EXCERPTED PROPOSAL
Submitted on June 5, 2012 by Moji Agha, PsySR Member and Founder of the IISCCIW
Proposed Collaboration Between Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR) and the International Institute to Study Climate Change in the Islamic World (IISCCIW).
NOTE:
IISCCIW's Mission Statement: http://www.iiscciw.org/index.html (site in need of updating and development), and for more information (in summary form) about the IISCCIW's goals/objectives see the attached Appendix.
Definition of the IISCCIW's Initial Project, Information-gathering/Survey:
To understand and document a) the "what is," and b) the "what has been" of the interface of our planet's Islamic world with the processes of global warming/climate change, we need a comprehensive global process of information-gathering and survey of prior and current studies, undertakings, policies, and actions in, about, and related to the Islamic world's encounter with global warming/climate change. In other words we need a "literature review" of this encounter.
IISCCIW's Information-gathering/Survey Project in the Context of PsySR:
a) Clearly the IISCCIW's mission (and especially the objectives of its Information-gathering/Survey project) is closely related on many levels and across many disciplines and "pillars," with the PsySR's overall mission of "commitment to the application of psychological knowledge and expertise in addressing today's pressing societal challenges and in building cultures of peace with social justice;"
b) It appears that the primary program within the Psychologists for Social Responsibility to be the proper "home" (i.e., "initial community base") for the IISCCIW and its Information-gathering/Survey project is Climate Change, Sustainability, and Psychology. However, the objectives of all other PsySR programs are also consistent what the IISSCIW seeks to accomplish.
The proposed project’s suggested objectives and time frames:
1- Immediate (first year) objectives--Organizational infrastructure development:
a) Securing (and beginning to function within) the project's initial "community base" organization (or home), namely PsySR;
b) Planning for and securing immediate as well as "seed" funding, from appropriate sources;
c) Furthering the work toward obtaining our initial office, equipment, and support staff--initially part-time;
d) Identifying and establishing relationships with the needed experts and significant actors/policy-players, to gain their inputs re the information-gathering/survey project;
e) Furthering the work toward the development of an initially adequate data base of information and communication for the IISCCIW, and further development of the
initiative's web page (beyond its present rudimentary state), toward gradually developing a comprehensive resource bank of information and data online;
f) Furthering the work toward securing the IISCCIW's initial "academic base" within an appropriate university in the U.S.
2- Short- to Mid-term (Year 2 and 3) objectives: Beginning the actual implementation of the Information-gathering/Survey project
a) Developing the needed initial questionnaires, protocols, and forms (in English, initially), including at least 3 information-gathering/survey questionnaires of various lengths and topics (short, mid-size, and long), with processing/analyzing procedures;
b) Conducting a number of culturally and spiritually appropriate conversations and interviews with significant experts (in person, if possible), regarding the implementation steps of the project;
c) Organizing a number of small and focused interdisciplinary gatherings (physical or electronic) of expert persons and teams, guided by a select group of appropriate initial "advisers" to the initiative;
d) Planning for securing the IISCCIW's first university base in the Islamic world (in Bangladesh, Indonesia and/or Turkey--perhaps?) which involves building the needed academic and organizational contacts, relationships, and initial collaborations, and also undertaking the needed trips to the respective countries for such “base-preparation” purposes;
e) Conducting periodic sessions and gatherings, to synthesize the gathered perspectives, suggestions, and feedbacks from relevant experts and players around the world, thus developing the initiative's first series of “progress reports;”
f) Planning for and eventually conducting the IISCCIW's “grand opening” events,
initially in the U.S. and in the first two or three Islamic countries, as possible and appropriate;
g) Planning for the initial-phase implementation of the IISCCIW's second project, namely Global Brainstorming;
h) Taking the initial steps in developing the "policies and procedures manual" for
the IISCCIW, its initial 2 projects, and eventually for its 6 pillars.
NOTE: For longer-term objectives please see the [below-summarized] Appendix to this proposal.
How do you plan to track the project's progress over time, so that adjustments can be made, as needed?
