BELETWEYNE, Somali (PAMACC News) - On the outskirts of Beletweyne town in southern Somalia, Maryam Muse Duale breaks up small sticks in her hands, stoking a fire in the dirt to keep her young children warm at night. Maryam has made a flimsy shelter of sticks and cloth; it doesn’t keep the cold night air out. Her children sit on a mat, waiting for food from humanitarian agencies. When it comes, she shares among the children first. Parents eat whatever is left.
Like many other rural Somalis, Maryam is facing a new reality; it is a far cry from her life as an agro-pastoralist just a few months before. The drought in Somalia, which began in late 2020, has only been spreading and deepening.
Not so long ago, Maryam’s family used to raise goats, collect firewood and do some rain-fed farming to support themselves. But after three failed rainy seasons, the land has dried up, her goats are dead, and her family has been left destitute.
“Before the drought, we had a cart and a donkey, and we used to harvest wood. We had no camels, but we did have goats. Now that is all gone,” she said. With no options left, her family made the tough choice to leave their home and head to the town of Beletweyne in search of help.
“We came to the town here in search of life.”
Maryam’s family has also had to separate as a survival mechanism. The women have taken the children to town for help, while the men search for odd jobs and stay in their village to protect what’s left of their belongings. They don’t know when they will be reunited.
In the Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp where Maryam and her children have found temporary shelter, everything must be provided for them – food, water, medicine. Living amongst strangers and away from the protection of their relatives, displaced women and children are also at a higher risk of gender-based violence and physical harm, not to mention disease outbreak. The decision to flee from home comes with a heavy economic and psycho-social toll.
“There is a big difference between our past and our present because in our past, we were living in our homes, and if we needed anything, we had a place to go,” said Maryam.
She is now entirely dependent on the goodwill of others for her survival and that of her family’s.
Like Maryam, some 667 000 people have already been displaced by the drought, and this number is predicted to rise exponentially in the second quarter of 2022, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
With other agencies providing support to those in IDP camps, FAO is in the drought affected areas, providing cash transfers, livelihood assets and other support to people in their villages, giving them the option to stay and helping to decrease the massive displacement and pressure on already crowded IDP camps.
With funding from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), FAO’s Cash+ project provides families with emergency cash transfers and livelihood assistance. Seeds, tools and veterinary care for animals help families to continue their work, while emergency cash assistance helps them cover other basic needs such as food, water and medicine, reducing the need to move away for services and support.
“I’m a farmer, and I will still work here”
Meanwhile, local pastoralist Ali Mohamed Wasuge has decided to stay in his village of Sariirale in central Somalia near the border of Ethiopia, though he says he has never seen the land this dry before. The earth, the trees, the bushes - all different variations of brown.
“The fields are dry and without water everything we planted last season has been wiped out by the drought. Our livestock are starving,” he said.
With nothing to eat, Ali’s weakened animals cannot fight off simple colds and infections and are now dying en-masse. He is watching his livelihood disappear before his eyes.
Despite the challenges, Ali has chosen to stay in his home with his family.
“I have seven children and live here with my wife. I’m a farmer, and I will still work here,” he said.
He knows the risks involved in abandoning their farm and livelihoods, but leaving is something he thinks about every day.
FAO is working to give people options. Ali’s family, along with 1 874 other families in the district, have received cash transfers and livelihood assistance through FAO’s Cash+ project. Ali has so far received USD 180 of direct cash assistance, as well as seeds and tools for planting before the next rainy season.
While only a small amount, this has enabled Ali to pay off debts and keep his family together, and the seeds will help his family bounce back faster after the drought.
Keeping families together
“What we are seeing are rural households facing destitution,” said FAO Representative, Etienne Peterschmitt. “They have exhausted their coping mechanisms and are moving to urban areas in search of assistance. This is what FAO is seeking to prevent,” he said.
FAO’s drought response plan calls for USD 80.4 million to reach 634 800 people in 52 districts. Cash transfers and livelihood assistance helps protect rural livelihoods and prevent a larger humanitarian crisis.
Investments in livelihoods is much more efficient in the long run. For every USD 1 spent on supporting livelihoods for rural families through FAO’s programmes, USD 10 can be saved in food related assistance for a displaced family in an urban centre. And while it costs USD 40 to buy a new goat, saving a rural family’s goat from drought-related diseases costs as little as forty cents.
