Saint Lucia’s Climate Change Communications Strategy Under the National Adaptation Planning Process

The strategy provides a blueprint for the Government of Saint Lucia to use purposeful communication to foster a whole-of-government approach to climate adaptation. It focuses on translating technical climate science into meaningful narratives for diverse stakeholders, including political leaders, farmers, fishers, and youth. The framework emphasizes the use of a mix of traditional media (television, radio) and digital platforms (Facebook, WhatsApp) to drive behavioral change and secure investment for adaptation measures across priority sectors such as tourism, agriculture, and water.

• The communications strategy is integrated into the three stages of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process: planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. During planning, the focus is on building awareness of climate science; during implementation, the goal is to ensure the government "speaks with one voice" and persuades stakeholders of the benefits of early action; and during monitoring, the objective is to demonstrate positive impact through the sharing of quantitative and qualitative information.
• The strategy employs a narrative frame designed to make climate change concrete by linking it to values such as family health, youth economic prospects, and the natural environment, while emphasizing that "all Saint Lucians must act in concert to build their resilience". The intended tone balances the gravity and urgency of the climate threat with an empowering message that individuals can still protect their future.
• Sector-specific messaging is tailored to the unique vulnerabilities of key industries. For tourism, which accounts for 65% of GDP, messages highlight risks from sea level rise and storms; for fisheries, they address the fact that 50 to 80% of coral reefs have already been bleached; and for health, they focus on the increase of mosquito-borne diseases due to warmer temperatures.
• Communication channels are selected based on demographic reach: television remains the dominant news source, while Facebook was used by just over half the population as of June 2016. The strategy specifically identifies WhatsApp as an effective tool for communicating with farmers and suggests using respected messengers, such as musical artists and sector professionals, to increase impact.
• The strategy proposes several concrete actions to improve outreach, including establishing a working group of government communicators, creating an open-source archive of climate learning materials for teachers, and improving media coverage by providing journalists with quicker access to government experts and on-the-ground reporting opportunities.
• Monitoring and evaluation of the communications strategy will rely on media monitoring, website analytics for the government's climate change website, periodic public surveys based on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) data, and participant evaluations from workshops.

APA

NAP Global Network (2018). Saint Lucia’s Climate Change Communications Strategy Under the National Adaptation Planning Process. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2018-05-23-EC-SLU-NAP-Climate-Change-Communications-Strategy.pdf

Chicago

NAP Global Network. Saint Lucia’s Climate Change Communications Strategy Under the National Adaptation Planning Process. 2018. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2018-05-23-EC-SLU-NAP-Climate-Change-Communications-Strategy.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=NAP Global Network |title=Saint Lucia’s Climate Change Communications Strategy Under the National Adaptation Planning Process |date=2018 |url=https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2018-05-23-EC-SLU-NAP-Climate-Change-Communications-Strategy.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{napglobalnetwork2018saint, author = {{NAP Global Network}}, title = {{Saint Lucia’s Climate Change Communications Strategy Under the National Adaptation Planning Process}}, institution = {NAP Global Network}, year = {2018}, url = {https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2018-05-23-EC-SLU-NAP-Climate-Change-Communications-Strategy.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }