ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Over three hundred participants representing various interest groups on the continent including governmental and non-governmental, academic, media, women, lawyers and youths have underscored the need for African member-states to integrate the Paris Agreement into Africa’s development agenda and other global governance frameworks. This came out strongly today as the sixth conference on Climate Change Development in Africa (CCDA-VI) ended in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. The CCDA-VI which began on the 17th of October 2016 on the premise of facilitating science-policy dialogue and providing a marketplace for innovative solutions that integrate climate change into Africa’s development processes urged Africa to engage with and embrace the Paris Agreement within the framework of it’s development aspirations as underscored in Agenda 2063, which embodies the vision of the “Africa we want”, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which sets global targets with a vision of “leaving no one behind”. Participants were also of the view that most of the intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) submitted by African states require urgent revision ahead of the coming into force of the Agreement as many of them were vague and inconsistent with national development priorities.According to Abdallah Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), “analyses by various institutions, including the African Climate Policy Center, have demonstrated that there are still a number of challenges with the INDC submissions of many developing countries.” These according to him, include vagueness in their mitigation ambitions and adaptation aspirations; lack of cost estimates for achieving their adaptation and mitigation goals, and absence of clarity on sources of funding (conditional, unconditional, private sector, and/or public) for both mitigation and adaptation. In a similar vein, the Vice President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Kapil Kapoor enjoined African states to ensure that the nuances in the Paris Agreement are clarified and contextualized in the run-up to COP22, especially in the case of Africa, whose greenhouse gas emissions remain the lowest but which is already bearing the greatest burden from the adverse impacts of climate as evinced by the effects of the unusually strong El Niño of 2015 in East and Southern Africa. Civil society groups under the auspices of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) cautioned along the same line, urging Africa to utilise the window of opportunity the ratification period provides to revise their INDCs and while identifying strategies for implementing the Agreement especially through pan-African initiatives and institutions, public-private partnerships, and the engagement of State and non-State actors. “Tackling climate change is therefore paramount if Africa’s development objective as defined in Agenda 2063 is to be achieved,”Mithika Mwenda said. To James Murombedzi, Officer in Charge of the Africa Climate Policy Centre, “the Paris Agreement is somewhat weak in terms of how African countries will attract the required investments to deal with the challenges of climate change.” While it was hailed as a landmark global deal on climate change, there remains a feeling of impotence from the…

DDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Africa remains the only region in the developing world where agricultural yields are low and continue to decline. According to the Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), despite recent progress in agricultural and land management technologies, agricultural production in most parts of the continent is still at subsistence levels, with the smallholder producers who dominate the agricultural production landscape barely able to meet their own consumption needs.Regrettably, Climate change and climate variability has added to these historic challenges that face the agricultural sector in Africa. With increased incidences of extreme weather events, including droughts and large fluctuations in precipitation patterns, and shortening of the lengths of growing periods, Africa’s largely rain-fed driven agricultural production, has been exposed to serious uncertainties.Agricultural production is very important in assisting food security and poverty alleviation, especially in rural African households, a point that Ephraim Belemu, a law maker from Zambia, made at a round-table discussion of African Members of Parliament on the need for effective Climate Information Services to smallholder farmers, at the Sixth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.“For us in Zambia, most smallholders rely on rain-fed Agriculture such that any shift in rainfall pattern as has been happening in recent years affects the planning and ultimate production capacity of farmers,” said Belemu, citing the 2015/16 farming season which left most farmers helpless at the hands of an El Nino induced drought.However, it is believed that improved and well-coordinated weather information systems would lessen this production uncertainty, a point that the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization- FAO Director-General José Graziano made during this year’s World Food day:"As usual the poorest and the hungry suffer the most and the vast majority of them are small family farmers that live in rural areas of developing countries," he said, stressing the importance of adaptation and mitigation based on "much better access to appropriate technologies, knowledge, markets, information and investments".FAO therefore wants to see Climate change, hunger and poverty being addressed together in order to achieve the sustainable development goals, not forgetting the landmark Paris Agreement set by the international community last year. For Africa, however, there are still some teething issues that need to be addressed especially regarding the Paris Agreement. “There is a big concern that policies are not prioritizing climate change related issues and countries,” said James Murombedzi, officer in Charge of the Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC).In his summary of overarching issues discussed during the conference, Murombedzi also noted the importance of an action plan on how and what Africa wants to see regarding means of implementation, a key component of the Paris Agreement to be discussed at the COP 22 in Marrakech, Morocco.“Agriculture is a key sector for Africa’s transformation and adaptation, as has been observed, remains a key component, but it requires sustainable means of implementation such as finance and technology transfer,” said Murombedzi, further stressing the need for African countries to revisit their nationally determined Contributions and align…