While the drought conditions continue to get worse, FAO is working hard to scale up its assistance to rural communities and also help farmers implement practices to be more resilient to droughts, extreme weather and climate change related impacts in the future.
The full story and photos can be found here: https://www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1479585/
GENEVA, Switzerland (PAMACC News) - Within the next five years, everyone on Earth should be protected by early warning systems against increasingly extreme weather and climate change, according to an ambitious new United Nations target announced today.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has tasked the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to lead the effort and present an action plan to achieve this goal at the next UN climate conference in Egypt this November.
The announcement was made on World Meteorological Day on 23 March, which this year has the theme Early Warning and Early Action.
“Human-caused climate disruption is now damaging every region. The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change details the suffering already happening. Each increment of global heating will further increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events,” said Mr Guterres.
“We must invest equally in adaptation and resilience. That includes the information that allows us to anticipate storms, heatwaves, floods and droughts,” said the UN chief.
However, one-third of the world’s people, mainly in least developed countries and small island developing states, are still not covered by early warning systems. In Africa, it is even worse: 60 per cent of people lack coverage.
“This is unacceptable, particularly with climate impacts sure to get even worse,” said Mr Guterres.
“Early warnings and action save lives. To that end, today I announce the United Nations will spearhead new action to ensure every person on Earth is protected by early warning systems within five years. I have asked the World Meteorological Organization to lead this effort and to present an action plan at the next UN climate conference, later this year in Egypt,” Mr Guterres said in a video message to the World Meteorological Day ceremony.
“We must boost the power of prediction for everyone and build their capacity to act. On this World Meteorological Day, let us recognize the value of early warnings and early action as critical tools to reduce disaster risk and support climate adaptation.”
Climate change is already very visible through more extreme weather in all parts of the world. We are seeing more intense heatwaves and drought and forest fires. There is more water vapor in the atmosphere, which leads to extreme rainfall and deadly flooding. The warming of the ocean fuels more powerful tropical storms and rising sea levels increase the impacts.
Over the past 50 years (1970-2019), a weather, climate or water-related disaster has occurred on average every day – taking the lives 115 people and causing US$ 202 million in losses daily, according to a 2021 WMO report on disaster statistics.
The number of recorded disasters increased by a factor of five over that 50-year period, driven by human-induced climate change, more extreme weather events and improved reporting.
But thanks to improved early warnings and disaster management, the number of lives lost decreased almost three-fold over the same period thanks to better weather forecasts and proactive and coordinated disaster management.
“The growing number of disasters due to climate change is endangering implementation of a large number of Sustainable Development Goals. Besides very critical mitigation it is growingly important to invest in climate adaptation. One of the highest returns of investments is reached by improving the weather, water and climate early warning services and related observing infrastructures. There is a need to invest 1.5 B USD during the coming five years to improve the quality of the services and related infrastructures especially in the LDC and SIDS countries,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.
What is an Early Warning System?
An Early Warning System for floods, droughts, heatwaves or storms, is an integrated system which allows people to know that hazardous weather is on its way, and informs how governments, communities and individuals can act to minimize the impending impacts.
These systems allow us to monitor the real time atmospheric conditions on land and at sea and to effectively predict future weather and climate events using advanced computer numerical models. The aim is to understand what risks the foreseeable storms could bring to an area that will be affected – which may differ if it is a city or rural area, polar, coastal or mountainous regions. Early warning systems must include agreed response plans for governments, communities and people, to minimize anticipated impacts. A comprehensive early warning system must also include lessons learned from past events, in order to continually improve responses ahead of future weather, climate, water and related environmental hazards.
Early Warnings Work:
The 2019 Global Commission on Adaptation flagship report ‘Adapt Now’ found that Early Warning Systems provide more than a tenfold return on investment – the greatest of any adaptation measure included in the report.
The report also found that just 24 hours warning of a coming storm or heatwave can cut the ensuing damage by 30 per cent and spending US$ 800 million on such systems in developing countries would avoid losses of $3-16 billion per year.
And yet, despite these known great benefits, one in three people globally is still not covered by early warning services, and the proportion of people not covered is almost twice as high in Africa. Vulnerable people are disproportionately affected.
The Glasgow Climate Pact (agreed at the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in November 2021) emphasizes the urgency of scaling up action to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change. It also urges developed countries to urgently and significantly scale up their provision of climate finance, technology transfer and capacity-building for adaptation.
