THE East Africa Community (EAC) has collaborated with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) on the implementation of the Needs Base Finance project developed as a response to the Conference of Parties’ long-term finance decisions.
The decision is aimed at progressing the mobilization of resources originating from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources, in an effort to scale up climate change finance.
Similarly, The EAC-UNFCC collaboration has accomplished an assessment of EAC needs, priorities, current flows and barriers to access and mobilization of climate finance, based on which a regional EAC Climate Finance Access and Mobilization Strategy and Implementation Plan have been developed, as well as the identification of a number of priority projects in the region.
Speaking in his opening remarks yesterday during the EAC training workshop in climate finance access and mobilization in Arusha, the Director of Productive Sectors at the EAC, Mr Jean Baptiste Havugimana said that the EAC had identified more than eight priority projects and programs.
He mentioned the priority projects and programs in agriculture and food security, water security and waste management, renewable energy and energy efficiency, and cross-cutting issues like capacity building and private sector engagement.
“The first phase of the technical assessment of needs and financial flows in the region gave an indication of the magnitude of this task; without the inclusion of the Democratic Republic of Congo, NDCs alone require at least 21 billion US dollars annually for their implementation,” said Mr Havugimana.
He added: “Almost a ten-fold increase compared to the average annual international public finance flows. This denotes the importance of having adequate expertise to access and mobilize funding from all sources.”
Mr Havugimana expressed his gratitude to the UNFCCC Secretariat and its Regional Collaboration Center for Eastern and Southern Africa for their continued support in addressing climate change challenges and advancing the EAC integration agenda.
On his part, the UNFCCC Team Leader, Mr Grant Kirkman, thanked the EAC Secretariat for coordinating the organization of the meeting, adding that it was a testimony of the EAC’s commitment to strengthening the regional capacity and knowledge of existing financing windows and instruments, project development processes and assessing the quality of the concept notes and project proposals.
The workshop was attended by representatives from the EAC Partner States’ Ministries of Environment, Finance, and EAC Affairs; UNFCCC; UNDP; Global Environment Facility; Green Climate Fund; Adaptation Fund; African Development Bank; East African Development Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development.
The three-day workshop brought together the operating entities of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Financial Mechanism and accredited entities to equip experts from Ministries responsible for Environment, Finance and EAC Affairs in the EAC Partner States with the necessary knowledge and skills to mobilize and access climate finance.
