The Commonwealth of Learning’s (COL) regional centre, the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) and Seeking Modern Applications for Real Transformation (SMART NGO), unveiled the ‘Climate Literacy for Community Media: A Systematic Learning Curriculum’ during the inaugural session of the Radio Festival 2024 in New Delhi, India. The recently-held event was organised by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India (MIB-GoI), Prasar Bharati, UNESCO New Delhi, and SMART NGO. Mr Sanjay Jaju, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India, and Ms Neerja Sekhar, a senior official, joined the event.

The curriculum, jointly developed by CEMCA and SMART NGO, addresses the pressing need for educational resources to equip community media professionals and communities with an understanding of the science behind climate change, its regional impacts, and the significance of mitigation and adaptation measures.

Dr B. Shadrach, Director of CEMCA, highlighted the transformative potential of community radio as an educational tool capable of fostering lifelong learning among its listeners. He highlighted the curriculum’s launch as an exciting opportunity to leverage radio and audio communication to spur grassroots action in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change and advancing climate action

Mapping the vulnerability zones of India, the curriculum points to concerted actions the communities can clearly undertake to mitigate and adapt to the change. As a solution-based curriculum, it is anticipated that the community media activists shall apply storytelling methodology to invoke actions at the community level.