The UK government, which was president of COP26, and the Egyptian government, which will preside over COP27 in Sharm-El-Sheikh, recently renewed calls on developed countries to follow through on their commitment to at least double their climate finance for adaptation to developing countries by 2025, aiming at achieving balance between funding adaptation and mitigation.
Ambassadors of both the UK and Egypt are due to speak at the World Meteorological Day ceremony, which included high level panels of speakers illustrating the need for, and success of, early warnings and early action.
Synergies and partnerships:
WMO will spearhead the effort to achieve universal coverage of early warning services, in close collaboration with key partners as a collective contribution towards global adaptation efforts.
It will seek to close observation gaps, to expand the capacity for all countries to issue warnings ahead of a disaster, and simultaneously improve their capacity to act on those warnings, and to respond in a manner that is people-centred, inclusive and accessible.
Following on from Mr Guterres’ announcement, WMO will convene key agencies, countries and groups already active in the field of Hydromet and Risk Informed Early Warning capacity development to build on the excellent existing efforts and create a global plan by COP27. Closing the early warning gap will require inputs from actors throughout the entire early warning to early action value chain.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News)- African Forestry sector stakeholders say they have now been empowered to stand to the challenge climate finance opportunities up for grabs.
They expressed satisfaction and their readiness after a one week training workshop in Douala, Cameroon March 14-18, 2022 organized by the African Forest Forum, AFF in collaboration with Global Forest Financing Facilitation Network - GFFFN).
Rosine Bayogo, technical director, Timberland Industries, Central African Republic says knowledge acquired will help her improve in climate change project drafting in her organization.
“Climate finance is a challenging task requiring some technical details. The workshop had permitted me sharpen my knowhow on some of the salient details in project drafting for funding,” Rosine said.
The same optimism was shared by Tabita Radian of Ivory Coast, who lauded the initiative by African Forest Forum to train forest stakeholders.
“Training of forest stakeholders is the best way to ensure not only forest governance but also providing the opportunity to better access finance. I am elated because the resource persons we had showed great knowledge on the issues and we are all going back very satisfied,” Tabita said.
Knowledge acquired ranged from project drafting strategies, sources of finance[domestic, regional, international] and the intricacies involved, Models of financing, risqué involved, networking and partnership etc.
Climate finance experts say Climate change presents a US$3 trillion investment opportunity up for grabs in Africa by 2030 with the private sector expected to lead in driving green investment and development.
According to Barbara Buchner, the Executive Director for Climate Finance Program at Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) , Climate change stakeholders should mobilize and work in synergy to stand the chance of grabbing the available funding opportunities.
Even though opportunities exist to finance climate change projects, African countries still find it hard accessing climate funding.
One of the key reasons according to experts is that stakeholders in the forest sector don’t fully master what funding opportunities exist, and how to draft bankable projects to attract such funding.
“African Forest stakeholders have to be abreast with the different funding opportunities and also be empowered with skills on drafting bankable project,” says Peter Gondo of the UNFF Secretariat.
AFF says they are committed to pushing their drive to better empower forest stakeholders in this regard.
“Training is one of the key roles and objective of AFF and we committed to working with all the forest stakeholders in the continent. Just we are training now in Francophone Africa, so is another scheduled for English speaking African countries in the weeks ahead,” says
Dr Marie Louise Avana-Tientcheu, of AFF.
The participants, drawn from governmental / forest administration and non-governmental organizations (and this includes the private sector) have come from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Togo
The papers presented by the different resource persons, Peter Gondo, Larwanou Mahamane, Kouassigan Tovivo all highlighted globally the multiple climate funding opportunities and institutions as well as the elements potential project proposals need to address to be able to attract funding.
The African Forest Forum (AFF) is a pan-African non-governmental organization with its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. It is an association of individuals who share the quest for and commitment to the sustainable management, use and conservation of the forest and tree resources of Africa for the socio- economic wellbeing of its people and for the stability and improvement of its environment. The purpose of AFF is to provide a platform and create an enabling environment for independent and objective analysis, advocacy and advice on relevant policy and technical issues pertaining to achieving sustainable management, use and conservation of Africa’s forest and tree resources as part of efforts to reduce poverty, promote gender equality, economic and social development and protect the environment.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - The training of forest stakeholders in Francophone Africa on accessing climate financing took place in Douala-Cameroon March 14-18. Organized by African Forest Forum (AFF) with support from Global Forest Financing Facilitation Network – GFFFN the atraining was to empower actors with not only the skills of drafting bankable projects to attract climate funding but also get abreast with available opportunities and the intricacies involved. On the second day of the training , PAMACC Senior Reporter, Elias Ntungwe Ngalame caught up with AFF Senior Programme Officer, Dr Marie-Louise Avana Tientcheu for a chat. She says the one good thing about climate finance is that it compels stakeholders to work together.
