Ahead of COP27, the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program convenes Partnership Forum
The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program Partnership Forum, organized by the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and the African Development Bank on 27th October 2022, brought partners together to showcase their adaptation work in Africa, create synergies, and scale and strengthen the implementation of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP).
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esigned as a hybrid dialogue, the Partnership Forum 2022 took place at the 10th Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-X) in Windhoek, Namibia. Participants included local government representatives, members of regional and international organizations, financial institutions, research institutions and academia, the private sector, civil society, and young people. The forum was promoted widely online, which resulted in a large number of online participants.
Ahead of COP27, stakeholder dialogue, consultation, and partnerships to build momentum and springboard adaptation at scale are critical to ensuring success for Africa. An unprecedented call to action, the Glasgow Climate Pact urged developed nations to double the funding provided to developing countries for adaptation action by 2025.
Expectations are high for Sharm El-Sheikh to deliver an implementation plan for this commitment and stakeholder consultation is central to realizing this goal.
To provide this vital stakeholder dialogue, the AAAP held its Partnership Forum 2022 to ensure synergy, align opportunities, generate feedback and continue to raise awareness about the AAAP.
The forum consulted with government and civil society, including women and youth, with the objective of shedding further light on the Program and soliciting partnerships with key implementing partners with whom the AAAP’s activities can be delivered.
At the Friends of GCA High-level Dialogue for COP27 in September, African and global leaders agreed to a five-point “Adaptation Breakthrough for Africa at COP27.” As outlined by this plan, the key determinants of success for Africa at Sharm El-Sheikh include the need for a clear implementation plan for Adaptation Financing, the need to capitalize the AAAP, and the $250 million need of the AAAP’s Upstream Financing Facility.
The 10th Conference on Climate Change and Development, a landmark annual event organized by the Climate for Development in Africa Initiative (ClimDev-Africa), provided a platform for a continent-wide debate on the actions that Africa needs to take to prepare for climate change impacts. ClimDev-Africa organized its flagship event in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Development Bank, African Union Commission (AUC), Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), and the Government of Namibia.
Jointly organized with the African Development Bank, the Partnership Forum succeeded in generating the feedback to inform the implementation of the AAAP’s four pillars. For example, a participant representing the East African Farmers Federation decried the often-missing link with civil society organizations and farmer groups in adaptation interventions.
“How is the AAAP reaching these groups?”
A participant from another stakeholder group, the government, questioned how the AAAP is ensuring government ownership in its interventions, since it intervenes via Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).
“What strategies are there to build country capacity for ownership?”
Prof. Anthony Nyong, GCA’s Senior Director, Africa, shared the rationale behind working via MDBs – the largest financiers of adaptation investments on the continent. Amanda Archibong, GCA’s Senior Partnerships Manager for Africa, added that the AAAP Technical Assistance Program (TAP) is a direct assistance to countries to build their capacity to access climate financing from the Green Climate Fund.
The private sector also lent its voice to the dialogue, questioning the difficulty in delineating mitigation from adaptation and where the best entry point for the private sector should be. Dr. Jean-Paul Adam, UNECA’s Director for Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources Management, addressed the delineation of mitigation from adaptation, offering insight into the Blue Economy where the Great Blue Wall project is an example of the linkage of mitigation value chains to adaptation investments. He noted that investing in eco-tourism could bring ripple benefits of funding that can be used to raise financing for adaptation. “Don’t let the classification of finance be a barrier for implementation,” he said.
These remarks followed an earlier presentation on the AAAP at the Forum by Edith Adera, Lead Coordinator of the AAAP, and the African Development Bank’s Regional Principal Officer for Climate Change and Green Growth. Ms. Adera highlighted the need for the AAAP as climate finance flows to Africa remain significantly low, amounting to only 3%, despite the continent’s adaptation needs of between US$7–15 billion in climate adaptation costs every year since 2020. Ms. Adera presented the progress attained by the AAAP in its 18 months of implementation, showing that US$3 billion worth of downstream investments have been made in over 19 countries. Resources have been committed to support over 30 MDB projects and climate finance assistance has been delivered in 11 countries.
Ms. Adera indicated that 30 new projects are targeted to be included in the AAAP portfolio and new partnerships with MDBs are expected in 2023. She also expects to see an increase in the number of African partners with whom the program will be delivered and importantly, increased funding for the program.
The Managing Director of the Port of Banjul, Ousman Jobarteh, a key partner and beneficiary of the AAAP, spoke to the added value of the AAAP to the Port of Banjul 4th Expansion Project. He highlighted that the environmental social impact study conducted with AAAP support identified climate change risks that could reverse the investments made on the project. A key value-add of the AAAP to the project is that it provided a clear picture of adaptation costs and investment needs which would support government planning.
Following this clear example of AAAP benefits to infrastructure resilience, the audience then heard from another key partner, one of the 2021 winners of the YouthADAPT Solutions Challenge, Matiedje Nkenmayi Gislaine, Managing Director and co-founder of Mumita Holdings in Cameroun. Ms. Matiedje explained how the AAAP impacted her business and showcased how her business is filling an adaptation need in the agriculture sector.
Professor Nyong framed the dialogue by showcasing the AAAP’s power to change the adaptation narrative in Africa. In lieu of multiple fragmented pilot projects, the AAAP is a large scale, bold and sustainable model aligned with country needs and climate investment projects of Development Finance Institutions and MDBs.
