The Power of Locally Driven Narratives to Support and Sustain Climate Action

This chapter will explore the value of entertainment-education applications that center narratives that originate from the local context. The discussion will examine how centering narratives informed by local points of view have the potential to create the conditions for climate solutions to be optimally contextualized in the socio-cultural context of intended audiences. This optimal contextualization can lead to deeper engagement with the entertainment-education application and greater impact. The chapter will illustrate these concepts through two examples, the Sustainable and Thriving Environments for West Africa Regional Development (STEWARD) Program administered by the US Forest Service—International Programs Department, West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WA BiCC) Program funded by and administered by USAID. Using these examples, the chapter will demonstrate how PCI Media’s My Community methodology allows local actors to authentically engage in a participatory approach to the narrative development process as part of an entertainment-education program.