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Policy Dialogue

The Africa Regional Conference

The Africa Regional Conference of the Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) took place on the 12th of October 2010, in Addis Ababa, as a pre-event of the Seventh African Development Forum (ADF-VII).

The ADF brought together a large number of participants including Heads of State and Government, African member States, development partners, other United Nations agencies, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, academia, development practitioners, civil society organizations, the private sector, eminent policy and opinion leaders, as well as other concerned stakeholders.

The theme of ADF-VII -"Acting on Climate Change for Sustainable Development in Africa''- was both timely and significant as the current and projected impacts of climate change on Africa's development must be addressed by tangible and workable development policies, strategies, programmes and practices. ADF-VII also provided a multi-stakeholder platform to discuss Africa's concerns and interests in preparation for the 16th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Cancun, Mexico in December 2010. The Forum thus helped to underscore the important role of partnership in raising awareness about Africa's concerns and expectations for a post-2012 global climate regime.

The objectives of the conference

In this context, the GCCA event was an opportunity to further enhance the dialogue between the European and its African partners including updates and exchange of views on financial and technical support to assist countries to cope with climate change and to integrate climate change in wider development and poverty reduction strategies. The conference was a timely opportunity to provide high level speakers' insights into the current status of the international climate negotiations and their possible implications for Africa, as well as a good forum for an exchange of information and views on Pan-African initiatives on climate change.

For more information on the objectives, see the presentation of the African Regional Conference...

For more information on the African Regional Conference, see the press release...

The Africa Regional Conference in the press, more...

Agenda

Agenda of the ADF-VII (English)
Agenda of the GCCA event (English) (French)

The contributions of the conference

To upload the speeches, please click on the presentations below :

Session 1 : "From Copenhagen to Cancun : next steps on international climate negotiations"
Chaired by Mr. Mbuyi Kalombo, Ministère de l'Environnement, RDC

Presentations :

Mr. Bubu Jallow, UNEP/Former Head of Delegation of the Gambia to the UNFCCC negotiations

Mrs. Rosário Bento Pais, Head of Unit, Adaptation to Climate Change Directorate General Climate Action, European Commission

Mr. Etienne Coyette, Directorate General of Development, European Commission and Brainstorming session - Capacity building for negotiators: Introduction

Session 2: "Delivering on the ground" selected country : regional experiences in implementing the GCCA in Africa
Chaired by Dr Isaac Munlo, Ambassador of Malawi to Ethiopia

Presentations :

Mr. Etienne Coyette, Directorate General of Development, European Commission

Mr. Souleymane Cissé, Ministry of Environment and Decontamination of Mali

Mrs. Marilia Telma Manjate, Ministry of Coordination of Environmental Affairs of Mozambique, National Director for International Cooperation and Focal Point for UNFCCC

Session 3: Pan-African Climate initiatives
Chaired by Mr. Idriss Isbayene, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco to Ethiopia

Presentations :

ClimDev by Mr. Mike McCarthy, Chief of Technical Cooperation and Project Management Section, DFID

Pan-African Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy by Mrs. Fatima B. Kassam, Adviser, Climate and Disaster Risk Solutions Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture African Commission

African Climate Change and Environment Security (ACCES) Meeting on Climate Change and Security

As for the ACCES event, the outcome of its 11 October Dialogue Forum was to launch a long-term process with African partners to address the security implications of climate change in Africa as well as to start an assessment of the needs of African partners from security perspectives. Each of these goals were fed into the work of the ACCES five sub-groups called 'vulnerability cells' (water security, food security, energy security, migration, natural disasters), which will continue the Dialogue Process within the enlarged network after the Dialogue Forum.

See the agenda of the event...

For further information, please consult : Climate Change and Security in Africa, Vulnerability Discussion Paper

The GCCA event

For more pictures on the ADF event, please see ADF pictures.

Selected reading

GCCA background

1. GCCA factsheet

"The GCCA intends to step up cooperation and dialogue between the EU and the developing countries that are hit earliest and hardest by climate change and have the least capacity to react." The GCCA Factsheet is a synthesis to get more information about the origins, the purpose and implementation progress of the GCCA initiative.

Africa-EU

1. EU-ACP Joint Declaration on Climate Change

Declaration on Climate change and Development between the Representatives of the States of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group and the European Community of May, 2009.

2. EU-Africa Joint Declaration on Climate Change

Declaration on Climate change between Africa and UE members of November, 2008.

3. EC-Region of Eastern and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean, Regional Strategy Paper 2008-2013

The regional strategy paper and regional indicative Programme of 2008-2013 provides a strategic framework for programming the future partnership between the EC and the Region.

4. CE-Afrique Centrale, Document de stratégie régionale 2008-2013

(document in French) The regional strategy paper and regional indicative Programme of 2008-2013 provides a strategic framework for programming the future partnership between the EC and the Region.

5. CE-Afrique de l'Ouest, Document de stratégie régionale 2008-2013

(document in French) The regional strategy paper and regional indicative Programme of 2008-2013 provides a strategic framework for programming the future partnership between the EC and the Region.

Further reading references

1. Mapping Climate Vulnerability and Poverty in Africa (Report for DFID), Thornton et Al 2006

As the world climate is changing, the most vulnerable countries, including most countries of Africa, face a new challenge : to improve their ability to be more "resilient to current climate variability as well as to the risks associated with long-term climate change". This programme underlines criss-cross data and indicators, and four scenarii relative to stresses linked to Climate Change : vulnerability and poverty, HIV/AIDS and climate change etc. Mapping and statistics are mainly provided. This programme is a potential use for effective decision-making.

2. Africa - Up in smoke ? The second report from the working group on Climate Change and Development, The New Economic Foundation and IIED 2005

"The report finds that concerns about the effects of climate change on rural African societies are more than justified".
This report, based on the material of leading environmental organizations, relates the main African issues (Food, farming, Water, drought, Health, Energy, Disasters, Gender, Migration, Conflict, development policy) with Climate Change. Country case studies and projects illustrate climate change fight throughout the continent. The report also offers and a set of ten recommendations for Africa.

3. Climate Risk Management in Africa : learning from practice, International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Columbia University 2007
Part of the Climate and Societies series from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), this report presents innovative case studies in Mozambique, Ethiopia, Southern Africa, Mali and Malawi.

For further information on those issues, consult our documentation in the library.

Official European Commission website for the GCCA Initiative