Seen here: http://www.iiscciw.org/PillarDetails.html, the IISCCIW's 4th Pillar is called Evaluation and Conflict Management. Here is an excerpt of its contents:
[All pillars of the IISCCIW will]...have their own built-in self-evaluation, consultation, course-correction, and conflict management processes [but] to be effective, an organized activity of the IISCCIW's magnitude, sensitivity, and complexity would also need mechanisms to provide its operations with independent and objective feedback and evaluation. So, this pillar would perform these kinds of functions for the [organization] internally, as well as providing them...for the persons and
societies involved in or affected by the processes caused or influenced by the activities of our initiative...
Besides PsySR, are there other groups you would like to include as collaborators?
Work has already been on-going to build relationships with many relevant organizations, including 350.org and the Center for Biological Diversity; and clearly part of this collaborational project involves seeking PsySR members' suggestions (and contacts) in this regard.
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APPENDIX to the IISCCIW's Proposal to PsySR
Submitted on June 5, 2012 by Moji Agha
IISCCIW's Mission Statement
(From the initiative's website: http://www.iiscciw.org/index.html -- in need of updating and development)
The International Institute to Study Climate Change in the Islamic World (IISCCIW) is envisioned as a multi-institutional not-for-profit global initiative "under one integrated roof," whose mission is to address comprehensively the urgent need for the thorough scientific understanding (and the policy-implications) of the complex interface of the "Islamic world" (almost 1/4th of our planet's human population) with the increasingly dire processes of global warming and climate change, given that this issue is “the mother of all common grounds” on our deeply vulnerable and increasingly imperiled only home for all of humanity
Summary
Here is a summary capsule (based on the website: http://www.iiscciw.org/index.html -- in need of updating and development) of the infrastructure-building work the International Institute to Study Climate Change in the Islamic World (IISCCIW) hopes to do under one integrated roof--so to speak:
I- The IISCCIW is proposed and planned to be an interdisciplinary multi-institutional international scientific "think --and do-- tank" (the first of its kind in the world, as far as we know) striving to develop proper solutions based on studying, as comprehensively as possible, how the Islamic world populations, regions, and habitats of our planet face the complex and destructive processes of global warming and climate change.
The needs for which the IISCCIW has been founded are presently unmet, due to a variety of political, economic, social, cultural, and religious reasons and conflicts, causing very little or no coordinated scientific or policy attention being paid to the dire problem of global warming/climate change in the Islamic world--almost 1/4th of our planet's human population.
II- The IISCCIW is composed of 6 BASIC PILLARS (two of them not in the website yet) and 4 BASIC COMPONENTS. The PILLARS are WHAT the project intends to do, while the SCIENTIFIC COMPONENTS are the HOW (so to speak) through which the project's WHAT would be pursued.
Here is the initiative's 6 pillars: PILLAR 1) Education/Informing; PILLAR 2)
Mitigation/Combating; PILLAR 3) Adaptation/Coping; PILLAR 4) Evaluation and Conflict Management/Resolution; PILLAR 5) Water; and PILLAR 6) Women, Children, Elderly, and the Disabled.
And here are our 4 basic components: a) Physical and Atmospheric Sciences; b)
Environmental, Natural Resources, and Agricultural Sciences; c) Economic, Legal, and Management Sciences; and d) Social, Theological, Behavioral, and Health Sciences.
III- The IISCCIW's Initial Focus areas are the following:
a) Information-gathering/Survey:
Understanding and documenting, as clearly and fully as possible, the "what is" and the "what has been" of the interface (so far) of our planet's Islamic world with the processes of global warming/climate change.
Namely, we need a comprehensive global process of information-gathering and survey of prior and current studies, undertakings, policies, and actions in, about, and related to the Islamic world's encounter with global warming/climate change; In other words, we need a kind of "literature review" of this interface up to now, as the foundation for the IISCCIW's other projects.
b) Global Brainstorming:
Developing a clear, systematic, and realistic road map of "what to do from now on" regarding the interface above, the IISCCIW would need to conduct a major global
brainstorming process, in order to gather and synthesize perspectives, proposals, suggestions, and feedback from relevant experts and players around the world, to arrive at a practical consensus about the initiative's foundational perspectives and operational methods/objectives.
