An Innovative Approach to Climate Literacy and Action in Cameroon

In February 2020, Yaounde-based entrepreneur Sikem Brice won the Unusual Solutions Competition, organized by WeRobotics with support from PLACE. The winning idea received funding of USD 100,000 over an 18-month period to turn the winning idea into a proof of concept and build a sustainable and scalable local social enterprise. Map&Rank was born shortly after and the team has been working hard and has made significant progress since.

Map&Rank’s winning idea consists of finding new and innovative solutions to tackle climate change literacy and data comprehension at a community level and building a platform that serves as a data pool on local climate risks in Cameroon. Given Cameroon’s varied geography, ecosystems and climatic zones, climate change has affected localities differently, impacting communities at various levels in a country facing multiple crises including climate change effects. But to build climate literacy and teach aobut climate change and its impacts to vulnerable communities, Map&Rank is not only relying on technology. Inspired by an age-old tradition that cuts across cultures and age groups, the team has developed customizable board games using drone imagery which are gaining in popularity.

Read all about the work and progress of Map&Rank over the last 18 months in this Story Map titled “Mapping Climate Risks and Vulnerability in Cameroon”. And discover the first version of the RESIDAT platform, based on the team’s work in the first 3 localities including the Mayo-Danay division around the lake Chad basin in the extreme north region of Cameroon, the Noun division in the western plains of Cameroon and the Wouri Division in the Littoral region of Cameroon.