ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Access to finance remains critical for vulnerable African countries to take climate action.
Ghana, for instance, requires $22.6billion in investments to implement climate mitigation and adaptation actions.
While countries are expected to commit national resources in undertaking climate mitigation and adaptation, overcoming the climate scourge will demand huge international support to efficiently implement the nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
The NDCs are efforts each country makes to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has been established as a critical avenue to mobilize financial resources to address the challenge of climate change.
Activated in 2010, the GCF operates as the financial mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to support the efforts in developing countries to respond to the challenge of climate change.
Support to developing countries is to facilitate limiting their greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.
So far, developed nations have pledged to provide a current target of $100billion by 2020.
The last UN Climate Conference in Katowice, Poland, did not achieve new financial commitments but urged countries to deliver on their pledges.
According to Dr. Samson Samuel Ogallah, Solidaridad Network Senior Climate Specialist for Africa, until the pledges are converted to commitments and contributions, it cannot be said that resources have been attained for climate action.
“We’ve heard countries pledge big amounts but some of the pledges are never converted into contributions which become a challenge in the implementation of real action on the ground,” he observed.
The US, for instance, pledged $3billion but managed to convert $1.5billion during the Obama administration. The other part of the fund never materialized in the Trump administration.
Other contributed funds also go through bureaucracies and approval processes with a chunk of the Fund going into consultancy, and leaving a pittance for climate action on the grounds.
Concerned about the minimal civil society participation o in the design, implementation and evaluation of climate projects, the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) and Care International held a day’s workshop on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Week with a focus on sustainable financing for climate action.
Executive Director of PACJA, Mithika Mwenda, noted that “as representatives of the people and communities on the ground, civil society organizations are very important in any action on climate change, including finance. The Green Climate Fund must be people-driven, people-responsive fund which funds things that cannot be financed by the conventional banks like the World Bank”.
The Accra dialogue, involving 15 countries in Africa, acknowledged the proper and broader engagement of stakeholders in GCF processes can help most African countries develop fundable proposal which can enhance resilience of vulnerable communities and bring about paradigm shift in the entire process.
“The GCF is designed to address the needs of people at the local level, involving small holder farmers, pastoralist communities, labour movement, women and the youth,” Mithika noted.
He said PACJA is undertaking extensive training and outreach to demystify the Green Climate Fund as an instrument to support agriculture, transport and other economic activities.
But Funds available through the GCF and Global Environmental Facility (GEF), among other financial mechanisms, are currently inadequate to meet the global needs for climate solutions.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), African countries need $3trillion by 2030 to implement their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets.
Regional Principal Officer of AfDB, Dr. Olufunso Somorin, said 75percent of the amount will be leveraged from the private sector.
He therefore believes CSOs have a role in brokering increased engagement of the private sector in climate financing.
“The low resourcing of GCF is a concern,” he said. “Attracting private sector investment is a long-term solution”.
Long term engagement of CSO’s towards strengthening broader societal support for transformation and increase accountability of national authorities is critical to achieve GCF paradigms of low-emissions and climate-resilient economies and societies.
ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Civil society and indigenous forest communities have expressed concerns over the accelerating decline of forests in African countries, and called on drastic measures to reverse the trend.
Around 100 participants from 20 forest-dependent countries across Africa are meeting on the sidelines of the UN “African climate week” to share experiences and exchange ideas on various efforts spearheaded by governments to address deforestation and forest degradation, popularly known as REDD, in Africa.
Welcoming the participants to the meeting, the Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Mithika Mwenda decried the inertia in some governments, but appreciated innovative mechanisms that are being put in place to promote forest preservation.
He particularly pointed at the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), a World Bank-funded mechanism to support forest programmes in support of the global call for action against climate change.
“It’s not enough to agree, sign and adopt the Paris Climate Agreement,” Mithika emphasised. “It is important to move beyond it and take action at local level, at communities we come from.”
“Climate Justice Movement is growing tremendously and we see how it is being energised by young people across the world,” he said, noting that this is the only way to bequeath a better planet to the next generation.
Mithika also expressed the desire of civil society to contribute at the Africa Climate Week and share perspectives on the climate solutions and how they impact on livelihoods and environment.
Joseph Ole Simel, the Executive Director of the indigenous organisation, Mainyoto Peoples Integrated Development organisation (MPIDO), which is co-hosting the meeting with PACJA, reiterated the strength in the collaboration among organisations and people sharing common heritage and challenges.
“The impact of climate change is affecting the vulnerable communities we represent here and thus we need to be very proactive as we cannot be spectators anymore,” he said, adding that indigenous people in Africa will continue with such collaborative efforts until their visibility and impact is assured.
“So far we are doing very well but I think we must do more,” he noted.
The workshop will facilitate regional exchange to encourage first-hand learning and sharing of experiences from civil society and forest dependent IPs engagement in REDD+ processes, and from the Capacity Building Project being implemented by PACJA and MPIDO
The meeting is part of the activities implemented by PACJA and MPIDO, which are intermediaries for the Pan African FCPF Capacity Building Program on REDD+ for CSOs and Forest-dependent IPs supported by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank.
The two-day meeting seeks to enhance linkages with national REDD+ processes, identify challenges and best practices in forest preservation in Africa.
It will also broaden conversation around the FCPF Capacity Building Program and broader REDD+ Readiness/ implementation processas well as strengthening the REDD+ community of practice among 18 FCPF Countries in Africa through.
Among the countries represented are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda.
In addition to civil society and indigenous groups, government representatives from some countries also attended the meeting.
YAMBIO, South Sudan (PAMACC News) - Since 2013, South Sudan has never known peace, and the country has been a beehive of foreign media reporting all manners of stories that depict a desperate, helpless and a bleeding nation.
However, a recent Job Fair, and event organized by the State Government of Gbudue in Yambio, some 430 kilometers west of the capital Juba depicted a totally different spectacle. It was a picture of thousands of enthusiastic women and youth – most of them ex-rebel fighters, but have a lot of hope for their future, a picture of a resilient society, and a community that is eager to produce own food to become self reliant.
“Gbudue is a peaceful state, and its citizens are mediators of peace. They come up with homegrown solutions to their own problems,” Governor of Gbudue State Hon. Daniel Badagbu told a UN mission at the Job Fair, who had come to interact with local partners and beneficiaries of UNDP’s multi-dimensional support to recovery and resilience in the State.
The mission, which consisted of UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director, UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa Onochie and UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director, UNDP Crisis Bureau Ms. Asako Okai was also joined by the Kingdom of the Netherlands Director-General for International Cooperation H.E. Reina Buijs, and high-level delegations from the Embassies of Japan, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
“Now that peace is here in South Sudan, we need to create jobs, especially for the youth, we need to empower the women and the youth, and include these groups in decision-making,” added the governor.
AGRA is already on the ground planting the seed of hope by introducing smallholder farmers – most of them women and the youth to profitable agriculture to make them food secure and have a source of livelihood.
At the Job Fair, Global Agriculture Innovation and Solutions (GAIS), a local seed company working with AGRA in South Sudan showcased different types of improved seeds for drought tolerant crops, fast maturing and crops that cope well with climatic conditions in Gbudue State.
The company is working closely with local smallholder farmers to multiply the seeds so that they can be planted by thousands of women and youth who have returned home from the battlefields.
The event which was hosted with support from the Kingdom of Netherlands brought together women entrepreneurs of Masia Market and is supported by the Government of Japan, youth benefitting from economic empowerment projects to boost re-integration, and peace committees.
“If you see the energy among the youth and women here, you will realize that they all yearn for development in their communities. Their hard work shows that they are ready to join entrepreneurships and fend for themselves,” said Pia Philip Michael, the Gbudue State Minister for Education, Gender and Social Welfare.
Previously “the government could apprehend and imprison all the ex-fighters returning from the bush,” added Michael.
According to the minister, the government learned that nearly all the returnees had joined the rebel groups because they were promised a constant salary of 200 dollars every month, and “this points to a livelihood issue,” he said.
And now, AGRA is determined to offer them sources of livelihoods they all yearn for, through agri-entrepreneurship.
“It all begins with seed,” said AGRA’s Dr Jane Ininda, who is a plant breeding expert. “If we have to make a difference, then we need to avail certifiable seed to all famers, and it should be compatible with the prevailing climatic conditions,” she said.
With support from AGRA, GAIS has trained 7,200 smallholder farmers in Gbudue and Lakes States on seed multiplication.
“In the two states, we concentrate on improved seeds of fast-maturing maize varieties, groundnuts, sorghum and cowpeas, which are the most appreciated food crops in these two states,” said Rahul Saharan, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for GAIS
In Gbudue State alone, over 1,900 ex-fighters have been taken through rehabilitation programs, and have been released to join vocational training and engage in agribusiness, with others being integrated into organized forces.
“Guns cannot be used to win the war,” said Governor Badagbu. “All we need is to create jobs, especially for the youth by introducing them to agribusiness and giving them livelihood skills through vocational trainings,” he told thousands of residents and the UN delegation at the Yambio Job Fair.
According to Reina Buijs, it is only by taking action that peace will prevail in South Sudan. “It is good to see the government, the private sector, the civil society, the clergy, and the people come together for the sake of peace,” said Buijs. “There can be many nice words on paper, or spoken, but if it does not translate in concrete actions, people cannot believe any more.”
“It feels great to see the donor support being translated into future hope for the people and in implementing the peace agreement,” she said, adding that the Netherlands would be proud to continue supporting such initiatives in South Sudan.
Collaboration among key stakeholders in the Climate Information Services (CIS) value chain is crucial for Africa to achieve its development agenda, experts have observed.
Participants in the workshop in Entebbe Uganda on13 Feb, 2019 to validate mapping of projects along the CIS value chain unanimously called for full involvement of governments, donors, researchers, private sector, media and communities to address climate challenges.
Dr James Murombedzi, Chief, African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) said Africa needs evidence-based research to inform its budgeting and development programmes.
“Accurate climate information and CIS will make Africa resilient to climate change by ensuring that decision makers and planners in agriculture, water, energy, infrastructure, and health are well informed and make decisions that yield benefits for our people,” Murombedzi said.
Despite CISbeing very important to many countries, Murombedzi decried the insufficient systematic processes in Africa used for packaging, translating and disseminating information that is responsive to the needs of stakeholders.
Prof Joseph Mukabana of World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) called for impact based forecasts that are area and consumer specific so that majority of the users are reached.
“For example, farmers want to know the onset of rains, its intensity and when it will stop. They want to know the seeds they will use and they want to receive the information in a simple language style they understand, not the scientific jargon,”Mukabana said.
He called for concerted efforts to target governments and donors because they are key in implementing policies.
“Let us plan to reach government officials through such bodies like African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET) and Development Partners Roundtable,” Mukabana said.
Dr Frank Rutabingwa, Coordinator of Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER)at the Africa Climate and Policy Centre (ACPC) called for proper coordination to avoid duplication of projects.
“We will strive to identify projects across the continent so that we are able to advise donors and governments on how they can be implemented, where, and at what cost,” Rutabingwa said.
John Mungai, the WISER East Africa Coordinator noted that co-production has been successful in the Wiser projects in the region and the lessons should be used to replicate existing projects across Africa.
MithikaMwenda, secretary general of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) called for user-targeted messages to reach the masses.
“CIS is crucial for a low carbon climate resilient blue economy for Africa. But we need it packaged in a way that reaches the youth, women and other marginalized population,” Mithika said.
Prof Laban Ogallo of the University of Nairobiinsisted the vital role of national and regional climate centres in the implementation of CIS.
Teddy Tindamanyire, director of Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA) noted the important role of media in disseminating CIS information.
“In Uganda, we are now able to transmit CIS information in 20 local languages because it is only through getting information to the users so that they use it to improve their livelihoods,” Tindamanyire said.
Jennifer Mohamed Katerere of Rights Resilience said more focus should be on the marginalized and indigenous communities and human rights.
The participants spoke during a meeting at Imperial Hotel in Entebbe, Uganda this week recognized the urgent need for facilitating the uptake of CIS through enhanced coordination of multiple actors implementing, funding and promoting climate services.
Consequently, Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) and the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) as partners are supporting the launch of a regional knowledge platform with content that is demanddriven, accessible and user-friendly.
To contribute to the CIS knowledge platform, an inventory of climate information services activities such as initiatives, programmes and projects was conceived by ACPC.
The mapping thus contributes to the implementation of one of the outcomes of the 2017 Saly, Senegal CIS coordination workshop. A Google interactive map hosted on the UNECA website has been created to provide a graphical resource for stakeholders to use.
ABUJA, Nigeria (PAMACC News) - Solidaridad, an international network of developmental civil society organisations will now partner with the Nigerian government in its agricultural transformation agenda, the commitment made inits Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in the Paris Climate Agreement as well as achieving the objective of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country.
This was disclosed when the team from Solidaridad West Africa led by Solidaridad Network Senior Climate Specialist for Africa Dr. Samson Samuel Ogallah paid a visit to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and the Federal Ministry of Environment (Department of Climate Change –DCC and National REDD+ Secretariat) in Abuja.
Dr. Ogallah added that Solidaridad will continue to bring to bear in Nigeria and other African countries the organization’s fifty (50) years of global experience working in the development of profitable supply chains, climate smart innovations, creating sustainable businesses and livelihoods across 13 different agricultural and other non-agricultural commodities working closely with smallholder farmers and producers for a change that matters.
Dr. Peter Tarfa, The Director, Department of Climate Change (DCC) welcomed the team and recalled the successful partnership between Solidaridad and the Federal Ministry of Environment through the Department of Climate Change at the event held in the Nigerian Pavilion during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice, Poland.
