Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EmpowerUs (Socio-economic Empowerment of coastal communities as users of the sea to ensure sustainable coastal development)
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2024-03-31
The EmpowerUs project aims to enable coastal communities to act for change and transition towards sustainable, inclusive and resilient coastal development. Coastal communities face many issues such as extreme weather due to climate change, pressure from urban development and tourism, and changes in traditional practices. These challenges can make it hard for communities to adapt. Recognising the complexity of these issues, EmpowerUs aims to support the resilience of coastal communities in becoming more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. The EmpowerUs objectives are to:
1) Establish six innovative Transition Coastal Laboratories (TCLs) together with local communities
2) Co-create, test and synthesise transition mechanisms at the TCLs. These mechanisms are now being implemented in each TCL as pilot initiatives
3) Enhance Ocean Literacy and stakeholder capacity to take direct and sustainable action
4) Co-evaluate the impact of adaptive Tailored Empowerment Programmes in the TCLs and understand the barriers and enabling factors needed for upscaling and transfer
5) Ensure effective knowledge management and information transfer of key project results
Using an iterative life-cycle approach, based on the concept of co-creation, EmpowerUs actively involves different stakeholders from coastal communities in a collaborative process to ensure that these objectives are achieved. The project applies the principle of Leaving no-one Behind to design and evaluate our work. This is key to strengthening and improving the inclusion of civil society – including groups that often are excluded, such as women, minorities and migrants.
1) Establish six innovative Transition Coastal Laboratories (TCLs) together with local communities
2) Co-create, test and synthesise transition mechanisms at the TCLs. These mechanisms are now being implemented in each TCL as pilot initiatives
3) Enhance Ocean Literacy and stakeholder capacity to take direct and sustainable action
4) Co-evaluate the impact of adaptive Tailored Empowerment Programmes in the TCLs and understand the barriers and enabling factors needed for upscaling and transfer
5) Ensure effective knowledge management and information transfer of key project results
Using an iterative life-cycle approach, based on the concept of co-creation, EmpowerUs actively involves different stakeholders from coastal communities in a collaborative process to ensure that these objectives are achieved. The project applies the principle of Leaving no-one Behind to design and evaluate our work. This is key to strengthening and improving the inclusion of civil society – including groups that often are excluded, such as women, minorities and migrants.
The EmpowerUs consortium has carried out several activities since the start of the project to achieve the goal of enhancing sustainable coastal development. Together with the coastal communities, EmpowerUs has set up the six innovative living labs, called Transition Coastal Labs (TCLs), to help coastal communities navigate complex social and ecological changes. In each TCL, numerous interviews and Q-sorts have been conducted with local stakeholders to learn more about the existing challenges and power dynamics in each community. Two workshops also took place in each lab, which engaged local stakeholders and allowed them to co-define the challenges and potential solutions together. Pilot initiatives have been co-designed and launched in each TCL, following on from the fieldwork and workshops, to empower the communities to enhance coastal sustainability and resilience. Several pilot activities will be carried out in the next phase of the project. Tailored Empowerment Programs have also been co-created with and for the TCLs, providing them with various tools and community-based actions to ensure long-term sustainable coastal futures. Project partners have also implemented Ocean Literacy initiatives to increase understanding of human-ocean connectedness. A number of other Ocean Literacy activities will follow. In order to share knowledge more widely, a prototype for the EmpowerCoast digital platform has been created. The official platform will be launched in the next period which will help communities to identify effective actions and solutions to their specific challenges. Finally, an Innovation Board has been established to assess and transfer key results and achievements to maximise the project's impact. Several other activities will follow in the next period of the project.
The key results produced during the EmpowerUs project will lead to the following impacts:
1) Empowered coastal communities that embrace novel approaches to coastal development such as Nature-based Solutions and social innovations.
2) A higher level of citizen action in coastal communities.
3) Coastal development that integrates social goals with environmental needs.
4) Inclusive communities that take charge of their own future.
5) Improved capacity building and resilience which leads to better food security and job opportunities.
EmpowerUs also has 9 expected outcomes which the project results will contribute to. They are as follows:
• Better understanding of the environmental, socio-economic, behavioural, cultural and demographic drivers of change for users of the sea in coastal areas is taken into account by the policy making community.
• Better understanding of the nature connectedness of coastal communities and preconditions, hurdles and success factors for social transition and nature-based social innovation inspired the policymaking community to take measures.
• Socio-economic resilience and well-being of coastal communities (including gender related) are measured, understood and enhanced through a properly developed and established link with coastal ecosystem services (ESS) and cultural heritage.
• Empowerment of coastal communities and sectors to innovate for the ecological transition and feel part of it, through a multi-actor approach.
• Design of transition mechanisms and identification of the means to make necessary changes socially acceptable, that among others may include curiosity-driven citizen science initiatives and outcomes connected to specific societal and blue bioeconomy-related socio-economic challenges on coastal climate adaptation and mitigation, coastal pollution, coastal biodiversity, circularity and sustainability or other aspects of coastal (eco)tourism and cultural events etc.
• Creation of a well-connected community, which will bring together on the one hand research actions and results and on the other implementation actions, new initiatives, and policy developments for their own companies or local communities.
• Improved skills in ocean literacy education and awareness raising, social sciences, green skills and digital transformation to process and integrate large network input of gradually more ‘Green and Blue Literate’ citizens that are more engaged to take direct and sustainable action.
• Contributions to Maritime Spatial Planning and Integrated Maritime Policy, including the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
• Contribute to the UN SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG 5, SDG 10, SDG 11 and with a specific emphasis on UN SDG 14.
1) Empowered coastal communities that embrace novel approaches to coastal development such as Nature-based Solutions and social innovations.
2) A higher level of citizen action in coastal communities.
3) Coastal development that integrates social goals with environmental needs.
4) Inclusive communities that take charge of their own future.
5) Improved capacity building and resilience which leads to better food security and job opportunities.
EmpowerUs also has 9 expected outcomes which the project results will contribute to. They are as follows:
• Better understanding of the environmental, socio-economic, behavioural, cultural and demographic drivers of change for users of the sea in coastal areas is taken into account by the policy making community.
• Better understanding of the nature connectedness of coastal communities and preconditions, hurdles and success factors for social transition and nature-based social innovation inspired the policymaking community to take measures.
• Socio-economic resilience and well-being of coastal communities (including gender related) are measured, understood and enhanced through a properly developed and established link with coastal ecosystem services (ESS) and cultural heritage.
• Empowerment of coastal communities and sectors to innovate for the ecological transition and feel part of it, through a multi-actor approach.
• Design of transition mechanisms and identification of the means to make necessary changes socially acceptable, that among others may include curiosity-driven citizen science initiatives and outcomes connected to specific societal and blue bioeconomy-related socio-economic challenges on coastal climate adaptation and mitigation, coastal pollution, coastal biodiversity, circularity and sustainability or other aspects of coastal (eco)tourism and cultural events etc.
• Creation of a well-connected community, which will bring together on the one hand research actions and results and on the other implementation actions, new initiatives, and policy developments for their own companies or local communities.
• Improved skills in ocean literacy education and awareness raising, social sciences, green skills and digital transformation to process and integrate large network input of gradually more ‘Green and Blue Literate’ citizens that are more engaged to take direct and sustainable action.
• Contributions to Maritime Spatial Planning and Integrated Maritime Policy, including the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
• Contribute to the UN SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG 5, SDG 10, SDG 11 and with a specific emphasis on UN SDG 14.