Delivering the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program

Event description:

The Leaders’ Dialogue on the Africa Covid-Climate Emergency is being convened by the African Development Bank and GCA, in close collaboration with the United Nations, and will bring together African Heads of States and Governments, bilateral partners, heads of international organizations and development agencies.

The urgency of the compounded Covid-19 and climate crises requires accelerated momentum in Africa’s adaptation efforts. Although Africa has done relatively well to shield itself from the worst of the health crisis in 2020, infection rates in many countries are rising and new strains of the virus are emerging. Meanwhile, Covid-19’s impact on Africa’s development is already painfully clear: a first recession in 25 years, with economic activity expected to have fallen by more than 3 percent in 2020, which could drive up to 40 million into extreme poverty.

Responding to African leaders urgent call for a new and expanded effort to accelerate momentum on Africa’s adaptation efforts, the African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) are joining forces to use their complementary expertise, resources and networks to develop and implement a new bold Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) to galvanize climate resilient actions through a triple win approach to address Covid-19, climate change, and the economy.

The AAAP, as launched during the Climate Adaptation Summit, will be presented during the Leaders’ Dialogue on the Africa Covid-Climate Emergency to forge a common roadmap on the implementation of this new initiative. This Dialogue will serve as a platform to present Africa’s needs to the global community to scale up and speed up actions, financing and partnership based upon the AAAP and will result in a strategic consensus among key stakeholders on the need to accelerate adaptation on the African continent.