LIVINGSTONE, Zambia, (PAMACC News) - The African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) has re-affirmed its commitment to ensuring that Climate Change adaptation remains a top agenda item for the continent. Speaking at the first AGN Preparatory Meeting in Livingstone, which was held alongside the Young Climate Change Negotiators Training, Zambia’s Ministry of Green Economy and Environment Permanent Secretary, Eng. John Msimuko said adapting to the impacts of climate change remains one of the key challenges that Africa is facing. “Adaptation remains a key priority as people, infrastructure and ecosystems on the continent continue to experience climate shocks and economic distress. The latest science by the Intergovernemntal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has reported that Africa will need up to 86.5 billion USD for adaptation alone by 2030. Yet Africa only contributes approximately 4% to the global Green House gas emissions. Therefore, let us continue pursuing Africa’s special needs and special circumstances even at this year’s COP28. There is need for a transformative agenda on adaptation at COP28," he said. COP28 will be held in the United Arab Emirates from 30th November to 12th December, 2023. An anecdotal example highlighting the importance of adaptation to Africa was provided by host city Mayor, Constance Muleabai, who fingered climate change as the reason for reduced tourist numbers to the Victoria Falls, one of the seven Wonders of the World. “Climate Change has continued to adversely affect our tourism sector which the people of the city of Livingstone heavily rely on,” she said. “Due to increasing temperatures, we have been experiencing low water levels in the Zambezi River, leaving the falls almost dry. The immediate resultant effect is reduced numbers of Tourists visiting the site. This means reduced incomes for the local communities.” With a busy schedule awaiting negotiators, the meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the outcomes and achievements of COP27 and strategise on the Group’s work plan and their expectations for the forthcoming sessions; SB58 in June and COP28 later in December. Ahead of the final stage of the Global Stocktake (GST) later this year, the subject was one of the key highlights among several important agenda items discussed. The discussions centred on the need for the Global Stocktake to take a balanced approach by removing, inherent bias for mitigation at the expense of adaptation. “As AGN, we would like to see an outcome that is comprehensive and balanced to facilitate progress across all the thematic areas, and respect the priority issues of all Parties and stakeholders,” said AGN Chair, Ephraim Mwepya Shitima. “The inherent bias in favour of mitigation ought to be rectified while the needs of adaptation and recognition of adaptation actions as part of the contribution of Parties towards the global effort should be accorded sufficient attention,” he added. The global stocktake, as enshrined in Article 14 of the Paris Agreement, is a process for taking stock of the implementation of the Paris Agreement with the aim to assess the world’s collective progress towards achieving the purpose…

DAR-ES-SALAAM, (PAMACC News) – The Government of Tanzania intends to develop a Marine Spatial Plan to guide all economic activities within the Indian Ocean in order to reap greater benefits from a more sustainable blue economy. The Marine Spatial Plan will encompass all activities in the ocean, including fishing (small scale and deep sea), aquaculture and marine products, seaweed farming, construction of strategic infrastructure for ports and sea transport, seafood and fish processing, oil and gas extraction, and beach tourism and water sports. According to the Permanent Secretary, Vice President’s Office, Ms. Mary Maganga, the plan will deliver more benefits from the ocean to communities and the nation through sustainable practices while strengthening the blue economy. To set the foundation for the plan, a pre-feasibility study has been concluded. Commissioned by The Nature Conservancy and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the study reviewed the current status of marine spatial planning in the country and the state of policy, legal and administrative frameworks. It proposes a roadmap for developing the plan. Speaking at a workshop in Dar-es-Salaam to validate the pre-feasibility study, Ms. Maganga said: “The marine spatial planning is part of the solution to bring about the sustainable use of our ocean resources and open economic and employment opportunities based on proper management of the environment and dealing with climate change”. The two-day workshop brought together ocean users, government officials, development partners, as well as local and international NGOs. The Nature Conservancy’s Tanzania Country Director, Ms. Lucy Magembe told the workshop that 25 marine spatial plans have been implemented worldwide and have proven to be a practical approach for engaging communities, stakeholders, and governments to expand marine protection, meet conservation goals, and improve sustainability of both economic and non-commercial activities. "We are working closely with the Government of Tanzania and other partners to manage human activities in the ocean to ensure they are sustainable. The Marine Spatial Plan will ensure that communities around the ocean benefit from it, while protecting the environment," added Ms. Magembe. The pre-feasibility study was funded by the German Government’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety through the International Climate Initiative, as part of a five-year (2021-2025) regional project entitled 'Strengthening the Blue Economy of the WIO through the integration of ecosystem services and effective biodiversity conservation’ covering Tanzania, Kenya, Seychelles, and Mauritius.