Strengthening local voices: storytelling training for journalists

About the workshop

The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region is on the front lines of the climate crisis, facing rapid glacial melt, erratic rainfall, and worsening water scarcity. In response, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has launched the Integrated Climate Adaptation Solutions for the Hindu Kush Himalaya Region (HI-CAS) project. Funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC), HI-CAS is a multi-country initiative in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, designed to enhance climate resilience for vulnerable communities, particularly women, girls, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), ethnic minorities and marginalised groups.

Guided by ICIMOD’s gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) policy and Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, HI-CAS co-designs and implements gender-responsive Integrated Adaptation Solutions Packages (IASPs). These packages combine springshed management, agrobiodiversity conservation, and the productive use of renewable energy to bridge the gap between high-level climate policy and local community-led action.

To strengthen this connection between policy frameworks and grassroots action, it is important to tell stories of communities directly engaged in adaptation efforts. Documenting these stories will help demonstrate how gender-responsive and locally led solutions are creating impacts on livelihoods, resilience and natural resource management. In this context, media can play an important role in bringing community perspectives into wider public and policy discussions.

One of the effective ways to do so is through local media, as journalists, from project districts such as Kavrepalanchowk and Dhankuta, are positioned to document the on-the-ground impact of HI-CAS.

Despite the urgency of climate adaptation, local news coverage often remains event-driven, missing the nuanced, in-depth stories of resilience, co-design, and systemic change within the vulnerable communities. Many might also have limited awareness of the impacts of climate change impact on marginalised groups, as well as the skills needed to translate complex climate adaptation science into compelling, human-centred narratives.

To address this gap, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in collaboration with Nepal Forum of Science Journalists (NFSJ), is organising a three-day storytelling workshop for local journalists. This workshop will equip nine journalists (three from each project districts from Nepal, Kavrepalanchowk and Dhankuta) and three from Kathmandu), along with the staffs of the three partners, with the skills to produce stories that highlight the HI-CAS project’s GESI-responsive IASPs.

Workshop objectives

This workshop aims to strengthen the capacity of local and Kathmandu-based journalists to produce ethical, engaging, and evidence-based stories on climate adaptation, focusing on HI-CAS project’s integrated solutions and GESI principles.

This workshop will familiarise the selected participants with the scientific, technical, and social inclusion frameworks of the project – springshed management, agrobiodiversity, renewable energy, and GESI.

It will also foster a network of climate adaptation reporters who can follow and publish stories related to the HI-CAS project, like women’s role in community leadership, traditional knowledge systems, community seed banks and other local adaptation practices.

Expected outcomes

• Enhanced capacity: Journalists demonstrate improved ability to stories on technical adaptation topics with GESI angle.
• Increased visibility: HI-CAS project activities, particularly women-led and IPLC-led adaptation solutions, receive targeted local and national media coverage.
• Informed public discourse: Local communities and policymakers gain better access to accurate, human-centred stories on climate adaptation, reducing the gap between high-level policy and local action.

Programme agenda

The workshop will be interactive and participatory, combining with expert-led sessions. Over the three days, participants will work in mixed groups from Kavre, Dhankuta, and Kathmandu districts as well as partners from Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.

Day 1: Understanding HI-CAS and ethical storytelling

• What is HI-CAS? What are its objectives?
• What are IASPs and why are they a necessity today?
• What is ethical storytelling, and how can we ensure that communities remain at the centre of the storytelling process?

Day 2: GESI and climate journalism

• What is the current trend in reporting climate change?
• Who are the most vulnerable communities, and why do their stories matter?
• How do we amplify the stories of women and marginalised communities in the media?
• How can we be GESI-responsive while covering/reporting climate stories?
• How to produce stories that can translate complex climate adaptation science to compelling human-centred narratives?

Day 3: Field practice

• Group work, dividing the participants into three country specific teams to produce sample stories.

Facilitators

1. Chhatra Karki, Science Journalist/Editor (Climate science and journalism)

Chhatra Karki is a science journalist and editor based in Kathmandu, Nepal, and the Founding President/Programme Head of the Nepal Forum of Science Journalists. He served as Vice President of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) from 2023-2025. With more than 25 years of experience in newspapers and online media, he has reported on science, health, environment, and current affairs for national and international outlets.

Chhatra has also served as Editor of NepalNews, the country’s first online news portal, and is currently the Nepal writer for Gavi’s Vaccines Work platform.

2. Namrata Sharma, Senior Journalist (GESI and climate reporting)

Namrata Sharma is a freelance journalist based in Nepal. Besides having worked for over 25 years as a journalist and as a human right activist, she was also the President of Center for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) in Nepal. Currently, Namrata stays as an advisor for the centre.

Namrata Sharma regularly contributes to a few Nepali dailies including the Nepali Times, and a weekly column INSIGHT in the Rising Nepal Daily. She covers the issues on GESI and climate change.