Upcoming Online Development Courses: January 2012

STEP 1. Enroll in the first course of this series: OL 341.
These four courses are taken in sequence prior to enrolling in elective courses.

	341 Community Based Adaptation 1: Gain an insight into contemporary methods of developing community based, sustainable, impact-oriented projects. Gain practical field tools and develop a range of skills: facilitating participatory needs assessments and DRR assessments, designing projects, and evidence-based activities. Develop a real project in real time.
	342 Community Based Adaptation: Planning for Impact. Imbed impact into your adaptation project design with a powerful set of management tools. Log frames, detailed budgets, timelines, compelling fact sheets, M&E plans, outcomes and impact. These tools will communicate to donors and stakeholders exactly what you are trying to accomplish and can be used for effective management of the project once funded.
	343 Community Based Adaptation 3: The Community Focus. What does climate change adaptation mean at the community level? What practical tools are available today for communities to use in adaptation and in DRR? Conduct a baseline survey including climate vulnerability, risk assessment, an adaptation capacity analysis, and gain an understanding of local knowledge of a changing climate and of coping strategies. For practitioners who wish to begin working now at the community level to successfully adapt to the challenges that face us.
	344 Community Based Adaptation 4: Sustainable Implementation. How do you launch and implement a community based adaptation/DRR project? The importance of community engagement and project co-management. Developing skill sets for your community to use in the adaptation process. Learning tools: monitoring & evaluation. Community empowerment during project hand-over. Sustainability, follow-up & mentoring

Community Based Adaptation brings together those working in the fields of disaster risk reduction, community development, and climate change science. Community Based Adaptation draws on participatory approaches and methods developed in both disaster risk reduction and community development work. CBA needs to start with community expressed needs and perceptions, and have poverty reduction and livelihood benefits, as well as reducing vulnerability to climate change and disasters. In practice, CBA projects look very like ‘development as usual’ and it is difficult to distinguish the additional ‘adaptation components’.
IIED: PLA Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change.

Find out more about this Online Diploma Course.

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Learn how to develop a community centered, impact oriented project.

Tell us about your projects. What do you have to offer to these online students?

Please post your stories and your comments to our blog, our Facebook page, or to our Development Community.

Be sure to join CSDi’s Development Community. Join 600 colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online.

Learn how to develop a community centered, impact oriented project.

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We've had such a strong response to our blog post about flexible recipes from home gardens that we would like to hear from you about your recipes from your garden in your country.

It's easy. Simply send a MS Word attachment to Online.Learning@csd-i.org with your favorite recipe that uses vegetables/fruit/small livestock that you've raised in your home garden.

Please include photos of you, your garden, and/or the finished meal if possible. Let us know a little about your garden - for instance what you raise and what special challenges you face in your country (don't forget to tell us what country you are from!).

We will compile these into an 'International Garden for Nutrition Recipe Book' and announce it in our next newsletter. The recipe book will be a free download - and you will be highlighted for your contribution.

Were hoping to hear from people from all over the world. People from over 170 countries subscribe to the newsletter: we want a recipe from each country: North and South!

You can use metric or English measurements.

The recipes should be submitted in this format:

Rhubarb Crunch:
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 1/2 to 2 pounds rhubarb (this can also be made with other types of fruits such as apples, peaches, or berries)
2 tablespoons sugar
1.2  teaspoons cinnamon
6 ounces of flour
1 1/2 level teaspoons baking powder
4 ounces butter
4 ounces brown sugar
1 to 2 ounces chopped nuts

Preparation
1. Chop the rhubarb into 1 inch slices and put into a well greased pie dish.
2. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon to taste.
3. Mix the flour, butter and brown sugar until like breadcrumbs.
4. Stir in the chopped nuts and smooth down over the rhubarb.
5. Placed in the center of a hot oven (425 to 450° F.) for 30 minutes—check to see if done with a fork
6. Serve hot or cold.

Be sure to join CSDi’s Development Community. Join 600 colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online.

