Kick-off Meeting of the Pan-African Regional Programme
The Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) and the Adaptation of African Agriculture (AAA) Climate Initiative this week hosted the inaugural meeting of the Pan African Regional Programme in Rabat, Morocco, with support from project partners the Green Climate Fund, CGIAR and AICCRA, and national designated authorities representing 23 African partner countries in attendance. This was followed by two-days of training from October 5 to 6, to launch the first AAI South-South peer capacity Exchange Programme (SSEP), supported by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
"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 Seyni Nafo, AAI coordinator, speaking at the kickoff meeting of the pan-African Regional Programme this week.
The Programme aims at supporting the governments of the participating African countries’ efforts to undertake the transition towards low emission and climate resilient development, helping them build the necessary long-lasting capacity needed to identify, design, and develop transformational climate interventions in agriculture and energy for agriculture sectors, that are among the most vulnerable to climate change, and drivers of Greenhouse Gas emissions while supporting economic development.
As an organizing partner, the CGIAR is supporting AAI and AAA, through its “Accelerating Impacts for Climate Research in Africa” (AICCRA) project. Funded by the Green Climate Fund, the programme will be delivered by Ernst & Young GmbH, as the implementing institution following a country-driven approach, taking full account of national circumstances and strategic priorities.
Launch of the South-South Peer Capacity Exchange Programme
Following the two-day kickoff event for the Pan African Regional Exchange Programme, and with the financial support of the European Union (EU) and financial and technical support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Africa Adaption Initiative (AAI) is running two-days of training from October 5 to 6, to launch the first AAI South-South peer capacity Exchange Programme (SSEP).
This is part of the EU-UNDP-AAI project, “Enhancing Knowledge and Evidence to Scale-up Climate Change Adaptation in Africa”, which aims at enhancing avenues through which information about successful adaptation interventions, adaptation planning, and project development methods, and access to financing sources is gathered and shared 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 SSEP will facilitate an exchange of learnings, lessons learned, and best practices, as well as existing and untapped opportunities experienced to enhance the understanding and capacity of African decision-makers in climate finance in integrating climate risk assessments for bankable project development and climate finance mobilization.
These activities will build on existing knowledge-sharing processes developed as part of each country's National Adaptation Plan processes to establish a hub for sharing best practices under all the flagships and initiate a south-south peer technical capacity exchange focused on sharing and developing adaptation project development skills using hands-on case study-based interactive exercises.
By strengthening these knowledge and capacity-sharing mechanisms as well as the coordination activities of the AAI, this outcome will help create the enabling environment for further climate change adaptation project development within the region.