KARA, Togo (PAMACC News) - With more than 3.4 million hectares of land available, the Togolese government is worried that only 45% is being used presently.
The government is equally concerned that despite Togo’s natural comparative advantage in agriculture when compared to other countries, its inability to maximise technologies that will increase productivity and diversify into higher-value-added products has held back the sector’s performance and the country’s economic growth.
These and many more concerns dominated Hon. Noël Koutéra Bataka’s speech as the Togolese Minister for Agriculture, Animal Production and Fisheries declared opened today, the 11th National Farmers Forum in Kara, north of Togo.
This year’s edition of the forum, which holds under the theme “agricultural transformation hubs to promote Togo’s potentials”, brings together high-level representatives of governments, donor agencies, experts from Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), farmers and women groups from across Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso.
"This forum is intended to show the agricultural sector in all its and diversity. The government's ambition for the sector is the attainment of a modern, sustainable and technology-driven agriculture with active value chains leading to food security and a strong, inclusive economy, "the minister said.
Technologies for agricultural transformation
Hon Bataka, during a visit to the TAAT stand admitted that the National Farmers Forum remains the best avenue to position Togo’s on-going and new agricultural projects to benefit from TAAT’s proven technologies.
Dr Mpoko Bokanga, Head of TAAT Clearinghouse in his response, informed the minister of the active engagement of experts from nine TAAT compacts in the forum. These compacts include aquaculture, maize, livestock, high iron beans, orange-fleshed sweet potato, soil fertility, rice and youth in agribusiness.
This engagement, Dr Bokanga said, “is the first of its kind in the implementation of the TAAT programme as it provides an opportunity for TAAT Compacts to link up with funded agricultural development programmes in Togo and leverage their resources to enable TAAT technologies to reach millions of smallholder farmers.”
Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) is a programme initiated by the African Development Bank (AfDB) as part of its Feed Africa Initiative.
The programme aspires to improve the business of agriculture across Africa by raising agricultural productivity, mitigating risks and promoting diversification and processing in 18 agricultural value chains within eight Priority Intervention Areas (PIA).
With presence in about 31 African countries, TAAT is already increasing agricultural productivity through the deployment of proven and high-performance agricultural technologies at scale along selected value chains. These include rice, maize, cassava, wheat, sorghum and millet, orange-flesh sweet potato, high-iron beans, Livestock, aquaculture.
The programme also provides needed specialist services through six enabler compacts for soil fertility management, water management, capacity building, seed policy, fall army worm control and youth involvement in agribusiness.
Agriculture in Togo
Agriculture is the most important sector to most Togolese as over 50% of Togo’s estimated seven million people is engaged in agriculture, accounting for nearly 30% of economic activity over the past five years.
It employs two-thirds of the active population, who predominantly work on small land holdings. Food crops (mainly cassava, yams, maize, millet, and sorghum) account for two-thirds of production, and are mostly used domestically.
Togo's cash crops are mainly cocoa, coffee, cotton, and to a lesser extent, palm oil. These cash crops provide a valuable return for small farmers, and they provide 40 percent of exports
While urban areas have been growing rapidly, notably in and around Lomé, some 60% of the population continues to live in rural areas, with over 65% of these households (about 2.8 million out of 4.2 million) living in poverty.
Given Togo’s high rate of rural poverty—with 55% of households living below the poverty line in 2015 and a majority being in rural areas, the theme of the 11th farmers forum cannot but be apt. the Togolese government is desirous of using agricultural transformation hubs to revive the economy of the country.
ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) — Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Director of the African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), was today named among the “World’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Change Policy 2019”. It is the first time such a list, which will become an annual tradition, has been compiled. Only five other Africans are on the list.
Apolitical, the global network for government, curated the list after screening hundreds of nominations by public servants from around the world, including experts at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Harvard University, Oxford University, Bloomberg Philanthropies, NGOs and more.
“The list highlights people currently making the biggest impact on climate change policy… Those recognized include high-profile advocates whose work is indispensable to raising awareness and demanding change. Others are rising stars who are making their mark in local communities and are a driving force behind governmental progress,” Apolitical said in a statement.