Learn how to develop a community/home garden for food security and nutrition.

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A new guidebook on Technology for Climate Change  Adaptation in the Agriculture sector has been recently published by GEF-UNEP. This guidebook is intended to assist developing country governments, agriculture practitioners, and stakeholders in conducting Technology needs Assessment and prepare technology action plans for adaptation to climate change in the agriculture sector under the Global Environment Facility.

Tell us about your projects. What do you have to offer to these online students?

Please post your stories and your comments to our blog, our Facebook page, or to our Development Community.

Be sure to join CSDi’s Development Community. Join 600 colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online.

Learn how to develop a community centered, impact oriented project.

Like us: CSDi Facebook.

Please Note: Recipes are at the bottom of page.

The first planting of seeds for this garden was on August 15. We're just planting our fourth batch of seedlings into the garden now. Each month I evaluate what we will be needing in two or three months and plant a new batch of seeds in seed trays. So this weekend we will plant our fifth batch of seeds into the seed flats.

We've been consistently eating lettuce for almost 3 months now and as other plants began to mature this fall we enjoyed this succession of vegetables:
-Arugula
-Bok Choy
-Zucchini
-Fresh herbs
-Kale
-Chinese cabbage
-English cabbage
-Beets
-Sugar snap peas
-Green beans
-Spinach
-Parsnips
-Carrots
-Radishes
-Hot spicy peppers

We have had three challenges with our vegetable garden:
1. A tropical storm that lasted for two weeks in September dumping 50 inches of rain on us followed by a two-week cold snap that all happened immediately after we had planted our first seedlings into the garden beds. Everything went into suspended animation and some things developed a fungus and died (tomatoes, basil).

2. Cabbage moths—whose caterpillars eat all cabbage family plants including our Chinese cabbage, English cabbage and kale. One solution that I learned during my visit to gardens in England this summer is to simply plant all of your cabbage plants in one bed and stretch a net over it to keep the cabbage moth out of contact with the cabbage plants.

3. Overabundance! We are simply producing more vegetables than we can eat. Our poor friends leave with armfuls of cabbages and lettuces.

This morning after the inventory we made a list of what we need to plant more of for harvesting in three months which includes:
-Carrots
-Lettuce
-Bok Choy
-Zucchini
-Spinach
-Herbs
-Kale
-Peas
-Green beans
-Radish
-Parsnip
-Beets

We also decided on a few recipes that would allow is to use up what we need to use up right away:
Asian Soup.
For example lunch today was a quick, simple, delicious, nutritious, filling and inexpensive Asian style soup. Noodle-based, I added spinach, Chinese cabbage, dill, lemon juice, sugar snap peas, Szechuan spicy peppers and cilantro—all from the garden. Accompanied by crispy French bread this is a gem. We had a dessert of grapefruit from our friend Ricardo's garden.

Tonight we are going to roast root crops from the garden (we are including two market-bought sweet potatoes):
	Nutritional benefits: Beets: antioxidants, beta-carotene, folate, manganese, fiber, vitamin C, tryptophan, mg., iron & phosphorus. Parsnips: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, dietary fiber, Radishes: ascorbic acid, folic acid, potassium, vitamin B6, riboflavin, magnesium, copper, and calcium

Carrots: β-carotene, vitamin A, dietary fibre, antioxidants, vitamin B, and minerals.
Sweet potatoes: Protein, complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, beta carotene, Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6, iron and calcium.
Shallots: Vitamin A and vitamin C.

We will also serve beet greens and spinach with nuts and raisins on the side.

Beet greens: 1 cup: Vitamin C (60% daily rec.), Vitamin A (220% daily rec.), iron (15% daily rec.) and calcium (15% daily rec.).
Spinach: vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, folate, betaine, iron, vitamin B2, calcium, potassium, vitamin B6, folic acid, copper, protein, phosphorus, zinc, niacin, selenium and omega-3 fatty acids.

Greens and Rhubarb from the garden
	Lastly, we're going to have a traditional English rhubarb crumble for dessert courtesy of our five month old rhubarb plant. Rhubarb: Dietary fiber, vitamin C and vitamin A

As you can see that just the vegetables we picked today are rich in vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, carbohydrates and proteins. These are things frequently missing in the diets of villagers in developing nations--yet the vegetables are simple and inexpensive to grow. Food diversity is a major component of human nutrition. In other words, by eating a diversity of food you will be eating a range of the vitamins and minerals that you need to complement your carbohydrate and protein intake.

We very recipes based upon what's available in the garden: stir fries are good for this! We've had fun searching the Internet for new recipes that can utilize our vegetables without the expense of purchasing cookbooks.

Here are the recipes that we are using today:
Asian soup for two:
2 cups of water
4 ounces of dried noodles
A teaspoon of powdered chicken soup base
1 cup of chopped spinach
1 cup of chopped cabbage
1 tablespoon of chopped dill
1 small handful of sugar snap peas
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
1 thinly sliced spicy pepper
Soy Sauce
Protein: this could be canned tuna, tofu, chicken, hard-boiled eggs

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add the teaspoon of chicken soup base followed by the dried noodles. When the noodles are two minutes from being done, add the spinach, the cabbage, chopped dill and the sugar snap peas. Cook only until bright green.

Add the protein to the bottom of two bowls and pour the soup and noodles over the top. Garnish with lemon juice, soy sauce, cilantro, and thinly sliced spicy pepper.

Roasted root vegetables (Adapted from 'How to Cook Everything' Mark Bittman):
Cooking Time: 1 hour or more
Four servings

4 tablespoons oil, butter, or a mixture
1 1/2 to 2 pounds mixed root vegetables, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, radishes, shallots and onions, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 to 2 inch chunks
Several sprigs fresh thyme or tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
One head of garlic, broken into cloves
Minced fresh parsley leaves for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 425° F. Place the oil or butter in a large roasting pan. Add all of the vegetables (except the garlic), along with the thyme or rosemary. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Place the pan in the oven.

2. Cook for 30 minutes, opening the oven and shaking and stirring the pan once or twice during that period so that everything is coated with oil or butter. Add the garlic and stir the vegetables up; at this point they should be starting to brown. If they are not raise the oven temperature to 450° F.

3. Continue to cook, stirring and shaking every 10 minutes or so, until the vegetables are tender and nicely browned, at least another half hour. If the vegetables soften before they brown, just run them under the broiler for a minute or two. If they brown before they soften, add a few tablespoons of water to the pan and turn the heat down to 350° F.

4. Garnish and serve hot or at room temperature.

Rhubarb Crunch:
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 1/2 to 2 pounds rhubarb (this can also be made with other types of fruits such as apples, peaches, or berries)
2 tablespoons sugar
1.2  teaspoons cinnamon
6 ounces of flour
1 1/2 level teaspoons baking powder
4 ounces butter
4 ounces brown sugar
1 to 2 ounces chopped nuts

Preparation
1. Chop the rhubarb into 1 inch slices and put into a well greased pie dish.
2. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon to taste.
3. Mix the flour, butter and brown sugar until like breadcrumbs.
4. Stir in the chopped nuts and smooth down over the rhubarb.
5. Placed in the center of a hot oven (425 to 450° F.) for 30 minutes—check to see if done with a fork
6. Serve hot or cold.

Beet greens and spinach with nuts and raisins.
2 cups each of chopped beet greens and spinach
4 cloves of minced garlic
2 tablespoons oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup raisins or currants
1/4 cup almonds or cashews (or other local nuts)

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the garlic until it softens (2 to 3 minutes). Add the beet greens and spinach and cover the pan stirring frequently until the greens have become bright green but are not overcooked. Stir in the raisins and nuts. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Learn how to grow nutritious vegetables with your community in our online grassroots course:
303. Food Security, Nutrition, and Home Gardens 1
http://www.csd-i.org/ol-303-food-nutrition-gardens1/