NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - A Swedish development agency has released a challenge fund worth $48 million to help over 50 private companies with innovative ideas reach the market with various off-grid power products and clean cooking solutions for poor rural families in seven African countries. The Sweden International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), on November 30, 2017 signed an agreement with the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), through which companies in target countries will submit their business proposals for vetting, starting from June 2018.“The idea is that companies supported (by this initiative) are (being) prepared to take risks, which they otherwise would not take,” said Anna Jardfelt, the Swedish Ambassador to Kenya, adding that successful companies must provide at least 50 % of the proposed budget.The initiative known as Renewable Energy, Adaptation and Climate Change Technology (REACT) will see small and medium size companies receive up to $1.5 million grant each to implement projects that will largely benefit women and children in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.“We hope that the new business models developed in East Africa, providing electricity to millions of people off the national grid, will rapidly be taken up in Liberia and generally in West Africa, promoting learning across the continent,” said Elisabeth Hårleman, the SIDA Head of Development Cooperation – Liberia. The background to REACT is that around 510 million people, who form 60% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity and are forced to rely on karoseene, fire wood or batteries – solutions that are expensive, unreliable and environmentally unsustainable.According to Victor Ndiege, the Portfolio Manager for REACT, it is evident that the population without electricity will increase steadily until at least 2025. “To worsen the scenario is the high cost of grid extension to remote areas of the continent,” he said.Studies have shown that African households and small businesses spend over $17 billion on lighting, mainly kerosene, with many households spending up to 30 percent of their disposable income on fuel purchase.Studies have further demonstrated that wood and charcoal make up about 90 percent of the primary energy supply in Sub Saharan Africa, presenting environmental and livelihood challenges as nearly 4 million hectares of forest are lost each year, adding to the degradation of water catchments and soil erosion.The REACT programme therefore targets scalable renewable energy technologies in hydropower, solar energy, biomass and wind generation.“Although the private sector has had some success in developing business models and technologies to address these issues, they still face high risk and market failures that limit innovation and slow down the scale-up of proven business models and technologies,” said Ndiege. According to AECF, innovation to improve market access for the poor in Sub Saharan Africa is hampered by a wide range of challenges amongst them: a poor investment climate, lack of competitive pressure for businesses to innovate; pervasive market failures and a lack of information on the needs of the poor; and uncertainty over the commercial returns to pro-poor…

(PAMACC News) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number six is about ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. However, the noted increase of droughts, both in frequency and intensity blamed on climate change have resulted in increased incidences of water related conflicts due to high demand.Some of the noted misunderstandings and conflicts range from, and are a result of water blockages in form of weirs for gardening, overgrazing, to river bank cultivation leading to silting, threatening the very existence of particular water bodies on which the communities depend for their domestic use, and in some cases, animal drinking points. With this in mind, experts believe support and strengthening of the participation of local communities in water and sanitation management—a key strategy under SDG six, should be a matter of urgency. Therefore, as the global community raises water to the top of its agenda, countries are following suit. “The new water Act empowers the community to have a greater say in the management of water resources in their catchment,” says Rowen Jani of the Water Resources Management Authority, an established national Agency charged with the responsibility of planning for, and ensure the sustainable and rational utilisation, management and development of water resources. Jani, who is Manager for the Kafue River catchment, adds that climate change has added extra pressure and demand for water among different users, hence, “the Act’s insistency on community participation in the management of these resources.” Until 2011, Zambia’s water governance system remained centralised such that there was little involvement of the local communities in the management of water resources in their localities. But the reforms in the water sector, allowed for the 1949 Water Act to be replaced by the Water Resources Management Act No 21 of 2011 which provided for the establishment of WARMA. It is this Act which provides for decentralisation of water resources management. And at the lowest community level, it provides for the establishment of Water Users Associations (WUAs)—non-profit organisations that are initiated, and managed by a group of primary water users and other interested water stakeholders, along one or more raw water sources (hydrological sub systems) regardless of the type of use. “The objective of the WUAs is to ensure the management, development and protection of raw water sources and their ecosystems within designated boundaries,” explains David Banda, Community Engagement Officer at WARMA’s Kafue Catchment management office based in Mazabuka, Southern Zambia. Other than understanding the actual problem and the urgency of solutions, WUAs present a platform for different water users (regardless of size) to come together to establish their water priorities and jointly agree on respective actions to ensure water is accessible in good quantity and quality, thereby preventing and reducing possible conflicts. According to Emmanuel Mumba, Acting Director of Legal Services at WARMA, once the Statutory Instrument (SI) is issued, “some of the key functions of WUAs would be to promote the participation of the community in water resources management and ensure gender mainstreaming in decision making…

