Malawi, Senegal, Kenya, Morocco and Ghana have been listed as focused countries under a fresh initiative involving civil society organisations (CSOs) in Africa and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
Tagged the ‘‘Civil Society Organisations Readiness to the Green Climate Fund – focus Africa’’, the project, which is being anchored by the Nairobi, Kenya-based Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), was informed by the need to beef up the somewhat limited and challenging engagement by African CSOs in GCF activities.
Programme Manager, PACJA, Samuel Ogallah Samson, says: “The project is justified by the fact that current engagement by African CSOs in the GCF processes and activities is limited and faces several challenges despite the region being considered as a focus one for the Fund.
“Strengthening that engagement at the national level is an important step to scale-up existing civil society organisations’ capacities to advocate for ambitious proposals, bring on-the-ground expertise to the table and ensure accountability of GCF-funded activities by national authorities and other implementing agencies through a broader societal mobilisation and stakeholders’ engagement.”
He pointed out that, while at the national level only few national CSOs are lightly engaged in GCF discussions, at the international level a few representatives from African CSOs follow board meetings.
“The complex structures and communication of the Fund are not always easily accessible by these CSOs which are also most often not included in GCF readiness activities,” he adds.
Consequently, the project was initiated to support broader African civil society engagement in GCF processes in Malawi, Senegal, Kenya and Morocco that already have an approved GCF project, and Ghana that is currently preparing a proposal for the Fund.
The project, it was gathered, is implemented by a consortium of partner organisations, including Germanwatch and CARE International together with other NGOs across Africa such as ENDA Senegal, AESVT Morocco, PACJA Kenya, CISONECC Malawi, and ABANTU Ghana.
The project is being funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI).
Another partner organisation, ICSC Philippines, Samson discloses, will also support some components of the project related to outreach and communication.