Q- This is day two of the training workshop, what is your assessment of the deliberations so far?
I think deliberations have been going on very well. I have congratulated both the experts and participants, who have shown commitment and interest to learn, staying on till 9 pm that we completed the day one programme. The same enthusiasm has been seen in the second day of the workshop the deals with the funding opportunities, the adaptation fund etc. Participant now have knowledge of the available funding institutions like the World Bank,UN-REDD, LCDF( Fund for less developed countries, Multilateral Development Banks like AfDB, West African Bank, Green Climate Fund, GEF, Forest Carbon Partnership, European Union, USAID, GIZ and the types of projects they are interested in.
The third day will focus more on the practical aspect with group work so that participants are edified on not only on what goes into the content of a project but also how they can structure it to stand the chance of attracting funding.
Q - Climate Finance seem to be a challenging aspect to comprehend, do you think one week is enough to understand all what is involved?
Even one month may not be enough. What we are trying to do is give some basic knowledge. The information gathered here will only help them improve on what they already know and permit them carry out more research , gather more knowledge. They have to team up with other experts to improve on the quality of their project, A lot of expertise is needed when it comes to drafting projects. As the resource persons of these workshop have explain, stakeholders have to work in synergy with experts of the different sector.
As African Forest Forum have always advised, stakeholders from different sectors( water, energy, urban development, forestry ,livestock etc have to work in synergy, harmonize their different sector actions to stand the chance to succeed in getting funding. The good think with climate finance is that it helps to promote sector networking as partners are compelled to work with one another. Secondly we want to make sure the different stakeholders here seek to work one another even after they leave from here.
Q - Apart from such training are there other ways AFF is assisting forest stakeholders to facilitate their task to access funding?
AFF approach is about capacity building, providing the right tool for stakeholders to better manage forest. The purpose of AFF is to provide a platform and create an enabling environment for independent and objective analysis, advocacy and advice on relevant policy and technical issues pertaining to achieving sustainable management, use and conservation of Africa’s forest and tree resources as part of efforts to reduce poverty, promote gender equality, economic and social development and protect the environment.
4 - There is much talk about available carbon markets, how can African forest stakeholders benefit from this?
There are opportunities for African countries to participate in global carbon markets through forest conservation, through ,the agriculture sector etc. I think if African countries update their mastering of such fund mobilization together with effective carbon monitoring within forest and agriculture sector they will benefit a lot. But first they have to be trained so that they understand what the carbon market is all about and what opportunities are the available for them to benefit from.
That is part of the reason why the African Forest Forum has organized this capacity building workshop.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - African Forestry sector experts have been trained on how best to attract climate financing. The training workshop taking place in Douala, Cameroon March 14-18, 2022 is being organized by the African Forest Forum, AFF in collaboration with Global Forest Financing Facilitation Network - GFFFN).
Climate finance experts say Climate change presents a US$3 trillion investment opportunity up for grabs in Africa by 2030 with the private sector expected to lead in driving green investment and development, says Barbara Buchner, the Executive Director for Climate Finance Program at Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) who lent her voice to those of other experts at the Finance day event organize by the African Development Bank during COP24 in Poland.
Even though opportunities exist to finance climate change projects, African countries still find it hard accessing climate funding.
One of the key reasons according to experts is that stakeholders in the forest sector don’t fully master what funding opportunities exist, and how to draft bankable projects to attract such funding.
“ African Forest stakeholders have to be abreast with the different funding opportunities and also be empowered with skills on drafting bankable project,” says Peter Gondo of the UNFF Secretariat.
AFF in a document notes that among the constraints that impede efficient and adequate climate finance mobilization by most African countries are insufficient domestic capacity at technical, institutional and financial levels to , the development of quality project proposals that respond to investment criteria of climate funds, the laying down of sound implementation mechanisms as well as the establishment of a functional reporting systems.
It is against this backdrop that AFF is training forest stakeholders on available funding openings and the techniques of drafting bankable projects, he says at the opening session of the workshop in Douala, March 14th.