Mr Mwenda said in Accra, Ghana, where his organisation is co-hosting the Africa Climate Week with the UNFCCC: “This is a great honour and not only to me as an individual. It is more than anything else a recognition of the work PACJA has put in for more than a decade to shape just, fair and equitable climate policies and action in Africa and globally. I wish to extend my gratitude to all our members, affiliates and partners who have believed in our vision and assure them of our continued commitments to pursue our shared vision in the ensuing transition to a low-emission, climate-resilient future.”
The climate policy and action community in Africa has welcomed the distinction.
Jame Murombedzi, Chief, Climate Change Unit and Coordinator of Addis Ababa-based Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) said: “It has been evident for some years that effective climate policy and action requires more than state actors. During the build up to COP21 in 2015, there was incredible expectation that the world would deliver a framework capable of regulating climate actions and ensuring that we achieve a stable climate system. This process also recognised that there was a need to engage CSOs and other non-state actors in ensuring a global governance regime and also in holding state actors accountable.
“On the African continent, PACJA emerged as the leader in convening African CSOs and mobilising the participation of the civil society in national and global processes. PACJA played a significant role in linking CSOs with Pan-African institutions, such as the Pan-African Parliament, the African Union Commission, NEPAD, the African Development Bank and UNECA. PACJA ensured that the civil society became an important component of continental climate change initiatives, such as the Climate for Development in Africa program (CLIMDEV AFRICA). All of this was achieved under the leadership of Mr Mwenda, who is indeed recognised in African climate change circles as representing a disciplined and consistent position on climate change and development in our continent.”
Kwame Ababio, Senior Program Officer, Environmental Governance and Climate Change at the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD said: “The role that PACJA has played to bring together CSOs and other stakeholders has galvanised Africa's overall approach to climate change and its related issues on the continent. As a leading voice on climate change issues, PACJA has also played a strong advocacy role in ensuring that issues that affect the ordinary citizens in the most remote parts of the continent are highlight at national, regional and global levels.
Mr Meenda has played a key role in making all of this happen. He has been a very strong voice on climate action issues. Evidently, the support he has provided to CSOs in championing climate issues has led to a better coordination of non-state actors with the climate change arena.”
Seth Osafo, Legal Adviser at the Africa Group of Negotiators to the UNFCCC processes, said: “I have been involved with PACJA for more than five years now and I think PACJA, under Mr Mwenda, has been very effective as an advocacy group in bringing to the fore the challenges that Africa faces with regards to climate change. One thing that I have found very effective from PACJA is the statements and documents they produce on specific climate change issues, particularly during negotiations. These have been particularly useful to the African Group of Negotiator. We see PACJA as a good collaborator with respect to the support they give the African Broup of Negotiators.”
About Mr Mwenda
Before founding PACJA ten years ago with a couple of other individuals, Mr Mwenda, a public policy analyst, worked as a Program Officer with the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) from 2009 to 2010. He is currently a PhD candidate at Wits School of Governance in South Africa. He also chairs the institutional Collaboration Platform of ECA-based Climate Research for Development in Africa (CR4D) as well as represents the African civil society in the participants’ committee of the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF).
About PACJA
PACJA is a continental coalition of Civil Society Organizations with a goal to mobilize and empower African civil society to ensure the realization of environmental and climate justice for all people in Africa. It is the largest consortium of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) with over 1000 members in over 48 countries in Africa, embodying one African voice on climate and environmental justice.
About Apolitical
Apolitical is a peer-to-peer learning platform for government that puts the best solutions at the fingertips of public servants, wherever they are in the world. The platform is used by public servants and policymakers in more than 160 countries to connect with each other and to find original and curated content about what’s working in policymaking around the world, including on topics such as digital government and government innovation.
ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) — Mithika Mwenda, the Executive Director of the African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), was today named among the “World’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Change Policy 2019”. It is the first time such a list, which will become an annual tradition, has been compiled. Only five other Africans are on the list.
Apolitical, the global network for government, curated the list after screening hundreds of nominations by public servants from around the world, including experts at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Harvard University, Oxford University, Bloomberg Philanthropies, NGOs and more.
“The list highlights people currently making the biggest impact on climate change policy… Those recognized include high-profile advocates whose work is indispensable to raising awareness and demanding change. Others are rising stars who are making their mark in local communities and are a driving force behind governmental progress,” Apolitical said in a statement.
