Testimonials
Paul Watkiss, Paul Watkiss Associates, 2017
“The GCAP academy provides the ideal mix of theory and practice for staff development and training in adaptation. I send all my new employees on it and would highly recommend it.
The GCAP academy is quite simply the best development training course in adaptation around. My employees came back full of knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm. ”
Adriana Quevedo, Paul Watkiss Associates, 2017
“The GCAP academy was an excellent experience. The academy helped structure and enrich my understanding of the complexities of climate adaptation. The friendly environment, excellent trainers, and diverse group of students led to extremely interesting and interactive sessions. Thank you again to the GCAP team! ”
Alfred Grünwaldt, Senior Climate Change Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank, 2016
“The Oxford Adaptation Academy is a must for adaptation practitioners and all those who want to strengthen their skills in this field; it provides you with a broad overview of the adaptation landscape and its evolution, it gives you the tools and resources required to understand basic concepts; the combination of theoretical knowledge presented by experienced professionals in the different subjects, together with detailed-oriented case studies and group work under a sequential structure make this course unique and one of the best in its class.”
Jisun Hwang, Associate Programme Officer, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2016
“It was the interaction with people that mesmerized me the most at the Oxford Adaptation Academy – the level of intellectual stimulation alone has profoundly transformed the way I think about climate adaptation and will approach my work in the future.”
Alvaro Fonseca, Chief Advisor in Climate Change Adaptation, SWECO, 2016
“I came to the Academy seeking new and fresh perspectives on adaptation, wanting to get out of my comfort zone and embrace other perspectives and backgrounds to enrich my learning. This has by far been accomplished; it’s given me knowledge, perspective, tools and methods to improve my daily work and become a better adaptation engineer. Likewise, the other participants, being experts in their own fields, challenged my thinking, expanded my horizon and gave me the confidence that we can actually make a difference by constantly working for a more resilient society.”
Ornsaran Pomme Manuamorn, Climate Change Coordinator, Asian Development Bank, 2014
“I would like to thank GCAP and its Oxford Adaptation Academy for the amazing three weeks in August, 2014 that helped solidify my commitment to go deeper in the adaptation field. I have now been accepted in one of the world-leading PhD programmes for mid-career professionals at Maastricht University in collaboration with the United Nations University. The Academy inspired me and helped form my initial research idea.”
Basharat Saeed, Lahore University of Management Sciences, 2014
“I came across multiple ways of framing concepts like adaptive capacity, vulnerability, adaptation landscape etc, which have informed the ways in which I conceive of these issues as part of my research.”
Alberto Terenzi, European Secretariat of ICLEI, 2014
“The Academy represented a very valuable moment in my professional life to take a step back, reflect and enrich my knowledge on climate adaptation, and set objectives for my future career development. The mix between the scientific, economic and social aspects of adaptation, coupled with a reflection on leadership and change-making was a very fruitful one. This, and the presence of a group of highly motivated, inspiring and very knowledgeable participants to exchange with made this experience unique!”
Carlos Sánchez, Inter-American Development Bank, 2014
"The Oxford Adaptation Academy was a unique opportunity to explore how to deliver effective climate finance to achieve resilience in the private sector. As a facility coordinator, having a thorough understanding of climate uncertainty, funding modalities and analytical tools is essential. The three weeks in Oxford are change-making."
UNFCCC Participant, 2014
“I enjoyed the learning which the course offered, and had a number of memorable and valuable informal talks with my fellow participants. The course provided me with much needed reflection incl. food for thoughts for the reflection, in terms of career development as well as the broader context in which my current work sits.”
Ayman Cherkaoui, Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), 2014
“The Adaptation Academy has proven to be a marvelous opportunity to deepen my knowledge in climate science and many aspects of project management in a context of change. Hosted in historical Oxford, the Academy has been a brilliant opportunity to interact with passionate participants and acquire cutting edge knowledge and tools from world renowned experts and very friendly and efficient staff. I can but heartily recommend this Academy be attended by sustainable development, disaster risk reduction as well climate mitigation and adaptation practitioners. The Adaptation Academy is a great driver of knowledge sharing and networking.”
Dr KR Viswanathan, Deputy Country Director, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, 2013
"The Adaptation Academy turned out to be highly productive, effectively equipping us comprehensively with skills and capacities, not only to have an in-depth appreciation of climate adaptation, but to conceptualize, design, plan, implement and monitor climate adaptation initiatives. I wish to strongly recommend the course to any professional wanting to acquire a deeper, nuanced understanding of vulnerability and climate adaptation in a value based learning system.”
Cecilia Woolford, Eyre Peninsula Integrated Climate Change Agreement, Australia, 2013
“My view is the pedagogy of the course is so unique and unbelievably logical - it's on-going success is that it just all filters into your own intellect continually when you get home and back to work…not only knowledge & technical skills, but the sense of real learning by discovery surprised me with how much I learnt along the way”
Pham Thi Dung, Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, Vietnam, 2013
“The Academy enriched my knowledge of a holistic approach to adaptation: how socio-economic, institutional, and theory of change applies. My skills in stakeholder analysis, project design are improved.”
Kevin Carlucci, Development Alternatives, USA, 2012
"GCAP challenges students to understand the nuance of catalyzing change at the personal and institutional levels, which ultimately helped me think beyond passive climate change adaptation ‘training’ and ‘capacity building’ activities involved in donor programs to how to make systemic impact.”