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…

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 MPIDOThe 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…

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - She is a grower and exporter of fresh produce, but Elizabeth Thande is also a champion of an often ignored variety of greens: indigenous vegetables.Even when she is invited to international meetings like the Agriculture for Food Security, her presentation hardly ends without convincing scientists that switching to traditional greens is the way to go for Kenya to achieve smart food security.It is for a good reason. As Kenyans grow richer, they are demanding healthier foods from the farm. But the pressures of climate change like prolonged droughts and floods are depleting soils forcing farmers to use fertilizers to increase productivity at their farms.However, the use of fertilizers at the farm is leading to increased pollution of rivers, lakes, oceans, and even the land itself, warns the Frontiers 2018/19 report, released March, at the United Nations Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi.“Humans have massively scaled up the manufacture of fertilizers to sustain a growing world population. However, these are leading to pollution, contributing significantly to declines in air quality, deterioration of terrestrial and aquatic environments, exacerbation of climate change and depletion of the ozone layer,” warns the report.And this is why Thande is doing things differently. At her P.J Flowers farm in Limuru, central Kenya, rows of flowers fruits and exotic vegetables dot a large section of her land.But she is more attracted to another section, albeit smaller, where a mix of indigenous greens like amaranth, nightshade and spider plant are thriving.“I grow indigenous vegetables which I sell locally. I am passionate about them because studies have shown these greens are medicinal,” says Thande.According to her, they also use less water at the farm compared to exotic vegetables, hence they can flourish on land whose soils are facing nutrient and moisture decline.Thande says exotic vegetables like cabbage require a lot of chemicals to keep off pests and enrich the soil, but they still score low in terms of nutrition when compared to indigenous ones.However, she says, she does not use chemicals at her farm but uses natural ways to keep off pests while applying organic manure enriches the soil.“The beauty about indigenous vegetables is that they are short term. Most of them take one month to grow then one can harvest,” says Thande, who is also a member of the African Women in Agribusiness Network (AWAN).Thande may be trying to feed her community in a small but smart way, but such efforts by farmers are a big subject of discussion at the 2019 UNEA meeting.According to Mark Sutton, an Environmental Physicist at the Center for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, her decision not to use chemicals can also feed humanity thousands of kilometers away from her farm.For instance, Sutton says, when chemicals are washed away from farms, they drain into lakes, rivers, oceans and other aquatic bodies.In the case of ocean pollution, more nitrogen and phosphorous would make algae to thrive. This, he says, is good for some fish species, but not the wider variety.“To some…

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…