African Civil Society assemble in Dakar over Climate Change

A civil society meeting to discuss climate change and its impacts on the African development is underway in Senegal’s Capital, Dakar.

Participants are reflecting on outcomes of the UN Climate Conference held in Warsaw, Poland late last year and lay plans for enhanced peoples and community participation in the ongoing negotiations for a new climate change agreement.

Hosted by the civil society network, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), in partnership with Oxfam, the meeting brings together about 80 participants from 40 countries, drawn from research and advocacy NGOs, research and academic institutions, faith-based organizations, youth and women as well as indigenous and farmers groups across Africa.

PACJA Secretary General, Mithika Mwenda noted “it remains the mandate of PACJA to provide an enabling environment for African Civil Society to share experiences and network so as to effectively contribute into the national and international climate change debates.”

He added that “to underscore the link between climate change and particularly the UNFCCC process and the ongoing dialogue on Sustainable Development Goals, the meeting will also discuss Post-2015.”

Lamine Ndiaye, the Oxfam Pan African Programme Officer for Economic Justice, has urged the African CSOs to remain steadfast in lobbying governments to ensure pro-poor climate responses to enable vulnerable communities to build resilience and adapt to the growing impacts of climate change.

“This meeting organized by PACJA puts into action what we agreed in Warsaw when we walked out of negotiations protesting inaction by world leaders,” he said, while calling civil society from the rest of the world to follow suit in such consultation in preparation for the next international Conference.

During the UN Climate Change Conference held in Warsaw, Poland on 11 – 22 November 2013, around 800 civil society observers walked out of negotiations protesting what they termed as Governments’ failure to agree on various issues such as mitigation goals, adaptation, loss and damage and finance, seen as the best deal for poor and vulnerable people.

The unprecedented action, which threw the entire negotiations into crisis, precipitated a series of discussions and reflections among CSOs, among them the “next actions after the walk-out.”

The Civil Society promised to mobilize communities in subsequent period and return into negotiations in Lima with more voices from the people across the world.

The meeting in Dakar is part of this mobilization. Among issues to be discussed at the meeting will be strategies to strengthen coherence among civil society concerning calls and demands around priority issues emerging from international climate change negotiations processes.

Participants will also agree on a mechanism for regular communications, sustained coordination, and implementation of activities in the countdown to the next climate change conference, which will be held in Peru later in the year.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh