African civil society call for local stakeholders’ engagement in climate discussions

By Sellina Sheena Nkowani

Efforts aimed at supporting climate change and resilience should be designed and implemented with input and engagement of local stakeholders, according to a Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) statement.

Reacting on the third and final day of the Fourth Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-IV) Conference  in Marrakech, Morocco, the umbrella body of African climate change conscious CSOs, said that though climate change is a global phenomenon, its impacts are highly localized hence the need for development partners, researchers, policymakers and other institutions to make efforts to be more accountable to vulnerable communities by involving them in climate discussions and decision making.

“No two communities will have the same combination of exposure, vulnerability and capacity to act making it imperative to include all stakeholders in adaptation and resilience efforts,” the statement reads.

PACJA stresses that agriculture in Africa comes with the issue of climate change adaptation, finance and accountability and because of this, it is essential for civil society and farmer organizations to be given opportunity to contribute to the discussions and exchange experiences.

The three-day Conference held under the theme‘Africa can feed Africa now: Translating climate change knowledge into action’, drew a diverse pool of both African and international climate change experts and other policy actors who for three days deliberated on how best African can turn climate change challenges into opportunities that can enable the continent feed its people.

With the economies of most of African countries’ being largely agro-based, PACJA is asking African governments to allocate 10% of their national budget towards promotion of climate smart agriculture, which CSOs strongly believe will boost agricultural development.