Climate & Global Migration Sessions
Climate Change Impacts and Community Responses Around the World
During this session, we will explore how communities in different parts of the world are responding to climate change, including through adapting livelihoods and preparing for disaster risks where they are; and, for some, through migration. We will discuss how communities around the world, who have contributed the least to climate change are feeling its impacts most acutely. We will also explore how the exchange of ideas to respond to climate change benefits the most from the inclusion of Indigenous communities and other marginalized groups.
Following this session, participants will:
Understand how communities around the world are experiencing climate change, including examples from Central America, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia.
Identify responses to climate impacts, including livelihoods adaptations, disaster risk reduction, and migration.
Presenters
Mercedes Pérez, Manager, Support Program for Returned Migrants, CASM
Mercedes Pérez, serves with the Mennonite Social Action Commission (la Comisión de Acción Social Menonita – CASM) in Honduras, as Manager for its Support Program for Returned Migrants. In this role, Mercedes leads CASM’s efforts to support safe, dignified., and sustainable reintegration for persons returning from migration, including those who have lived through deportation. She has shared experiences from CASM’s work in the People’s Migration Challenge series on the Global Compact for Migration, as part of global civil society efforts to promote the human rights of migrants and has participated in regional forums such as the Central America Donors Forum (CADF). Currently, Mercedes is the focal point for Honduras’ participation in the Latin America and the Caribbean regional review of advances and challenges in implementing the Global Compact for Migration.
Sothea Ek
Sothea Ek has a degree in Geography and teaching, and is currently a Country Representative for CWS Cambodia. She has 20 years experience working in the development sector in Cambodia and has been a leader in evolving work supporting women and vulnerable groups with improved opportunities to earn a living and contribute economically to their family’s wellbeing. For the past 10 years, she has been concentrating on program development and implementation with a focus on grassroots integrated community development with emerging awareness and education promoting climate adaptive livelihoods, especially farming-related ones, Water Sanitation and Hygiene, and Emergency Response and Preparedness.
Giovana Oaxaca, Program Director for Migration Policy, ELCA
Giovana Oaxaca (she/her/ella) is the Program Director for Migration Policy with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) D.C. office for Witnessing in Society. Her work involves working towards more just and humane federal immigration policies within a domestic and international context, engagement informed by the experience of Lutheran congregations and ministries, including the ELCA AMMPARO strategy. Giovana was previously a Government Relations Associate with a Catholic faith-based lobby in D.C. Giovana has a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Politics and Government and Economics from Pacific University.
Watch Session
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