AAI Hosts Kick-off Meeting For The Pan-African Regional Programme And Launches The South-South Peer Capacity Exchange Programme In Morocco
With COP27 in Egypt just a few weeks away, the Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) hosted a four-day meeting in Rabat, Morocco, from October 3rd to October 6th, attended by over 65 participants, including African country representatives (National Designated Authorities of the Green Climate Fund), The Green Climate Fund (GCF), international development agencies and banks, global initiatives, research centres, and development partners.
The meeting was an excellent opportunity to strengthen networks and knowledge around scaling up adaptation efforts and to increase direct investment in climate change adaptation for vulnerable African sectors.
The Pan-African Regional Programme
Over the first two days, AAI and Adaptation of African Agriculture (AAA) Climate Initiative held the kick-off meeting of the Pan-African Regional Programme, the first ever continental-wide GCF-funded Pan-African regional readiness programme, with the support of The Alliance of Biodiversity & CIAT (CGIAR).
The Pan-African Regional Programme aims to support the efforts of participating African countries to transition towards low-emission and climate-resilient development and will be implemented following an individual country-driven approach, considering national circumstances and strategic priorities. From October 3rd to 4th, attendees had an opportunity to showcase the role that can be played by African organizations in advocating for African Adaptation, and to hear about the experiences and challenges from each of the different countries.
"It’s time to raise the level of urgency and get practical in addressing the challenges of adaptation in Africa. This regional country readiness programme has set an example for other countries on the importance of working together for climate action. It has never been done before. This is the first of its kind," said Ambassador Seyni Nafo, AAI Coordinator, speaking at the event.
The Programme catalyses opportunities from key climate change initiatives launched by African Heads of State and leaders, such as the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, AAI, and AAA climate change initiatives. It targets the agriculture sector, one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change, building the necessary long-lasting capacity needed to identify, design, and develop transformational climate interventions in agriculture and energy. During the kick-off event, the CGIAR presented a portfolio of research products, tools, and methods that informed the programme's implementation and showcased their practical application and impact through case studies.
The South-South peer capacity Exchange Programme
Following the kickoff meeting, AAI launched the South-South peer capacity Exchange Programme (SSEP) through two days of training from October 5th to 6th, with the financial support of the European Union (EU) and financial and technical support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The SSEP is part of the EU-UNDP-AAI project "Enhancing Knowledge and Evidence to Scale-up Climate Change Adaptation in Africa", designed to create a solid foundation for future scaling up of adaptation efforts and the development of future direct investments in climate change adaptation for vulnerable sectors in Africa. The projects aim to enhance avenues through which information about successful adaptation interventions, adaptation planning, project development methods, and access to financing sources are gathered and shared. The SSEP workshop facilitated an exchange of learnings, lessons, and best practices on climate adaptation planning and project development in Africa, helping to strengthen the capacity of African decision-makers to integrate climate risk into fundable projects and to mobilise climate finance.
The meeting was a positive step towards strengthening knowledge- and best practice-sharing as part of each country's National Adaptation Plan processes, as well as initiating a peer-to-peer technical capacity exchange. Through these mechanisms, as well as the coordination activities of the AAI, the 4-day Morocco event helped to create an enabling environment for further climate change adaptation project development within the region.
Despite African countries making significant progress over the last 20 years, planning both climate-resilient and low carbon development to address climate related challenges, these plans are yet to attract finance and investment at adequate scale for their implementation, particularly from international sources. We hope COP27 will provide an opportunity to raise adaptation funding to the top of the agenda and to secure climate financing that is equitably distributed across the continent.
Download -
Concept note & List of participants Kick off
Pan African Readiness South South Programme Report
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