These challenges were also highlighted by Dr Marie Louise Avana-Tientcheu, of AFF and lecturer at the University of Dschang ,Cameroon who presented a message from the Executive Secretary of the African Forest Forum (Professor Godwin Kowero)
“The need to provide consistent support to African countries in building their capacity to fully deploy mechanisms to mobilize climate finance, has become imperative,’ she said.
The participants, drawn from governmental / forest administration and non-governmental organizations (and this includes the private sector) have come from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Togo
The papers presented by the different resource persons, Peter Gondo, Larwanou Mahamane, Kouassigan Tovivo all highlighted globally the multiple climate funding opportunities and institutions as well as the elements potential project proposals need to address to be able to attract funding.
Funding institutions among others included the World Bank,UN-REDD, LCDF( Fund for less developed countries, Multilateral Development Banks like AfDB, West African Bank, Green Climate Fund, GEF, Forest Carbon Partnership, European Union, USAID, GIZ etc.
The African Forest Forum (AFF) is a pan-African non-governmental organization with its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. It is an association of individuals who share the quest for and commitment to the sustainable management, use and conservation of the forest and tree resources of Africa for the socio- economic wellbeing of its people and for the stability and improvement of its environment. The purpose of AFF is to provide a platform and create an enabling environment for independent and objective analysis, advocacy and advice on relevant policy and technical issues pertaining to achieving sustainable management, use and conservation of Africa’s forest and tree resources as part of efforts to reduce poverty, promote gender equality, economic and social development and protect the environment.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Heads of State, Ministers of environment and other representatives from 175 nations endorsed a historic resolution at the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) today in Nairobi to End Plastic Pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024. The resolution addresses the full lifecycle of plastic, including its production, design and disposal.
“Against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, the UN Environment Assembly shows multilateral cooperation at its best,” said the President of UNEA-5 and Norway’s Minister for Climate and the Environment, Espen Barth Eide. “Plastic pollution has grown into an epidemic. With today’s resolution we are officially on track for a cure.”
The resolution, based on three initial draft resolutions from various nations, establishes an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), which will begin its work in 2022, with the ambition of completing a draft global legally binding agreement by the end of 2024. It is expected to present a legally binding instrument, which would reflect diverse alternatives to address the full lifecycle of plastics, the design of reusable and recyclable products and materials, and the need for enhanced international collaboration to facilitate access to technology, capacity building and scientific and technical cooperation.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) will convene a forum by the end of 2022 that is open to all stakeholders in conjunction with the first session of the INC, to share knowledge and best practices in different parts of the world. It will facilitate open discussions and ensure they are informed by science, reporting on progress throughout the next two years. Finally, upon completion of the INC’s work, UNEP will convene a diplomatic conference to adopt its outcome and open it for signatures.
“Today marks a triumph by planet earth over single-use plastics. This is the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord. It is an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it.” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.
“Let it be clear that the INC’s mandate does not grant any stakeholder a two-year pause. In parallel to negotiations over an international binding agreement, UNEP will work with any willing government and business across the value chain to shift away from single-use plastics, as well as to mobilise private finance and remove barriers to investments in research and in a new circular economy,” Andersen added.
Plastic production soared from 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 348 million tonnes in 2017, becoming a global industry valued at US$522.6 billion, and it is expected to double in capacity by 2040. The impacts of plastic production and pollution on the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution are a catastrophe in the making:
- Exposure to plastics can harm human health, potentially affecting fertility, hormonal, metabolic and neurological activity, and open burning of plastics contributes to air pollution.
- By 2050 greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastic production, use and disposal would account for 15 per cent of allowed emissions, under the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C (34.7°F).
- More than 800 marine and coastal species are affected by this pollution through ingestion, entanglement, and other dangers.
- Some 11 million tonnes of plastic waste flow annually into oceans. This may triple by 2040.
- A shift to a circular economy can reduce the volume of plastics entering oceans by over 80 per cent by 2040; reduce virgin plastic production by 55 per cent; save governments US$70 billion by 2040; reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent; and create 700,000 additional jobs – mainly in the global south.
The historic resolution, titled “End Plastic Pollution: Towards an internationally legally binding instrument” was adopted with the conclusion of the three-day UNEA-5.2 meeting, attended by more than 3,400 in-person and 1,500 online participants from 175 UN Member States, including 79 ministers and 17 high-level officials.
The Assembly will be followed by “UNEP@50,” a two-day Special Session of the Assembly marking UNEP’s 50th anniversary where Member States are expected to address how to build a resilient and inclusive post-pandemic world.