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Head of one of the leading regional banks on the continent has urged AGRA to use Africa Food Prize laureates as champions to inspire and boost agriculture transformation in different African regions and countries Speaking at the launch of the 2023 nomination process for the prize in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Dr James Mwangi, who is the Chief Executive Officer at Equity Bank, said that there is need for the laureates to form regional agriculture advisory boards so as to create interaction between the experts with governments, the private sector and the practitioners. “We need to transform agriculture from the social investment sector where it only attracts grants, to a profitable commercial sector that gives reasonable market returns,” said Mwangi, noting that that can only happen if the continent developed innovative ways of increasing food productivity, and doing value addition. Dr Eleni Gabre-Madhin the Chief Innovation Officer at UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, and one of the laureates of the Africa Food Prize observed that time has come for building the brand of the prize, so that it works for agriculture. “This award should be a very strong branded event that has to be elevated to global recognition,” she told the delegation in Addis Ababa. According to Mwangi, the award should also be used to impart knowledge to the young generation for them to internalize agriculture as a money making profession at an early stage. “Among all the students Equity Bank has sponsored to higher education, none of them is studying agriculture because the subject has been linked to poverty. Who wants to study so as to become poor,” he posed. He said that the Bank, for example in Kenya is paying school fees for over 40,000 students in high schools, and it would be great if the Africa Food Prize laureates started interacting with them at this very early stage. “I would like to take this as a challenge and we as Equity Bank will be willing to work with AGRA to actualize it,” he said. So far, the bank has launched a private sector focused stimulus package known as ‘Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan,’ which is a USD 6 Billion package to accelerate economic recovery and resilience in the Eastern and Central Africa region as it recovers from the devastating health, social, humanitarian, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘This stimulus package is all about agricultural transformation. If we transform agriculture, we will be transforming the face of the Africa rural woman and the brand of the African child,” said Mwangi. In the same vein, H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn, Former Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the current Chair for AGRA Board of Directors pointed out some challenges on the continent, which can easily be turned into opportunities through transformation of the agriculture sector. “Africa will be home to 2.4 billion people come the year 2025. This presents a huge opportunity and market for our own agriculture and food…

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - The African Forest Forum (AFF) has embarked on a journey to impart relevant knowledge and skills to players in African forestry sector to be able to mobilize adequate resources for different projects. According to Professor Louis Defo of the University of Dschang who is one of the trainers, the objective of the training was to enable stakeholders “mobilize resources by developing bankable projects whose implementation could improve the climate change resilience and livelihoods of forest-dependent communities.” “ AFF is hoping this will result to better understanding of climate change and the associated problems in the forest sector as well as climate finance,” Professor Defo said. Experts say Climate change presents a US$3 trillion investment opportunity up for grabs in Africa by 2030 with the private sector expected to lead in driving green investment and development. According to Barbara Buchner, the Executive Director for Climate Finance Program at Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) who lent her voice to those of other experts at the Finance day event organize by the African Development Bank during COP24 in Poland, “Africa has to seize the available opportunities to obtain financing of their projects” Even though opportunities exist to finance climate change projects, African countries still find it hard accessing climate funding experts say. One of the key reasons according to experts is that stakeholders in the forest sector don’t fully master what funding opportunities exist, and how to draft bankable projects to attract such funding. “African Forest stakeholders have to be abreast with the different skills on drafting bankable project,” says Takam Michel of Action for Equitable, Integrated and Sustainable Development, known by its French acronym ADEID. Takam who is one of the training facilitators presented a paper under the theme,” Theorie du Changement” AFF points out that among the constraints that impede efficient and adequate climate finance mobilization by most African countries are insufficient domestic capacity at technical, institutional and financial levels to the development of quality project proposals that respond to investment criteria of climate funds, the laying down of sound implementation mechanisms as well as the establishment of a functional reporting systems. It is against this backdrop that AFF in collaboration with experts is training forest stakeholders on available funding openings and the techniques of drafting bankable projects. These challenges were also highlighted by Lucie Tengoua, lecturer in the University of Dschang who also presented a paper on “Financing Climate Change” “There is need to work in synergy and master the different avenues or pathways to climate financing to be able to succeed,” she cautions. The participants at the Yaounde workshop are, drawn from governmental / forest administration and non-governmental organizations. The papers presented by the different resource persons all highlighted globally the multiple climate funding opportunities and institutions as well as the potential project proposals need to address to be able to attract funding. Funding institutions among others included the World Bank,UN-REDD, LCDF( Fund for less developed countries, Multilateral Development Banks like AfDB, West African Bank,…