training course based on the Adaptation to Climate Change course, updated to include content on net-zero transitions and climate change responses following the COVID-19 pandemic. This will be in addition to updated content on climate change science, global climate policy and negotiations, climate change impacts and risks, adaptation and resilience concepts and thinking, climate change mainstreaming/integration, climate risk screening, climate risk and vulnerability assessment, the identification and prioritisation of adaptation options, planning and implementing ‘transformational’ adaptation, and assessing adaptation effectiveness.

The aim is to provide online training that retains the combination of taught modules and interactive exercises, and continuous interaction between trainer and audience, at a significantly reduced cost compared to the in-person training.

Who is our training for?

Our training courses are intended to provide participants with the knowledge and skills they need to consider the implications of climate change for their work. This might include the integration of climate change adaptation and resilience into planning, programming, project/programme implementation and assessment.

Our courses are relevant for policymakers and planners, multilateral organisations, donors and recipients of development aid, NGOs, decision-makers in the private sector, and other organisations working on climate change and development, or in sectors where climate change may affect outcomes and performance.

Participants on our regular courses have included staff from government agencies (within and outside the UK), international organisations (including UN organisations and multilateral finance organisations), private firms, and individual consultants. We have designed and delivered bespoke training for governments in Africa and Asia, the UK government, the European Commission, the Swiss Development Cooperation agency, the African Development Bank, and a number of private firms implementing and evaluating development programmes.

Our other activities

As well as the design and delivery of training, we provide technical services to a wide range of clients, with a focus on adaptation and resilience, the ‘mainstreaming’ of these into development practice, and the monitoring and evaluation of (and learning from) initiatives intended to support adaptation and promote resilience. Garama has played a leading role in the development of adaptation and resilience M&E frameworks and indicators used in international contexts, including IIED’s Tracking Adaptation and Measuring Development (TAMD) framework and indicators for the UK’s International Climate Fund. We have also developed tools and methods for climate risk screening.

Recent assignments have included:

• Participation in webinars on transformation to address the climate crisis, for Climate-KIC and the Climate Investment Funds (CiFs)
• Support to the UK’s COP26 team on adaptation criteria.
• Review and quality assessment of the DFID/FCDO funded Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility (CRIDF).
• Working paper on the role of norms and values in net-zero transitions, and how ‘pro-climate’ norms and values might be promoted through social innovation (Climate-KIC).
• Development of a framework for planning and evaluating adaptation in relation to the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals, and scientific guidance from the IPCC and other sources (IIED/GIZ).
• Literature review of tools and methods for resilience measurement, for DFID Nepal (IMC/DFID);
• Early and formative evaluation of the Climate Leadership in Cities (CLIC) Programme (IPE/BEIS);
• Transition support to Nepal’s National Climate Change Support Programme (Landell Mills/DFID);
• Adaptation and resilience learning for the Kenya StARCK+ programme (DAI/DFID);
• Preparation of a discussion paper and organisation of an international conference in South Africa on transformational adaptation, for DFID’s Vuna programme.

To find out more about our other consultancy work, please see the main Garama consultancy website.

Why climate change?

Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time, and has the potential to undermine human development, to erode or reverse economic growth, and to adversely affect human wellbeing in a multitude of ways. It is absolutely vital that public policy, planning, and long-term investment decisions by both government and the private sector are informed by a knowledge of climate change. For human societies to flourish, decision-makers need to consider the impacts of their actions on the global climate (mitigation), and the implications of climate change for the sustainability and viability of their policies, plans and investments (adaptation). Building the knowledge and capacity of decision-makers to integrate climate change considerations into their activities should therefore be a priority for government, the private sector, and other organisations.

The image above is of the Wadi al-Ajal in southern Libya, from the ruins of ancient Garama, from which we take our name. Garama was the capital of the Garamantian Tribal Confederation, the Sahara’s first indigenous urban civilisation, which emerged through a process of adaptation to severe climatic and environmental change as the Sahara dried out. See more here.