Objectives and Strategies
In order to accomplish effectively the initiative's foundational planning and initial projects, the IISCCIW needs to continue to build its own organizational, scientific, and physical infrastructures, within the limits presented by the availability of appropriate financial and human resources.
I) Clearly, the organization-building steps are first (approximate time-frame: the first year or 18 months) as follows:
1) Planning for and securing "seed funding" from appropriate sources.
2) Securing the IISCCIW's initial university “base” -- and our first "community base."
3) Related to this and as soon as possible, obtaining and organizing the IISCCIW's initial office, including space, equipment, and support staff--initially part-time.
4) Simultaneously, planning for securing the IISCCIW's first university base in the Islamic world (in Indonesia and/or Turkey--perhaps?) which involves the building of the needed academic and organizational contacts, relationships, and initial collaborations, and also undertaking the needed trip(s) to the respective country for such “base-preparation” purposes.
II) Preparing for and beginning to implement the Information-gathering/Survey and Global Brainstorming projects (approximate time-frame: the first 2 to 3 years) as follows:
5) Identifying, contacting, and establishing immediate and longer-term relationships, with the needed experts and significant actors / policy-players, for the purpose of eliciting their brainstorming, and information-gathering/survey views and inputs, and also to build sustained cooperation in the longer-term.
6) Planning for and the initial development of an adequate data base of information and
communication, in conjunction with the further development of the initiative's web page (beyond its present rudimentary state), toward gradually developing a comprehensive resource bank of information and data online.
7) Taking the initial steps in developing the "policies and procedures manual" for the IISCCIW, its initial 2 projects, and eventually for its 6 pillars.
8) Developing the needed initial brainstorming questionnaires, protocols, and forms (in English, initially), including at least 3 information-gathering/survey questionnaires of various lengths and topics (short, mid-size, and long), with processing/analyzing procedures.
9) Conducting numerous culturally and spiritually appropriate brainstorming conversations and interviews with significant experts.
10) Organizing a number of small and focused interdisciplinary gatherings of expert persons and teams, guided by a select group of appropriate initial "advisers" to the IISCCIW.
11) Conducting periodic sessions and gatherings, to synthesize the gathered perspectives, suggestions, and feedbacks (for both of the IISCCIW's initial 2 projects) from relevant experts and players around the world, thus developing the initiative's first series of “progress reports.”
12) Planning for and eventually conducting the IISCCIW's “grand opening” events, initially in the U.S. and the first two Islamic countries, as possible and appropriate.
III) Mid- to longer-term plans and activities--beyond the first 3-4 years of the IISCCIW's “birth phase”:
13) Proposing, assisting, coordinating, and conducting major and smaller research projects and scientific collaborations (international, regional, and country-specific) in all needed fields--interdisciplinary, when appropriate--as needed and possible.
14) Planning and conducting international, regional, and country-specific conferences and seminars (interdisciplinary, as appropriate), as needed, proper, and possible/feasible.
15) Doing policy development and policy implementation work, at many levels, involving direct and indirect discourses with various national and international actors, namely, the UN, governments, NGOs, corporations, and other policy-significant religious, cultural, political, and economic actors.
16) Doing extensive EFFECTIVE communication, public awareness, and MEDIA work, as needed and possible/feasible, nationally, regionally, and internationally.
17) Doing people-to-people and group-to-group connections and work, as possible/feasible, to reduce tensions, build trust, further dialogue, manage conflicts, and engender active cooperation (at all theoretical and applied levels) especially at the grass-roots level, among the Islamic world's diverse populations of our interdependent planet.
18) Conducting the IISCCIW's initial MULTI-LOCATIONAL and web-casted international
interdisciplinary conference, also with the focused objective of further refining the mid-to longer-term plans of the initiative, in conjunction (for example) with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