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Illegal logging and poaching has fuelled the rapid disappearance of commercially viable forest resources and threatened indigenous livelihoods in the Congo Basin Forest region in Africa. However, development stakeholders in the continent are coming together to reinforce forest governance through capacity building of actors in the sector. “The key to forest protection is governance. Strengthening the capacity of government officials, private entities and civil society orgainasations in forest law enforcement in this sub region will enable the sustainable management of such resources,” said Mfou'ou Mou'ou Bruno, Director of Forest, Ministry of forestry and wildlife in Cameroon, at the opening of a training workshop in Yaounde on November 13-16,2017. The workshop on forest law enforcement, governance and fair trade for west and central African sub-regions was jointly organised by the African Forest Forum, the African Development Bank and the Cameroon Ministry of forestry and Wildlife. Cameroon's Forestry and Wildlife officials say, the Congo Basin occupies much of the middle of the African continent, straddling the equator from Gabon to Uganda, Cameroon to Angola. At 200 million hectares, the Congo Basin rain-forest is second only to the Amazon in size, and provides habitat for endangered animals found nowhere else such as bonobos, gorillas, and okapi. Protecting these important resources is therefore imperative, according to experts. "The increased trade in forest products is an indicator that African forests play an important role in national and global economies. However, despite the political will and the laudable efforts of national, regional and international institutions, the exploitation and illegal trade of forest products continues to rise to alarming proportions in many African countries and especially the Congo Basin Forest region," Bruno said. Africa Forest Forum (AFF) also called for a rapid solution pathways in forest protection in line with UN startegic plan. A report by the forum points out that the United Nations General Assembly has this year adopted a forest strategic plan for 2017-2030 as well as the Quadrennial Programme Actvities 2017-2020. The Yaounde capacity building workshop was therefore in readiness for the implementation of the different action plans to ensure better forest governance. "Good forest governance is a crucial component of environmental sustainability that ensures benefits derived from forest including ecosystem goods and services contribute to national economies and livelihoods," says Mahamane Larwanou, senior programme officer - AFF. The forest governance capacity programme is in line with AFF project called, “Strengthening Sustainable Forest Management in Africa”.The project accordingly seeks to generate and share knowledge and information through partnerships in ways that will provide inputs into policy options and capacity building efforts to improve forest management in a manner that better addresses poverty eradication and environmental protection in Africa. One of the key project objectives is to facilitate and harmonize evidence-based policies, regulation and governance mechanisms to strengthen public and private institutions to effectively support sustainable forest management and transparent trade. The ultimate ambition of the programme is therefore is to prepare a future in which stakeholders in the African…

BONN Germany (PAMACC News) Non-state actors following negotiations at the Bonn climate talks also known as COP 23 have deplored the resort to empty words on climate change by global leaders during the high-level segment of the two-week conference. Fijian Prime Minister and COP 23 President Frank Bainimarama at the high-level segment called on the country representatives to remain focused to ensure a successful outcome to the conference. “Future generations are counting on us. Let us act now”, he said. Sequel to Bainimarama’s speech, a young boy from Fiji recounted the story of how his home was destroyed in a recent natural disaster, asking government representatives in the room “What can you do?” to protect the climate. “Climate change is here to stay, unless you do something about it”, he told the delegates. Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that recent extreme weather events have shown that time was pressing. “I have no doubt that this urgency warns us to make haste and act decisively”, he said. The “historic climate agreement” reached in Paris in 2015 and “the path we have taken since” must remain irreversible. “Paris can only be called a breakthrough if we follow up on the agreement with actions”, said Steinmeier. Hopes for a strong statement on Germany’s climate goals and the future role of coal were dashed as Chancellor Angela Merkel disappointed only called on the world to walk the talk on climate at the global conference in Bonn. “This conference must send out the serious signal that the Paris Agreement was a starting point, but the work has only begun.” Today’s pledges in the nationally-determined contributions were not enough to keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, she said. “Now it’s about walking the talk.” Speaking after the chancellor, French President Emmanuel Macron, said that the summit should send the message that “we can all come together” to mobilise the necessary public and private funds to act on climate. To guarantee quality science needed to make climate policy decisions, Macron proposed that the EU should fill the financing gap for the IPCC left open by the US administration’s decision to reduce funding. “France will meet that challenge, and I would like to see the largest number of European countries by our side,” said Macron. “All together, we can compensate for the loss of US funding.” Reacting almost immediately after the high-level segment, civil society groups from across the world described their statements as empty words with no concrete plan of action. The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, (PACJA) accused the leaders of “playing hide and seek” with the lives of Africans who according to them are being cut short daily due to historic and ongoing actions of the developed world against the climate. What we need, according to John Bideri, co-Chair of the Alliance, are “enhanced actions on the provision of $100 billion per year up to 2020 and a new finance goal which should reflect the scientific requirements and needs of African countries.” “Advocacy-tainted…