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
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.
