This latest posting comes out of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR), which is one of the centers affiliated with CIRES. CSTPR and CU-Boulder partner with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCRCCC) to place graduate students in locations in eastern and southern Africa each summer. This summer, the grad student intern is Sierra Gladfelter, a Masters student in geography. She’ll be in Zambia from June through August and will be writing several posts during her time there.

Here’s what Max Boykoff, CSTPR Director, said in an email about what she’ll be doing this summer:

In Zambia, Sierra will be supporting the monitoring and evaluation component of the ‘City Learning Lab processes’ Zambia Red Cross Society program. This includes supporting the facilitation and documentation of the First Lusaka Learning Lab for the Future Resilience for African Cities and Lands (FRACTAL) project, including contribution to the development of a learning framework and establishing a learning baseline, researching background materials and preparing reading materials in collaboration with the FRACTAL team and documenting learning during the Learning Lab interactions and compiling a learning report. In addition, Sierra will support ongoing field work activities of the Zambia Red Cross Society as well as contribute to the sharing of concepts for the ‘Forecast Based Finance’ project, compiling existing materials on forecast based finance, developing a participatory training course to illustrate the principles of Forecast Based Finance.

Here’s more about the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre Program:http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/redcross/index.html

And keep checking back for more posts from Sierra!