Mr Mwenda said in Accra, Ghana, where his organisation is co-hosting the Africa Climate Week with the UNFCCC: “This is a great honour and not only to me as an individual. It is more than anything else a recognition of the work PACJA has put in for more than a decade to shape just, fair and equitable climate policies and action in Africa and globally. I wish to extend my gratitude to all our members, affiliates and partners who have believed in our vision and assure them of our continued commitments to pursue our shared vision in the ensuing transition to a low-emission, climate-resilient future.”
The climate policy and action community in Africa has welcomed the distinction.
Jame Murombedzi, Chief, Climate Change Unit and Coordinator of Addis Ababa-based Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) said: “It has been evident for some years that effective climate policy and action requires more than state actors. During the build up to COP21 in 2015, there was incredible expectation that the world would deliver a framework capable of regulating climate actions and ensuring that we achieve a stable climate system. This process also recognised that there was a need to engage CSOs and other non-state actors in ensuring a global governance regime and also in holding state actors accountable.
“On the African continent, PACJA emerged as the leader in convening African CSOs and mobilising the participation of the civil society in national and global processes. PACJA played a significant role in linking CSOs with Pan-African institutions, such as the Pan-African Parliament, the African Union Commission, NEPAD, the African Development Bank and UNECA. PACJA ensured that the civil society became an important component of continental climate change initiatives, such as the Climate for Development in Africa program (CLIMDEV AFRICA). All of this was achieved under the leadership of Mr Mwenda, who is indeed recognised in African climate change circles as representing a disciplined and consistent position on climate change and development in our continent.”
Kwame Ababio, Senior Program Officer, Environmental Governance and Climate Change at the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD said: “The role that PACJA has played to bring together CSOs and other stakeholders has galvanised Africa's overall approach to climate change and its related issues on the continent. As a leading voice on climate change issues, PACJA has also played a strong advocacy role in ensuring that issues that affect the ordinary citizens in the most remote parts of the continent are highlight at national, regional and global levels.
Mr Meenda has played a key role in making all of this happen. He has been a very strong voice on climate action issues. Evidently, the support he has provided to CSOs in championing climate issues has led to a better coordination of non-state actors with the climate change arena.”
Seth Osafo, Legal Adviser at the Africa Group of Negotiators to the UNFCCC processes, said: “I have been involved with PACJA for more than five years now and I think PACJA, under Mr Mwenda, has been very effective as an advocacy group in bringing to the fore the challenges that Africa faces with regards to climate change. One thing that I have found very effective from PACJA is the statements and documents they produce on specific climate change issues, particularly during negotiations. These have been particularly useful to the African Group of Negotiator. We see PACJA as a good collaborator with respect to the support they give the African Broup of Negotiators.”
About Mr Mwenda
Before founding PACJA ten years ago with a couple of other individuals, Mr Mwenda, a public policy analyst, worked as a Program Officer with the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) from 2009 to 2010. He is currently a PhD candidate at Wits School of Governance in South Africa. He also chairs the institutional Collaboration Platform of ECA-based Climate Research for Development in Africa (CR4D) as well as represents the African civil society in the participants’ committee of the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF).
About PACJA
PACJA is a continental coalition of Civil Society Organizations with a goal to mobilize and empower African civil society to ensure the realization of environmental and climate justice for all people in Africa. It is the largest consortium of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) with over 1000 members in over 48 countries in Africa, embodying one African voice on climate and environmental justice.
About Apolitical
Apolitical is a peer-to-peer learning platform for government that puts the best solutions at the fingertips of public servants, wherever they are in the world. The platform is used by public servants and policymakers in more than 160 countries to connect with each other and to find original and curated content about what’s working in policymaking around the world, including on topics such as digital government and government innovation.
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 available through the GCF and Global Environmental Facility (GEF), among other financial mechanisms, are currently inadequate to meet the global needs for climate solutions.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), African countries need $3trillion by 2030 to implement their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets.
Regional Principal Officer of AfDB, Dr. Olufunso Somorin, said 75percent of the amount will be leveraged from the private sector.
He therefore believes CSOs have a role in brokering increased engagement of the private sector in climate financing.
“The low resourcing of GCF is a concern,” he said. “Attracting private sector investment is a long-term solution”.
Long term engagement of CSO’s towards strengthening broader societal support for transformation and increase accountability of national authorities is critical to achieve GCF paradigms of low-emissions and climate-resilient economies and societies.