Winners of the third edition of the African Climate Change and Environmental Reporting (ACCER) awards have been announced in Aadis Ababa, Ethiopia in a colourful ceremony graced by representatives of the Africa Development Bank, various UN agencies, civil society representatives and representatives from different media organisations all over Africa.In his opening remarks, James Murombedzi, the Officer in Charge at the UN Economic Centre for Africa (UNECA) said that the awards were a great initiative aimed at improving the African Narrative on Climate Change which is key in ensuring that climate change is given the human face with regard to vulnerabilities faced by the African people. He noted that in developing countries, most journalists are generalists, and have little training in science or the environment – particularly complex areas such as climate change. While many journalists and Editors may be interested in covering climate change issues, competition for space with other topical issues such as politics combined with unwillingness of the commercial-oriented media owners makes up a huge obstacle.“To overcome the climate information gap existing among stakeholders, deliberate effort should be made to simplify, demystify and effectively communicate climate change in a jargon that is widely embraced by all. It should not, however, end here,” said Murombedzi. “Even if the climate change debate is simplified, a large proportion of rural populations in developing countries, especially those in Africa, are not able to read or write, even in their local languages. This calls for a strategy that makes vehicles for community outreach, which is the media, proactive participants in this regard,” he added. Dr. Justus Kabyemera from the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) noted that there is need to strengthen and unify the foundation of Africa’s common agenda for action as well as reshaping and refining the African Narrative on climate change discourse through robust application of home-grown solutions, initiatives and talents for sustainability.“It is therefore important to devise strategies to bring journalists and media practitioners to the forefront, not as reporters, but as key partners and players in the ensuing engagements,”said Dr Kabyemera. “We appreciate Pan African Climate Justice Alliance for initiating a very innovative award scheme, ACCER Awards, which will indeed improve the African Narrative on Climate Change,” he added.Mithika Mwenda, PACJA’s Secretary General said that the organisation will continue to play a catalytic role in nurturing innovative ideas necessary for the transformative society as we desire to effectively confront the main challenges of 21st century. “These complex challenges, such as climate change, will require collaboration from various stakeholders to defeat. And that is the spirit the ACCER Awards exemplifies,” he said.In the Print Media English category, Andrew Mambondiyani (Zimbabwe) was announced the winner with Mugerwa (Uganda) as the first runners up and Atayi Babs Opaluwah (Nigeria).In the Print Media French category, AddehMidadji Daniel (Togo) was announced the winner and Madafime Didier Hubert (Benin) as the 1st runners up.In the Electronic Media English, TV English category,Mercy Adundo (Kenya) was announced the winner and Aaron YanchoKaah (Cameroon) as the first runners up.…

ADDIS Ababa, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - As the sixth session of the Climate Change and Development for Africa (CCDA_CI) came to a close, Justus Kabyemera, Coordinator – ClimDev Africa Special Fund at the African Development Bank called on Africa to resolve the issue of gender and inclusivity for climate change and development sooner than later.“Of course there are issues that remain to be sorted out, but as most of you highlighted in the course of the discussions, we need to be more strategic and assertive in our decisions. Issues of gender and inclusivity for climate change and development are some of the gaps that we need to resolve sooner than later,” he said.He pointed out that throughout the discussions, it came clear that there was need of a coordinated and programmatic approach to climate change initiatives across the continent. “Working in silos or doing business as usual is no longer tenable especially as we grapple with the meager resources at our disposal,” he told the conference, which was attended by different government representatives, members of parliament, civil society among other. “We need to leverage and compliment the resources and build on the capacities of all players in the climate change arena. There is need to scale up the various initiatives, including climate services, loss and damage mechanism/models, early warning systems; but also domesticated approaches as the countries brace to implement their NDC within the framework of the Paris Agreement,” said Kabyemera.He promised that the Bank, within the framework of ClimDev Africa and more so the Climate Change Action Plan for the period 2016 -2020 and the Feed Africa Strategy will enhance its financial and technical support to the cause of climate change across the continent. “The Bank will continue to support the African Group of Negotiators to strengthen the African voice at international climate forums for affirmative action. We pledge to assist and facilitate countries in the implementation of their NDCs,” he said. The bank seeks to collaborate with other partners in the implementation of both the Adaptation for African Agriculture – Triple A and Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI), which we hope will be closely linked for the creation of synergies between them.Kabyemera pointed out that the CCDA-VI had set pace not only for COP-22, but also for CCDA-VII, which is expected to be a trend setter for the implementation of the Paris Agreement on the Continent. “It is our hope that all African countries will have ratified their NDCs with well guided and articulate policy frameworks at the country level to guide the implementation process. This is one aspect that we all need to collaborate to accomplish. We look forward to collaborating with you all in the implementation of the Paris Agreement in a well-coordinated and programmatic manner,” he said.