Dr. Tarfa commended Solidaridad for its role inClimate smart agriculture helping farmers to increase productivity sustainably, adapt to climate change and addressing mitigation actions along the value chain. While promising the support of the department and working closely with the organization, he called on Solidaridad to also consider its interventions in other commodities like cotton and groundnut in Nigeria in addition to oil palm, leather, fruits and vegetables and cocoa.
Solidaridad team were received by Dr. Moses Ama and his team at the National REDD+ Secretariat. Dr. Ama in his address stated that agriculture to date remain one of the major drivers of deforestation in many developing countries and express optimism that Solidaridad’s approach of doing business in the sector with its principle of ‘producing more with less’will contribute to reversing these trends.
He added that investment in agriculture will be wasted without climate change considerations and welcomed the partnership between Solidaridad and Nigeria REDD+ Secretariat. The UN-REDD+ programme is the United Nations collaborative initiative for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) in developing nations. Dr. Ama also highlighted some of the interventions the Secretariat is currently undertaking including those supported by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank in Ondo, Cross River and Nasarawa State among others.
At the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, The Deputy Director, Tree Crops, Mr. B.C. Ukatta led his team in an interactive session held between Solidaridad and the Ministry. Both team underscored the importance of working collaboratively towards achieving self-sufficiency in palm oil and other agricultural commodities in Nigeria.
He commended Solidaridad’s climate smart approaches to agricultural practices and helping smallholder farmers to escape poverty through its various interventions along the value and supply chain in the agriculture sector in the face of climate change and its impacts on agriculture while pledging their support to Solidaridad.
In Nigeria, Solidaridad in collaboration with cocoa companies have trained over 27,000 farmers on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in cocoa production and about 78% of the producers trained have adopted GAP and there has been about 40% increase in productivity of producers under GAP. Solidaridad West Africa (SWA) have assisted over 5000 smallholders’ cocoa farmers to become UTZ certified in Nigeria.
Under its Sustainable West Africa Palm Oil Programme (SWAPP), Solidaridad has conducted studies on oil palm in Nigeria. Strong awareness on sustainable climate smart oil palm production has also been created among stakeholders in the sector and Solidaridad supported the National interpretation process for Roundtable on Sustainable Palm oil (RSPO) Principles and Criteria in Nigeria. Find more about Solidaridad at www.solidaridadnetwork.org
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) – Climate change has weakened and it will continue weakening African economies as countries struggle to counter its impacts, experts attending an event on the sidelines of the traditional Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union for 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia have observed.
In a speech read on his behalf at an event organised by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa UNECA, Harsen Nyambe Nyambe of the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture at the AUC observed that the cost of climate change to GDP is escalating due to reduced agricultural productivity and higher costs of adaptation.
The experts, some of them drawn from the United Nations, the environmental civil society organisations, academia and African governments observed that apart from grappling with poor agricultural productivity due to poor climatic conditions, human displacement has had untold impacts on nearly all the African economies.
“In my country Rwanda, the government has always been forced to move hundreds of families each year to safer grounds, and these are budgets that we have not planned for,” said John Bideri, the Chair of the PACJA Board, an organisation that brings together over 1000 climate related civil society organisations .
He observed that many other people have as well been forced to move to other continents as refugees due to climate related hostilities and phenomena. “Why are people moving away from Africa, and yet, Africa is the most endowed continent on earth?” he paused.
A World Bank Report shows that unless urgent action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, up to 143 million “internal migrants” will be forced to move within their own countries to escape the gradual effects of climate change by 2050.
Globally, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) points out that an average of 22.5 million people have been displaced each year by climate or weather-related disasters in the last seven years, equivalent to 62,000 people every day
Bideri says that the only way to reverse the situation will be by reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but again, the developed world must provide finances to help Africa cope with the prevailing situation, given that Africa has contributed the least towards emission of greenhouse gas emissions.
“We should continue playing our roles as African countries, but also demand for our rights,” Bideri told experts in Addis Ababa.
Already, Africa is experiencing higher warming and more extreme weather events, leading to disruptions in ecosystems, economies and livelihoods. These disruptions are in turn causing new insecurities in the populations of the continent, leading to conflicts, displacements and dis-empowerment.
The experts from the African Climate Change community were discussing in a meeting to examine how adequate the outcomes of the COP24 – the “Katowice Climate Package” - is in driving effective actions to address climate-induced human insecurity in Africa. The outcomes will be presented to the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union.
So far, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), under the auspices of the United Nations, agreed on by leaders from 164 countries in December 2018 in Marrakech, Morocco, does cover "all dimensions of international migration” and aims to strengthen the international response to large movements of refugees and protracted refugee situations. It has 10 principles which address the effect of climate change on migration.
